Why Mel Grew Up In A Dysfunctional Family

Forms of CSA include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact against a child, physical contact with the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia without physical contact, or using a child to produce child pornography. The effects of child sexual abuse include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, propensity to re-victimization in adulthood, and physical injury to the child, among other problems. Sexual abuse by a family member is a form of incest, and can result in more serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest. Approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters and uncles or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters, or neighbors; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases. Studies have shown that the psychological damage is often particularly severe when sexual assault is committed by parents against children due to the incestuous nature of the assault. Incest between a child or adolescent and a related adult has been identified as the most

To illustrate, due to fact that Flynn grew up around adults that used drugs he was put at a higher risk of using them himself. For example, knowing adults who use marijuana is a risk factor that leads to a higher chance of using drugs (Hart and Ksir 14). Flynn is often exposed to adults using drugs throughout his childhood-especially his stepfather. For instance, “After building the master bedroom his second act had been the cultivation of marijuana in our very public backyard” (Flynn 93). Flynn is also put at greater risk through his association with multiple individuals who use drugs.

The author of Random Family provides a fascinating perspective on the lives of non-fiction individuals in a society of street life caught in the pervasive turmoil of drugs, crime, and

Comaz-Diaz (1995), suggests that value that is placed on girl’s virginity, the shame of the victim, and cultural silence against discussing sexual matters are family values that are invoked to prevent disclosure on sexual assault. Incomplete or inappropriate sexuality socialization in childhood may affect one’s ability to identify abuse and as a consequence delay or hinder the disclosure of sexual abuse in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Charlie's aunt sexually abused him, which may mean that she was once sexually abused by a family member. The fact that Charlie still loved her may be Learned Helplessness, which occurs when a person is repeatedly subjected to aversive stimulus. Eventually, the person will “get used” to the aversive stimulus and behave submissively because they do not think that they have the power to stop it (Cherry, 2011) . Charlie was very young and his aunt was an authority figure that he was supposed to feel safe with.

Catherine Birnie specifically, a famous killer, lived with her very controlling and abusive grandparents. One of the most famous female serial killers, Aileen Wuornos, also lived with her violent grandfather as her mother deserted her at a very young age. These unhealthy families consisted of a lot of physical and physiological abuse. Unfortunately, it is very common for parental or guardian abuse to be copied by a daughter or son. Many of these woman turned to alcohol, drugs, and sex to cope with these issues, which destroyed their future.

Steiger and Zanko (1990) compared rates of incestuous abuses (sexual contacts with family members) and extrafamilial abuses

I remember having to sit down with my mother and father at the age of six and they asked me “Where did he touch you?”. Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how hard it is to explain to your parents how you were sexually abused by a family member? I was so embarrassed and ashamed. I remember them telling me that it was not my fault but I could not help but believe that it was all my fault. Could I have stopped this? Surely I could have told somebody what was happening but why didn't I? I think I was scared. I did not know what my parents would think of me if I told them. I did not want anyone in my family finding out, and I knew if I told my parents, everybody would find out. Everybody did find out but nobody talked about it. It was just something that was known. When I was younger, I thought maybe nobody knew but as I grew up and wasn’t allowed alone with this family member, I just assumed everybody knew. I do not know whether I am mad or glad that this is not talked about within my family. I almost feel like the whole situation was swept under the rug because maybe my parents did not want to believe how serious the abuse actually was. I guess nobody will understand how bad it was besides me. It is still really hard to see this person and family get togethers. It makes me dread the holidays when we all get

Sexual abuse is a heinous act that causes extreme suffering for a victim while providing pleasure for a perpetrator. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, approximately 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls are abused sexually before the age of 18 (n.d.). The question of why an individual would commit such a heinous act has various answers, almost all of which depend on the background of the individual. A common speculation is that abusers themselves were once abused by someone else. This idea branches off of the Positivist Theory of crime. The theory basically states that prior influences or experiences in life will ultimately decide how people will act in the future (C. Bartol & A. Bartol, 2017). Their history of abuse influenced them to become abusers. While this may be one viable explanation to this behavior, there are many other answers that are just as feasible in explaining this behavior. This includes the topic of serious mental illnesses and other behavioral disorders. Regardless of background influences, the true intent of the abusive individuals may be almost impossible to draw out, especially since most guilty individuals want to escape from the consequences associated with the crime that they commit (Inbau, Reid, Buckley, & Jayne, 2013). Unless a perpetrator admits to committing the crime, piecing the story together and understanding the influences that played a role in the actions committed by them is more feasible in terms of learning the truth. Whatever the

As soon as birth, children are exposed to new things; new life experiences that will develop the path of which direction their life will take. Adolescence is the most important time in a child’s life because it is where they learn appropriate behavior from their family and the outside world. Some children are able to use these experiences to differentiate at an early age what is right and what is wrong and hopefully carry this into adulthood. What happens when children are exposed to the wrong experiences at an early age? What happens if children assume that what they are seeing is okay because one of their parents are

Then, making convicted sex offenders names public puts untold distress on others. “Unfortunately, when the details of the [registered sex offenders’] lives and crimes are posted on public registries and divulged through notification, it is not only the offender’s confidentiality that is violated” (Freeman-Longo, 2000, p. 6). People often abuse the law of the sex offender registry list and provide too much information. In many cases the names of family members, friends, and the victim’s name is made public. The family members can be shamed and abused by society for things they could not control. When a victim’s name is made public, he or she may feel even more desecrated, and often times it can cause the victim to relive the incident.

There are kids that one might consider a bad crowd, which are the wrong kids to become friends with. These kids are just beginning to start a life of crime, although some won’t grow up to be gang members others will and they will try there hardest to take you with them. It’s also very hard to stay away from these kids because the can be very deceivingly friendly and fun to be around but that’s just a mask to hide the evil underneath. It’s really sad to see some kids that never fit in become recruited by the bad kids because it will only be a matter of time before the kid that never fit in soon becomes the kid that sells drugs.

Reasons for not coming forward vary such as shame, confusion, the sense no one cares or understands, lack of awareness by family and friends and also some people find it hard opening up old wounds and prefer not to dredge up the past (Davenport-West, 2009). Many children who were taken experienced physical and sexual abuse by the hands of their caregivers; this can cause members to have psychological issues and because of the trauma of these experiences may prevent them from coming forward (Davenport-West, 2009). “The impacts of abuse on a child depends on a range of factors such as the type of the abuse, the severity of the abuse, the relationship of the child to the abuser/s, the child 's family environment and their relationship with their parents or other caregivers, and whether the child has previous experiences of abuse, or a history of support, care and love” (Asca.org.au, n.d.). Psychological effects are common in adulthood for children who have been abused and the most common conditions are depression, anxiety and increase in violence and rage. Indigenous people who are victims of ‘The Stolen Generations’ can fall prey to these effects (Asca.org.au, n.d.). Individual records were not accurately kept; especially for Aboriginal children many members of the Stolen Generations have missing, disjointed or incomplete records such as birth certificates, parents’ marriage certificates, adoption papers and other government

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Childhood sexual abuse is a traumatic experience affecting the lives of not only the victim, but those close to the victim as well. Many think there is only one person truly traumatized, but in fact, everyone involved is affected. The victim has to deal with their experience the rest of their lives. They may be more at risk for other mental issues as well, including depression. The family involved has to deal with its pain, often causing hardship and discord within the family. This is especially true

After several occurrences, the client was able to verbalize her fear of being alone due to previous rape incidences involving a family member.