Precious is a 6 year old African American girl from Harlem. She lives with her mother who is unemployed and relies on welfare to survive. While living with her mother, Precious gets physically, verbally, and sexually abused by her. Precious has been sexually abused since she was just a newborn. At just three years old she was raped by her father, by age 2 she became pregnant by her father and had a baby girl that suffered from Down syndrome. Preciouss daughter currently lives with their grandmother and only visits when it is time for their monthly visit from the case worker to receive extra money from the government. The mother believes Precious is the reason her father left. Therefore, she physically abuses her when she is upset and molests her as well. Over time Precious ran away from home, had her baby boy, decided to learn how to read and write to get her GED and eventually started a new family for her and her two children after finding out sh
e is HIV positive.
Child sexual abuse is the sexual exploitation or sexual activities with a child under circumstances that indicate that the childs health or welfare is harmed or threatened (Wallace & Roberson 20). In this case Precious was experiencing interfamilial sexual abuse which includes exploitative sexual contact between relatives. Both, her mother and father were sexually abusing her. When Precious was just a new born her father molested her and would masturbate in front of her until she was three years old, by that time she was raped by him. Her father continued to rape her until she was 6 years old and impregnated her twice. She is currently pregnant again by him. Because of the incest her first child was diagnosed with down syndrome. She started to get molested by her mother when her father decided to leave. She would also get physically abused with objects such as plates, pans, plants, and a television when her mother felt disobeyed.