That was me. I found no need or desire to report my abusers for various reasons. That needed to be my decision, and thankfully it was. For me, I handled the situation within my family and my focus was on my own healing and moving forward. Pressing charges wasn't necessary for my own healing. If it is for other people, then that should be their choice in their own time.

When, for whatever reason, you live through the childhood abuse and make it into adulthood without the abuse having been detected and reported while you were still a minor, when you are now an adult who is no longer in danger, when the abusers from your past are no longer a threat to any children, the last thing many of us want or need is to have our power taken away again by well-meaning but misguided self-proclaimed saviors of the world. I'm not out to save the world, and my abusers were not going to destroy it; they were satisfied just to try to destroy my little corner of it. My route to reclaiming my life and my power had to be personal and driven by me. Had someone stepped in and thrown my history into the public venue of the legal system, it would have created probably at least as much damage and trauma as the original abuse.

Had the threat that if I named my abusers they would be reported and prosecuted hovered over my own therapy, I would have not even pursued therapy and would never have gotten to this place of healing and peace in my life that I've been blessed with today. THAT would have been a tragedy, and unfortunately will be the outcome of this kind of policy.