A holistic sociological approach that explores why offenders sexually abuse children The sexual abuse of children is one of the most morally unsettling and emotionally inflammatory issues in American society today. It has been estimated that roughly one out of every four girls and one in ten boys experience some form of unwanted sexual attention either inside or outside the family before they reach adulthood. How should society deal with the sexual victimization of children? Should known offenders be released back into our communities? If so, where, and with what rights, should they be allowed to live? In Unspeakable Acts, Douglas W. Pryor argues that much of this debate, designed to deal with abusers after they have offended, ignores the important issue of why men cross these forbidden sexual boundaries to molest children in the first place and how the behavior can possibly be prevented before it starts. Incorporating in-depth interviews with more than thirty convicted child molesters, Pryor explores how men become involved with breaking sexual boundaries with children. He looks at how their lives prior to offending contributed to and led up to what they did, the ways that initial interest in sex with children began, the tactics offenders employed to molest their victims over time, how they felt about and reacted to their behavior between offending episodes, and how they were ultimately able to stop. The author expands our understanding of this often reviled, little understood group, leaving us with the uneasy conclusion that the moral wall separating us from what is defined as extreme, sick behavior is not as opaque as we would like to believe.

The true story of 2 year-old Anna, abandoned by her natural parents, left alone in a neglected orphanage. Elaine and Ian had travelled half way round the world to adopt little Anna. She couldn't have been more wanted, loved and cherished. So why was she now in foster care and living with me? It didn't make sense. Until I learned what had happened. ... Dressed only in nappies and ragged T-shirts the children were incarcerated in their cots. Their large eyes stared out blankly from emaciated faces. Some were obviously disabled, others not, but all were badly undernourished. Flies circled around the broken ceiling fans and buzzed against the grids covering the windows. The only toys were a few balls and a handful of building bricks, but no child played with them. The silence was deafening and unnatural. Not one of the thirty or so infants cried, let alone spoke.

'A Life Hidden from View' is a candid look at my life through my eyes. I had a somewhat unconventional childhood, living a very secluded, mostly in solitude, life. Going to school wasn't without its dramas. Once the other children found out I was illegitimate, the bullying started. At senior school, circumstances led to me being sexually abused. When I left school, life improved for a while. I grew up into a very independent young woman. Supporting myself and doing really well at work. I do have a somewhat quirky outlook on life and my sense of humour reflects this, as you will see sprinkled throughout the pages. My feelings of isolation, not loneliness, has not stopped me doing what I want to do. I have travelled alone to various holiday destinations and enjoyed them all. I have enjoyed pastimes of dancing and being around horses for most of my adult life. I am currently researching to find my dad. Although I say I am mostly alone, I'm not really. I do tend to attract the supernatural and have seen, and been in the presence of, what some people may call ghosts. I don't quite view them like that. In my later years at work I was bullied, to the extent that I took early retirement to get away from it. Being bullied, abused and neglected for most of my life has resulted in me having long-lasting health issues. I want my book to be a help guide to any of my readers who may find themselves in similar situations. It is important that you tell someone, get the help you need and deal with it, so you can move on with your life. I hope my book helps.

Recent years have seen a growing number of criminal prosecutions for sexual offences against children which are alleged to have occurred many years before the time of prosecution. This is a relatively new phenomenon within the criminal justice system. This book examines the response of the criminal justice systems of common law jurisdictions to such challenging cases, and explores how the system should respond in order to ensure that the defendant receives a fair trial, whilst recognizing the reasons why complainants may delay reporting abuse for many years. The book begins with a discussion of the psychological effects of childhood sexual abuse in order to shed light on the reasons why a victim might delay in making a complaint. Two central categories of delay are introduced: those in which the victim always remembered the abuse but was unable to complain; and those in which the victim's memory of the abuse was allegedly lost and later recovered. The debate over whether long-delayed criminal prosecutions should be brought, and the particular concerns raised by delayed childhood sexual abuse cases, are reviewed. Statutory and constitutional limits on the bringing of such cases are canvassed. The common law remedies of abuse of process and prohibition, which can ensure that unfair or oppressive prosecutions do not proceed, are examined. The focus then turns to the trial of delayed childhood sexual abuse allegations, considering the use which can be made by the prosecution and defence of evidence of complaint and delay in complaint, and the methods by which the jury can be informed of the reasons why complainants may delay. The role of warnings to the jury about the absence of corroboration and the forensic disadvantage or prejudice which the defendant may have suffered as a result of the complainant's delay in coming forward is scrutinized. Particular problems raised in cases involving recovered memories, and those involving multiple allegations are analysed. Finally, retrospective assessment of trial fairness and the safety of convictions is considered. The book is multi-jurisdictional in scope, focussing on those common law jurisdictions which have experienced a large number of such prosecutions: England and Wales; Ireland; Canada; Australia; New Zealand and the United States.

This book addresses new avenues in child abuse prevention research that will expand our capacity to protect children. These new avenues result from the emergence of new research methods made possible through technologic advances, an understanding of the benefits of cross-disciplinary research and learning and the entrance of many young scholars in the field. The book explores what these avenues produce in terms of clarifying the complex problems that continue to limit our progress in addressing child maltreatment and promoting optimal child development. Specifically, the book showcases individual contributions from emerging scholars and show how these scholars use the frameworks and advanced methods to shape their work, apply their findings and define their learning communities. The book highlights the benefits of creating explicit and extended opportunities for researchers to network across disciplines and areas of interest. The primary authors are young scholars from universities across the U.S. who have worked together as Fellows of the Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being - seeking innovations to prevent child abuse. Through this program, the Fellows have engaged in a robust self-generating learning network designed to create the type of ongoing professional linkages and decision-making style that fosters an interdisciplinary and team planning approach to research design and policy formation.

