Many male victims of sexual abuse are at great risk of becoming offenders themselves. Research suggests that men and women sexually abuse children because of their inability to form healthy attachments. Therapy provides young male victims of sexual abuse with an opportunity to experience intimacy with others without feeling that their sense of individuality is threatened. To achieve this, therapists must recognize that male victims' aggressive and disruptive behaviors are necessary to the healing process. For male victims of sexual abuse, these aggressive displays are rigorous attempts to move out of the powerlessness and paralysis they so often experience as a result of their trauma. Requiring men to talk like women amounts to a betrayal of their masculinity; to admonish them for their expressions of anger and rage reinforces the shame and guilt they often feel as victims. If the therapist is able to respond to the adolescent striving for independence with care and interest rather than repudiation and repugnance, then the client has an opportunity to experience both the recognition of autonomy and the sustenance of human contact. 38 references