Psychology, Human Development: Eight-Year-Old Boy Raped Three-Year-Old Girl

The Summarized Crime Report

A three-year-old girl from Cebu was raped by an eight-year-old boy playmate who already had himself exposed to pornographic content in an arcade style internet café called pisonet. According to the girl’s mother, the suspect’s older brother was even there when it all happened and that he just chose to ignore them and leave them like there was nothing wrong. The victim narrated that she was forced to lay in bed, had her hands tied up with a t-shirt, and with the same material, had her mouth wrapped to prevent her from screaming. The five-year-old brother of the victim had his hands tied up too by the suspect. The siblings were not supposed to go out at that time but the young suspect, far from being suspicious due to his presumed innocence as a kid and promise to take care of them, had his permission granted from their now heartbroken mother. After the nightmare the siblings especially the girl had to go through, the five-year-old boy came running towards their home where their mother was worried sick, looking for them as she noticed it got silent outside where they were supposed to be playing. The boy was in tears as he told his mom to hurry, and there she witnessed her poor daughter’s thighs bleeding, pleading for help as she was in pain. The girl knows what the suspect had done to her was wrong that at a young age she asks her mom to have him arrested. She experiences trauma—fear from other kids in the neighborhood and having nightmares, waking up in the middle of the night crying and obviously scarred for life.

The Analysis

This case obviously presents the alarming effect of media especially to young ones who are still in the early stage of developing their character and personality. Also, if what the victim’s mother said about the suspect’s older brother being there when the crime happened and his leaving them were true, then it just shows that the eight-year-old rapist is clearly not well supervised by the elders around him. The way people live in the neighborhood might also have something to do with how this boy resulted to doing such an unbelievable thing. Southern Cebu, where this awful even took place is a provincial area wherein matters like sex are still highly taboo to be discussed, thus the lack of education in sex many young ones even the elders still face—a problematic culture to keep as it only leaves no room for satisfying curious minds healthily and safely without hurting others especially young and innocent ones. Now, the main problem in this case aside from the psychological cause and effect on both parties is that the boy cannot face any serious legal punishment as he is a minor no matter how obvious it is that the level of crime he committed does not differ from that of the reported rape crimes committed by adults that are even qualified for the proposed death penalty.

My Take on this Case

In my opinion, media has always undeniably influenced people regardless of their age in so many ways that this kid had managed to commit such a horrific crime, however it would be wrong to solely blame the media for such action. When I was younger, I watched television all the time, and I know at several times, I had switched into some semi-pornographic channels that opened my eyes early into the idea of sex. However, I was guided by religious parents in a typical “it’s taboo, so let’s not talk about it” manner. When they found out about my then exposure to these lewd media contents, they were so angry that I got yelled at and grounded for about a couple of weeks. That did not stop me from sexually exploring, but it did regulate my curiosity in a way that I did not ever get into trouble back then when this eight-year-old boy and some other minors in the same situation did. Some people might question though, “You said your parents did not discuss sex openly though, so are you sure you turned out fine? How?” Well, I grew up in a not so provincial area. It is just an hour away from the capital city, and I studied in a school wherein the quality of education was great and fellow students were diverse. Both things provided me the best knowledge when it comes to different things especially when it comes to sex. The school taught me the biological aspects and the people around me gave me ideas on the social part of it. In the province or poor areas of cities here in the country, where most of these awful rape crimes occur, there are neither of the sources of helpful knowledge. Provincial areas do have excellent schools, but they are private just like what I was in when I was three to twelve years old. The public schools are not advanced enough to have the openness to discuss these still considered taboo matters, and this is where the mass in rural areas go as it does not take much of their minimum wages. The kids in this case could be said to be living in one of these rural areas wherein the neighbors are close to each other and where kids still play outside. The value of education in areas like this is high in a sense that people there see it as a great privilege if they can manage to send at least one of their kids to school, but there are also those that have just given up to working hard to be able to give this privilege to their kids that they just let their kids play and not allow them to at least explore or experience skills they might be good at. Like the eight-year-old boy, he is left in an internet café to explore the internet without guidance and knowledge of what he is even watching in the screen. He is as if abandoned, for his guardian/s is/are not attending to their duties of nurturing him.

The Psychological Side

According to Sigmund Freud, the age of 6-12 years old in his psychosexual stages of development is the latency stage wherein sexual instincts subside, and children begin to further develop the superego, or conscience. Children begin to behave in morally acceptable ways and adopt the values of their parents and other important adults (https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/human-development-14/theories-of-human-development-70/freud-s-psychosexual-theory-of-development-267-12802/).

In this eight-year-old boy’s case, he could be considered to be inexcusable in this crime as a kid, for at this age, based on Freud’s stages, he is no longer in this curiosity stage that could not be easily harnessed. In this age he should already be following his parents or guardian/s, observing good morals and right conduct, but yes, the problem is that he does not have those guides to actually lead him into this supposed level up of his growth. This presents an alarming situation in the field of studying human development in the psychological aspect as it does not only cause various debates about different theories but also shows that the importance of parental supervision that could be affected by now growing trends or alterations in marriages or family types remains a debatable issue. This leaves the psychological perspective on human development not concrete, hence the indefinite legal action to be done to the eight-year-old rapist in order to serve justice to the victim and her family. All that is guaranteed is that the victim will carry this traumatic experience as she grows and that the only way to at least ease the pain of that is to give her the justice she deserves to bring her faith back to humanity and to not affect her development as well. Too bad, the case requires a lot of hard studying that there is not much the law can serve her yet.