Scott Brown's Sexual Abuse Horror: "If You Tell Anybody... I'll Kill You"

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - Scott Brown isn't just a U.S. senator. He's also a survivor. The Massachusetts Republican says in a new book that he was sexually abused by a camp counselor and physically abused by his stepfather.

He said Wednesday that he hopes his story will inspire others to overcome similar challenges.

"My book is about overcoming obstacles," Brown said in a statement. "The physical and sexual abuse is in my book. It's a part of my life, but it certainly isn't the only part of my life story which I tell."

He details the childhood trauma in "Against All Odds" which comes out Monday.

In a "60 Minutes" interview airing Sunday night, Brown talks about the abuse he suffered while growing up in Massachusetts. A camp counselor threatened to kill him if he disclosed the abuse. "He said, 'If you tell anybody... I'll kill you. I will make sure nobody believes you,"' Brown said.

Brown also said he looked into buying a home where his stepfather had physically abused him just so he could "burn it down."

Brown said that being physically abused at home and being the product of broken homes made him more vulnerable to sexual predators.

"When people find people like me at that young, vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you," he told the program.

Brown's experience is far from unique.  Up to 44 percent of rape victims are younger than 18 and 15 percent are younger than 12, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

Shame is a hallmark of sexual violence and Brown told "60 Minutes" that even his mother had not known about the abuse.

"That's what happens when you're a victim. You're embarrassed. You're hurt," he told CBS News. "I hope people will read it and be inspired by its message," Brown said in a statement Wednesday.