AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Delesa Kendrick is the Volunteer Coordinator at Family Support Services where she helps children and families in the community deal with crises. She helps victims now, but it wasn't that long ago she was on the receiving end.
According to the Amarillo Police Department, rape is up almost four percent. Kendrick is one of many who have become a victim of sexual assault in the area. A crime that many do not realize can happen to anyone.
"People honestly believe crimes don't happen to people like them. I was probably one of those types of people," said Kendrick. "When it did happen, I was rather shock actually."
Every two minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, 54% of sexual assaults are not reported to police. They also report that 97% of rapists will never spend a day in jail.
Kendrick tells us she didn't even know her situation was considered rape, especially because the rapist was her husband. According to RAINN, approximately 2/3 of assaults are committed by someone the victim knows.
But women aren't the only ones who become victims of sexual assault. Kendrick states that child sexual assault in the city of Amarillo makes up over 50% of the case load of Family Support Services and that is anybody under the age of 12.
April Leming, the Executive Director at The Bridge states that the national statistic is that 1 in 4 children will be sexually abused by the time they reach 18. "In the Texas Panhandle last year, The Bridge interviewed over a thousand children," said Leming. "But then 75% of those were dealing with sexual abuse."
Leming explains that just like in sexual assault within adults, the predator of the crime is typically someone the child knows. "In the Texas Panhandle, only 1% of the time is that a stranger."
