Infant Rape: 8 Day Old Baby Assaulted

This is NOT a story that fits with the theme of this blog -- actually, it is the exact antithesis of what I hope to spread through the work I do. However, it is a subject I am ultra sensitive to. And just as women and men who are raped as adults often find healing, and bring about positive change, in having their stories and voices heard, I do believe we should not be so quick to set aside the horrors that occur daily to babies in our own backyards. This innocent tiny little one - fresh and new to this earth - deserves to be heard, helped, and healed.

I have decided not to publish a photo of Davis (the rapist in this case) because I do not wish to glorify him or make him into the infamous character of this story. I hate the way media so often uses scare tactics and only reports on the "bad" news. Yet, at the same time, crimes such as this just cannot be ignored. We must be aware of them and talk about them in order to take steps to STOP them from happening.

The United States is currently the developed nation with the highest rates of rape, bar none. There are reasons that this is true. I am not going to pretend to have all the answers or have it all figured out -- but there are some really big indicators - some red flags - we see when we look at how we (in the U.S.) parent our little ones compared to those in other developed (and many undeveloped) nations. There are likely links between our high rates of violent, drugged, birth (void of natural 'love' hormones), genital cutting after birth, lack of breastfeeding, lack of babywearing/holding, lack of shared sleep/night-time parenting, crying-it-out, physical punishment, and not enough gentle, involved, primal, passionate, attached, mothering and fathering. It may just be time we start paying attention to these modern day differences and how they are impacting us in grave ways.

My heart is breaking as I report upon this, but I pray someday it is not a similar story that I hear physicians at our state Children's Hospital telling any longer.


A Forrest City, AR man, Reginald Davis, has been charged with raping his 8 day old baby.

Police were called to the Forrest City Medical Center after a baby was administered with a skull fracture and evidence of sexual assault. The infant was immediately transferred to the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock due to the severity of the injuries.

Although Davis had no adult criminal record (at 18-years-old) his juvenile RAP sheet has not been released for public record under AR state law.

While visiting the mother of his 8-day-old baby, Davis volunteered to watch the infant while his 15-year-old girlfriend took a shower. According to police reports, other people were also home at the time of the rape (including the baby's grandmother), but either no one knew what was happening, or no one stepped in to stop it.

When the young mother was finished with her shower, she noticed blood on her baby. Davis rode along to the hospital with the baby's mother and grandmother. After the infant was examined and transferred to the AR Children's Hospital, police were called and Davis was arrested.

Sadly, we find many cases such as this at state Children's Hospitals around the country. It would be nice to believe these things never happen (and hard to fathom that they actually do). But emergency care providers see cases such as this all too frequently. There are likely more that never make it into the doors of a hospital. We know that the majority of rapists (for example) were themselves victims of sexual assault as babies or children. Several studies conducted in the 1980s and 1990s demonstrated that 100% of serial rapists were victims of sexual abuse as children.

Sexual assault of infants (babies under the age of 3) is different from pedophilia (sexual arousal/contact with pre-pubescent children over the age of 3). Experts working with sex crimes and psychopathology state that this form of infant rape seems to occur because the rapist does not see the baby before him as a boy or girl - a baby or toddler - or even as a human being. S/He is merely another 'opening' into which to get off on. It is the ultimate case of using and abusing another human being.

Sadly, an obvious question is often brought up in cases like this -- how could someone physically penetrate a baby? After all, this tiny newborn has very tiny everything. And, as horrifying as it is - that is exactly what appeals to those raping an infant. The tight, small space.

This form of sexual assault would obviously hurt a baby to extremes like none other. Babies scream - do all they can to get away (responses that are the same as those we see when babies are genitally cut apart via circumcision). This is why babies are often gagged first by the predator - duct tape over their mouths - something to hold them still, keep them quiet. This little baby likely suffered skull fractures as a result of being held down tightly by Davis while being sexually abused.

The rape of a human being of this small size causes catastrophic internal injuries to various organs, and many babies die. Those brought into emergency rooms after surviving this trauma are often found to have broken spines and collar bones from the weight of a man when he presses upon, or collapses onto, the baby at ejaculation. [Side note: 100% of those charged with infant rape in the United States are male.]

In this case, Davis is being charged with Rape and Second-Degree Battery. He is currently being held in jail on a $100,000.00 bond. Psychologists have examined him and deem Davis competent to stand trial as an adult, noting that he grew up in an abusive and violent home himself. His mother has told reporters she does not think her son is guilty, but Davis has already admitted to "accidentally penetrating and dropping" his 8-day-old baby.


Please, do what you can, in your own way, to foster the wisdom of mothers and fathers, and encourage the peaceful parenting and protection of little ones around you.

For a related scholarly work on this topic, see Jean Liedloff's excellent book, The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost and Jan Hunt's, The Natural Child: Parenting From the Heart.

Related article by Hygeia Halfmoon on her proposed connections between infant sexual violence and later sexual crimes: Cutting Boys Cuts to the Core

Excellent work is also available via Jackson Katz's scholarly educational materials.