MR. PAUL MONES: In my work as a child abuse lawyer, I often come across the following questions: Why do abused children remain silent? Why do they not report to trusted adults such as their teachers or police officers what is done to them behind closed doors? First and foremost, sexually and physically abused kids are simply too fearful and powerless to help themselves. Untold thousands of these children will go to school today and tomorrow without telling their teachers the horrors visited upon them the night before. They will travel quietly through the day, passing police officers, neighbors and friends, never revealing the anguish of their existences. And if by chance someone asks them how they are being treated at home their response will be uniformly the same: “Okay.”
As adults we expect all human beings to escape or at least want to escape when someone injures them, but for battered children, the reverse occurs. Perhaps the most insidious aspect of child abuse is that it binds the child closer to the abuser. The parents’ threats and intimidation engender in their children not only fear but self-blame and embarrassment – all of which turn a child’s survival mechanism topsy turvy. Love and violence become so inextricably confused that even when the abuse is reported, the children will often kick and scream as they are being removed from their draconian environment by a social worker.
READ MORE HERE:
http://www.paulmones.com/2011/01/04/child-abuse-the-perfect-crime/
George Joseph England (Broward Sheriff’s Office)
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