The Ethics Center’s spring 2012 lecture series began on Thursday, in the Alice Peters Auditorium and focused on the issues of protecting and raising awareness for child sex abuse victims.

According to the most recent data of the National Intimate Partner in Sexual Violence Survey that was taken in December of 2011, 1.3 million women have reported being raped during the time the survey took place. One in five women have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and one in 71 men have been sexually assaulted once in their lifetime.

Dr. Bernadette Muscat, associate professor and victimology coordinator in the Department of Criminology, stated the numbers shown are significantly lower than the actuality.

“This is one of the most underreported crimes that we have,” Muscat said.

Muscat educated the audience on how to suspect a victim of abuse, how to handle the victim and how to deal with reporting the victimization.­ More often than not, the perpetrator is someone the victim knows, Muscat said.

Muscat said, “I don’t know; therefore, I don’t do anything.” Muscat said this to illustrate one of the reasons­ people are skeptical to report this type of crime. People should call the police or Child Protective Services if they suspect foul play. Muscat pointed out the biggest mistake people make is not having a follow-through.

“No follow-through or limited-follow through is when it continues to happen,” Muscat said.

Muscat elaborated on the idea of a “safety net” versus a “safety blanket.” The metaphor being a net has holes, while a blanket is solid throughout Muscat said.

“The holes need to be closed so people aren’t falling through those cracks,” Muscat said.

She also spoke metaphorically about people who report.

Muscat’s goal was to keep the audience engaged throughout the lecture and to educate them on how to handle the situation and what the right thing to do is. Fresno State student and audience member, Cassie Dewitt believed her biggest motive for attending was to know what to do for the child’s best interest.

“If you don’t report it, [the child] is either going to think the behavior is ok or that they have no power over stopping it,” Dewitt said.

Dr. David Schecter, political science department chair said “these types of crimes occur all the time and all over and they’re underreported.”

His two biggest goals were to provide outlook and a potential place to come talk for people affected by this act.

Muscat’s goal was to have people leave with a sense of what to do.

“I think it’s important for people to continue to keep this conversation going,” Muscat said.

She feels these steps are necessaryto keep the message alive.

“Regardless of our professional background, we each have an ethical obligation to our most vulnerable victims,” Muscat said.