U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Victims Treating Victims (From Child Abuse and Neglect: An Interdisciplinary Method of Treatment, P 189-199, 1989, Narviar Cathcart Barker, ed. - See NCJ-163604)

NCJ Number
163618
Author(s)
K B McGovern
Date Published
1989
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Therapists who are treating child sexual abuse victims and their families experience numerous problems due to court mandates and restrictions that hamper or curtail the healing of the child and must also address the issues that arise if they also have been victims of child sexual abuse.
Abstract
After disclosure occurs, the therapist often must deal not only with the direct impacts on the child but also with the reality of family disintegration and loss of its main source of financial support, its health insurance, and its support system. The therapist also has to work with erratic policies and bureaucratic rules to provide the family with some form of assistance. The stress for the therapist and the related bureaucratic policies can seriously impair the working relationship between the victim, the family members, and the therapist. The negative reactions may be far more overwhelming when the therapist has also been a victim of sexual abuse. Essential precautions in the treatment of these abused children include the elimination of institutional abuses such as victim therapists transferring their negative reactions to victims or perpetrators of sexual abuse and isolating the child from the perpetrator regardless of the individual family dynamics. Therapists need to evaluate their own psychological background carefully before providing services to sexually abused victims; they may not be effective if they are unable to resolve their own interpersonal conflicts and past sexual abuse. List of five issues regarding clinical services to child sexual abuse victims and 20 references