Victim Impact Statement Example for Child Sexual Abuse

This page contains a fictional example of a victim impact statement written by an adult survivor of child sexual abuse. It focuses on the impact of the abuse, not the abuse itself. If you have lived through something like this, it may bring things up, so please go gently, and there are support lines at the bottom of this page.

This is an example of a victim impact statement for child sexual abuse. It is fictional. The name and the details are invented. It is written in the voice of one adult survivor, looking back, to show how a statement like this can read.

A victim impact statement is not the place to describe what was done to you. The court already has those facts. Your statement is about the effect it had, on your life, your sense of who you are, and the years that came after. This example shows how that can be written, with honesty and without reliving the worst of it.

If you are writing your own, there is no right way for it to sound. Yours should sound like you. For a step by step walkthrough, see our guide on how to write a victim impact statement. If you would like a hand putting yours together, Justice Draft's free guided questions take you through it one part at a time.

The headings below are the same ones used in the Justice Draft tool.

How I felt at the time

I was a child. I did not have the words for what was happening, and I did not understand it. He told me it was love. He told me I was special, and that it was our secret, so I kept it. I thought that if I told, I would be the one in trouble. I felt dirty and ashamed, and I did not know why, because I was too young to understand that none of it was mine to carry. I learned to keep it all inside. I got very good at pretending everything was fine.

Emotional wellbeing

For most of my life I believed I was worth very little. I thought there was something wrong with me, something bad, and that people could see it on me. I have lived with shame for as long as I can remember. There were years I was depressed and could not have told you why. I blamed myself for what was done to me, which I now know is what so many children do, but knowing that does not undo a lifetime of carrying it. I am seeing a counsellor now. Slowly, I am starting to understand that I was a child, and that none of it was my fault. That is a hard thing to let yourself believe after all this time.

Relationships

This is the part that has cost me the most. What happened to me taught me the wrong thing about love. I grew up believing that love and being hurt came together, because that is what I was shown when I was too young to know any different. So when people treated me badly, it did not feel wrong. It felt familiar. I let people use me and hurt me for years, because somewhere inside I believed that was all I was worth, and that being wanted at all was as much as I could hope for. I stayed in places I should have left. I kept finding the same pain in different faces, and I could not understand why. It took me a long time, and a lot of help, to see the thread that ran through all of it, and to see that it started here, with him. I am only now learning what it feels like to be treated with kindness, and the truth is it still feels strange to me.

Physical health

My body has carried this too. I have never slept properly. For years I had nightmares, and there are still nights the past comes back and I lie awake until morning. I have struggled to feel at home in my own body, as though it was never quite mine. Holding it all in for so long took a toll, with headaches and stomach trouble that doctors could never quite explain. I think my body knew what my mind was trying so hard to forget.

Financial impact

The cost of this has not only been emotional. I struggled at school, because it is hard to concentrate when you are carrying something that heavy and that secret. I left earlier than I should have. Over the years there were jobs I could not hold onto when my mental health gave way, and chances I did not reach for because I did not believe I was good enough for them. I have paid for counselling out of my own pocket, trying to put myself back together. I will never know what my life might have looked like, or what I might have built, if this had not happened to me. That is its own kind of loss.

Daily life and routine

For a long time, getting through an ordinary day took everything I had. There are things most people never think about that have always been hard for me. Certain places, a certain smell, being touched when I am not expecting it, can pull me straight back. I have spent years quietly avoiding things and managing myself in ways no one around me would ever notice. It is exhausting to look fine on the outside while you are working that hard on the inside. I am better than I was, but it still shapes my days.

Sense of safety

I learned very young that the people who are meant to keep you safe are sometimes the ones who hurt you. That does something to a child that is hard to undo. I have gone through most of my life never feeling truly safe with anyone, always waiting for the moment it would turn. I find it very hard to trust, and I watch people closely, looking for the danger before it finds me. I know that comes from this. I am slowly learning that not everyone is a threat, but a part of me is always on guard, and I think a part of me always will be.

Spiritual and cultural wellbeing

For a long time I felt cut off from any sense that the world was a good place, or that I belonged in it. As a child, something in me that should have stayed open simply closed. I lost my innocence before I even knew what it was. I am not especially religious, but I have started to find small pieces of peace, in being near the ocean, in quiet, and in the few people who have shown me real kindness. I am trying to believe that I am allowed to take up space in the world, the same as anyone else. That is a new feeling for me.

Who I was before this happened

This is a hard question for me, because it began when I was so young that I am not sure I ever got to find out who I was without it. I cannot remember a version of myself that this had not already touched. Sometimes I look at photos of me as a little girl, and I want to reach back through them and tell her that she is good, and that none of what is coming is her fault. I grieve for her. I think part of my healing now is trying, very late, to become the person she might have been, if she had only been left alone to grow up safe.

What I want the court or assessor to know

I want the court to know that what was done to me did not stay in my childhood. It followed me into every year of my life, into how I saw myself, who I let close, and what I believed I was worth. For most of my life I could not have stood up and said any of this. I did not think my voice counted, and I did not think anyone would believe me. So writing this down is not a small thing for me. It is one of the bravest things I have ever done. I am not telling you this for sympathy. I am telling you because it is true, and because for the first time in my life I am putting down the shame I have carried for someone else. The shame was never mine. It was his. I am handing it back. I am still healing, and I do not yet know exactly who I am going to be. But I know now that I was always worth more than what was done to me, and I am going to spend the rest of my life learning to live as though I believe it.

A note on this example

This statement is fictional, and it ends here. A finished statement also closes with a short signed declaration that the contents are true and correct. You can see how that fits together, and what a court will and will not accept, in our guide on how to write a victim impact statement.

If you carry something like this, please know two things. None of it was ever your fault. And you do not have to hold it on your own.

• Blue Knot Helpline, for adult survivors of childhood trauma, on 1300 657 380.
• Bravehearts, specialist support for people affected by child sexual abuse, on 1800 272 831.
• 1800RESPECT, for sexual assault and family violence counselling, on 1800 737 732, any time.
• Lifeline, for crisis support, on 13 11 14, any time.
• 13YARN, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander callers, on 13 92 76.