We Are Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and Neglect

Childhood maltreatment increases the chances a child will become violent by interrupting normal emotional, social and intellectual development. Children experience rejection and abandonment when their relationships are characterized by insecurity and physical maltreatment. Rejected and abandoned children are unable to form secure emotional attachments first within their family

It has been hypothesized that adverse childhood experiences, especially sexual abuse, may impair a child’s ability to form a secure attachment with parents and peers, which may lead young men to seek alternative ways to fulfill emotional needs that can manifest in adverse, health-compromising, and often criminal sexual behaviors.

Most violence begins in the second decade of life. Adolescence is a time of great change and vulnerability, which can include an increase in the frequency and means of expression of violence and other risky behaviors. Serious violence begins mostly between the ages of 12 and 20. The peak age

This post concludes the recommendations of the Task Force on Children Affected by Domestic Violence. Children who are victimized by trauma are often unable to develop or experience mastery and sense of self, or to separate themselves psychologically from the violent physical experiences that produced their trauma. New research suggests

This post is a continuation of Part 1 where I am presenting recommendations from the Task Force on Children Affected by Domestic Violence coordinated by the Massachusetts Advocacy Center. These findings and subsequent recommendations are an excellent model for the school systems of America.

I read an outstanding paper on working with traumatized children in the school system. It is too much to cover in one post, so I have broken down the discussion and recommendations into three articles.

Since the cost of making sure children are attended to properly is hardly ever discussed openly, I thought it would help to shed some light on this. Federal, state, and local legislatures preside over the allocation of hundreds of billions of tax dollars every year because of abusive parenting. 

The National Task Force on Juvenile Sexual Offending stressed that the primary objective of interventions with juveniles who have sexually offended is community safety. The primary goals of treatment interventions with these juveniles are:  helping them to gain control over their sexually abusive behaviors and to increase their pro-social

Studies of families of children who have engaged in sexually aggressive behavior reveal they tended to be characterized as dysfunctional, evidencing high rates of parental separation, domestic violence, substance abuse, highly sexualized environments (e.g., exposing children to sexual activity, pornography, and both covert and overt sexual abuse), unsatisfactory role models,

Incidence reports on juvenile sex offenses may underestimate the extent of the problem for female offenders because of a societal reluctance to acknowledge that girls are capable of committing sex offenses.[1]

Three studies documented the following findings: