Whether the abuser is a 40 year old man with hairy palms, or a preschooler's older cousin (and I have seen lots of this), the damage is still there. I recently did an intake on an 11 year old who perpetrated on his sister, who is 5, and the preschooler is now acting out sexually. A five year old simply cannot handle that level of sexual knowledge, as opposed to what normally happens when two preschoolers play doctor as a way of exploring anatomy. As for the older child, yes, he is still a child, and was a victim himself. OUr program which treats preadolescent abusers is a low-key confrontational/educational method designed to help the children realize that what they did was wrong and harmful, and to learn the difference between what is acceptable and not. A sample group session is structured around giving the kids various scenarios of coercive and consentual behavior, and each one is discussed as to why or why not. In this way, we focus on the behavior while preserving the self-respect of the client. To sum it up, treating offenders isn't a dichotomy of "coddling the criminal" or "hanging them out to dry" but a combination of helping the client take responsibility for his actions ("his" with the understanding that not all perps are male) while building his self respect.
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