NORTH SALT LAKE ó Many people think of child sexual abuse as something which has been an out-in-the-open problem for only a few decades. But Doug Miller, director of the Davis County Childrenís Justice Center found sex abuse of children was not only common, but was frequently reported in newspapers in Utah in the late 19th century and early 20th century. ##M:MORE## ìEverything old is new again,î Miller told members of the Bountiful Breakfast Exchange Club last week.

Miller gave a brief history of child sexual abuse as reported in area newspapers a century ago during the meeting, where he also received a check for $500 for the center. The prevention of child abuse is one of the Exchange Clubís focus projects nationally.

He said while at the library looking at old newspapers on microfilm he came upon a case of child sexual abuse reported in the Salt Lake Herald on Aug. 11, 1900. ìI naively thought (child sexual abuse) was a relatively new problem, and if it happened nobody talked about it.î

He found out otherwise, and told Exchangites of case after case of child sexual abuse reported in Salt Lake area daily newspapers.

However, ìIf you typed child sexual abuse (into the search engine) nothing would come up,î he said. Instead terms such as ìoutrage of child,î were used to describe what was going on.

There are differences between the way such crimes are investigated, charged, dealt with and reported on between then and now, but surprisingly, court cases often were determined on the basis of medical exams, which were routine, Miller said.

Between 1870 and 1910, 2,800 cases of child sexual abuse made it into the Salt Lake newspapers, Miller said, which made him wonder how many more cases were either never reported in the press or were never reported to police.

He said that because penicillin hadnít been discovered yet, child victims of rape sometimes died.

Miller said back then, most charges of rape were made against strangers who used enticements to lure a child away.

In one case a little girl was asked if she liked rabbits, and then was led to some brush, where she was raped. Another little girl was asked to join a childrenís choir, and was told sheíd have to be fitted for a choir outfit.Still another little girl was enticed to Memory Grove because there were lots of flowers there.

While there are still cases of enticement today, most cases of child sexual abuse, tend to involve perpetrators who ìgroomî their victims, building a relationship of trust with them over time, Miller said.

Back in the early 1900s, charges did not always fit the crime, because people didnít understand the dynamics, Miller said. For example, a man and his 15-year-old daughter were both arrested in 1888, for incest, and except for cases charged as rape, the complicity of the victim was often implied.

He also said frequently ìtrampsî were accused in cases of sodomy. ìThere was often disbelief when it wasnít a tramp.î

mwilliams@davisclipper.com