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child victims of abuse becoming perpetrators
<x-html><HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>I have read this list with great interest for the past year or two. Information here has helped me to understand somewhat the current state of knowledge in child abuse. I am a retired social worker who is maintaining an interest and activity in child abuse prevention.
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<BR>In regard to my activity in retirement, I have conducted interviews with 113 survivors of child abuse as the basis for a book I wrote. I did not intend the interviewees to be just those who had been sexually abused but in fact only 17 interviewees were "purely" physically abused, all the others were also sexually abused.
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<BR>Before making comments on what my interviews seem to suggest I need to describe what I feel are limitations of my findings.
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<BR>I utilized accepted interview techniques, but I did not subject my findings to rigorous statistical analysis. The final accumulation of "data" is not in a form which could even be analyzed statistically at this time.
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<BR>The subjects of all of the interviews were self selected and therefore do not represent a scientific sample which could be used to base strong conclusions on.
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<BR>What this material does seem to indicate is another side of the discussion of the abuse-abuse connection.
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<BR>I found that all of the 113 individuals I interviewed were highly motivated to either avoid becoming parents or to learn appropriate parenting skills they could then use to help avoid abuse to their own children.
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<BR>Interviewees all were self supporting and/or were in training to assume employment which was at a level allowing them to be self supporting and/or to advance their economic standing. They were future oriented and believed that their efforts would result in better economic and social success for them. Their definition of success was principally to be self supporting, dependent financially on no one, and to "like" themselves.
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<BR>My impression was that they consciously set goals for themselves which were lower than their innate ability would indicate they could achieve. The interesting thing was that when they achieved that goal they then set another, higher, goal which was also lower than their new level of accomplishment would indicate was possible. In short, survivors seemed to set achievable goals, consolidate those goals and then to set slightly higher goals. Their motivation seemed to be to protect themselves from failure because they did not feel they had the same support systems other people had.
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<BR>Interviewees were all engaged in "serial" long term therapy/counseling. For some that meant periods of intensive therapy followed by periodic "checkups" to assure that they were progressing in their adjustment to life. For others it meant only periodic checkup sessions with therapists to help them continue to learn coping skills they had not been able to develop in childhood and early adulthood.
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<BR>Interviewees all could identify one person or a series of persons who were available to them during specific periods of their lives when they needed assistance to understand and deal with their situation. Some of these persons were friends, families or colleagues. They did not nominate professionals for this role. They seemed to see professionals as teachers and therapist only, and not supporters.
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<BR>From these and other findings I came to suspect/believe that studies which note the abuse-abuse connection are dealing with individuals who were not able to develop resiliency skills and did not account for the group which did develop those skills.
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<BR>In a further personal vein I came to suspect that the number of folks in the resilient group was greater than those in the non-resilient group.
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<BR>My findings also raised a concern in my mind that the emphasis on individuals who we know are survivors who also offend has left two other questions largely unanswered; how many abused individuals grow up not to offend, and why do those survivors not offend?
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<BR>I need to extend my apologies to those on the list who are real researchers. I am not. I am not even well versed enough in the body of child abuse research to criticize the amount or type which exists. I am grateful that researchers are working to answer questions pertaining to the field. In my 32 year social work career I observed children and families in several different settings and decided to write a book on what I saw. I offer these observations from the book only as a minor attempt to suggest a potential additional view of survivors.
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<BR>Thank you for allowing me to voice a small voice in the forum.
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<BR>Bill Berkan
<BR>Berkawa@aol.com
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<BR>Author of "Visions of Hope'"
<BR>www.visionsofhope.net
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<BR>American Book Publishing Group
<BR>http://www.PDBookStore.com
<BR>(Cick on healing and recovery)</FONT></HTML>
</x-html>From ???@??? Tue Mar 18 13:52:08 1997
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To: Child Maltreatment Researchers <CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu>
Subject: foster care
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I am an MSW student at the University of South Carolina, and I am doing a
project entitled "Social policy related to families affected by alcohol and
drug abuse."
If you can help me answer the following questions, I would be most appreciative:
1) The cost for keeping a chilid in foster care for 1 year
2) The cost for Family Preservation services for one family
3) The cost for Termination of Parental Rights and permanent foster
care proceedings for one child.
Any data, personal experience, costs, etc. will be most helpful!
Thank you so much!
Amy Bernstein, BSW