Abuse “They didn’t take care of her”

The case of three-year-old Brianna Genao González, a victim of kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder by two uncles, her mother’s brothers, was recently published.

Sexual violence against girls and adolescents under 19 years of age is on the rise in the country, according to data from the “National Survey of Sexual Assaults Against Women” (Cipaf 2024). There has been a 53.8% increase in the rate of sexual violence cases among girls and adolescents between 10 and 19 years old, rising from 13 in 2013 and 2019 to 20 in 2022. A similar increase has been observed among girls aged 5 to 9.

This increase is worrying; examples include the cases in 2025 of several girls under 10 years old raped by relatives and close people, and this recent case in Puerto Plata of a 3-year-old girl with her uncles, sexual predators and murderers.

The treatment of the Puerto Plata girl’s sexual abuse case on social media is marked (as in many previous cases) by blaming mothers and female caregivers, diminishing and making invisible the responsibility of those who committed the sexual assault and crime against the girl.

This approach diverts attention from the causes of sexual violence against girls and adolescents perpetrated by men who are part of their family, who take advantage of primary and trusting relationships to kidnap and sexually assault them.

As a society, we do not question this repetitive behavior of many men who are pedophiles and are in families, taking advantage of the permission that their family relationship with the victims culturally gives them to be ignored, ignoring the risks that girls and adolescents run in the family environment from this daily closeness.

Messages about the prevention of sexual assault that predominate in our daily lives are limited to “stranger men” but not to those who are part of the family.

Sexual abuse is invisible and legitimized. It goes unreported and unrecorded due to its historical and social normalization. It only surfaces in public scandals like the one that recently occurred.

Eradicating sexual abuse is a task for all of society. To achieve this, we must change the male population, their aggressive behaviors, and their perception of women as sexual objects. No man or adolescent has the right to sexually assault any girl, adolescent, or woman, regardless of whether she is alone or accompanied, clothed or naked. Teaching respect for the bodies of women, girls, and adolescents must be a priority for the State and all sectors of society.