I recently did an intake assessment on a mother and her 12-year old son that was "humping" his 5 year-old sister. As it turns out, the 12 yr.old was also subjected to similar treatment when he was 54, at the hand of some older cousins. When I wrote up my treatment recommendations, I included a concern that the mother's anger might interfere with her parenting. During the intake assessment, she was continually berating him. While I could sympathize with her anger, and that he needed to take responsibility for his actions (and thereby learn to control and find appropriate outlets for his impulses) I believe that the mother needs to let the counselors do their job, and to focus on solving the problem rather than continuing to appoint blame. My supervisor describes it as "the werewolf syndrome." While not every child who is abused will become a perpetrator, many do repeat the behavior. He likened it to being bitten by a werewolf, and what happens. He runs a pre-adolescent sex offenders group for children who have had inappropriate (read: exploitive ) sexual activity with a significantly younger child.(Including with siblings) I asked him about whether or not labeling a child abuser as a perpetrator didn't harm the child. His view is that you need to make the perpetrator realize the consequences of his actions, that by the age difference, the younger partner is really not in a position to say no, and that it is therefore exploitive, and that the perpetrator needs to learn to admit responsibility for his actions. Unless the child perpetrator acknowledges responsibility, he is likely to continue to seek out younger victims. And, in your client's case, I think the aunt and uncle will need to remain vigilant of this older child around the younger child (i.e. not allow them to be together unsupervised) until such a time that the older child has learned to control his impulses.
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