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aMeticulously researched, compelling written, Abandoned is a highly original study of an inexplicably understudied topic: child abandonment in the nineteenth-century American city. This important book provides a powerful corrective to excessively romanticized views of childhood in the past.a
--Steven Mintz, author of "Huckas Raft: A History of American Childhood"

aFrom Moses to Harry Potter, the stories of abandoned children have always intrigued us, even when we lack humane responses to their situation. In this well-written and insightful book, Miller provides access to the experience of children in the past, as well as the complex world of public and private charities, municipal reformers, clergy, and physicians who interacted with them in nineteenth-century New York City.a
--Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of "Kansas Charley: The Story of a 19th-Century Boy Murderer"

In the nineteenth century, foundlings--children abandoned by their desperately poor, typically unmarried mothers, usually shortly after birth--were commonplace in European society. There were asylums in every major city to house abandoned babies, and writers made them the heroes of their fiction, most notably Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. In American cities before the Civil War the situation was different, with foundlings relegated to the poorhouse instead of institutions designed specifically for their care. By the eve of the Civil War, New York City in particular had an epidemic of foundlings on its hands due to the rapid and often interlinked phenomena of urban development, population growth, immigration, and mass poverty. Only then did the city'sleaders begin to worry about the welfare and future of its abandoned children.

In Abandoned, Julie Miller offers a fascinating, frustrating, and often heartbreaking history of a once devastating, now forgotten social problem that wracked Americaas biggest metropolis, New York City. Filled with anecdotes and personal stories, Miller traces the shift in attitudes toward foundlings from ignorance, apathy, and sometimes pity for the children and their mothers to that of recognition of the problem as a sign of urban moral decline and in need of systematic intervention. Assistance came from public officials and religious reformers who constructed four institutions: the Nursery and Child's Hospital's foundling asylum, the New York Infant Asylum, the New York Foundling Asylum, and the public Infant Hospital, located on Randall's Island in the East River.

Ultimately, the foundling asylums were unable to significantly improve childrenas lives, and by the early twentieth century, three out of the four foundling asylums closed, as adoption took the place of abandonment and foster care took the place of institutions. Today the word foundling has been largely forgotten. Fortunately, Abandoned rescues its history from obscurity.

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) came to the forefront in the 1960s. At first, theories were spun, usually dealing with the intrapsychic reasons why a parent might en gage in such terrible behavior. The 1970s brought theory that tended to deal in creasingly with sociocultural and ecological explanations forCAN.Itwas not until the 1980s and 1990s, however, thattreatment strategies, research, and legal issues emerged. This book represents a state-of-the-art compilation from the leading figures of today's work in theory, research, and treatment. In addition, this volume presents treatises on cultural issues in CAN, youth violence, sexual abuse, and child devel opmental factors in CAN. The topics covered in this book are based upon empirical research. Although CANhas been professionally discussed since the 1960s, empiricallybased work in the field has been somewhat scarce. Thus, this volume fills a void. It is hoped that this book can be used as a text and reference source for many disciplines. It should be useful in psychology, psychiatry, social work, public health, pediatrics, child development and early childhood education, and law. My own work in CANbegan in 1979. Since then, I have been involved in two large-scale research and service projects aimed at the treatment and prevention of CAN. I have found that the problem appears treatable and preventableif the ap propriate resources are available. ifthe services and research are properly evalu ated, and if staff are trained to measurable performance criteria. Again, this empirical bias can be seen throughout the volume."

The book begins by offering a historical analysis of feminist awareness of abuse by considering some of the early challenges and the emerging recognition of the connections between women, children, and abuse. The book then divides into three sections. Section One focuses on contemporary issues and debates such as the protection of children, satanic ritual abuse, and prostitution. Section Two considers practice issues, in particular, conferencing, children, in care, sexuality, work with abusers, and effective communication with abused children with learning difficulties. The book concludes with a suggestion for a new model of practice.

Online Child Sexual Abuse: Grooming, Policing and Child Protection in a Multi-Media World addresses the complex, multi-faceted and, at times, counter-intuitive relationships between online grooming behaviours, risk assessment, police practices, and the actual danger of subsequent abuse in the physical world. Online child sexual abuse has become a high profile and important issue in public life. When children are victims, there is clearly intense public and political interest and concern. Sex offenders are society's most reviled deviants and the object of seemingly undifferentiated public fear and loathing. This may be evidenced in ongoing efforts to advance legislation, develop police tactics and to educate children and their carers to engage with multi-media and the internet safely. Understanding how sex offenders use the internet and how the police and the government are responding to their behaviour is central to the development of preventative measures. Based on extensive ethnographic research conducted with the police and a specialist paedophile unit, here Elena Marellozzo presents an informed analysis of online child sexual abuse: of the patterns and characteristics of online grooming, and of the challenges and techniques that characterize its policing. Connecting theory, research and practice in the field of policing, social policy, victimology and criminology, this book adds significantly to our understanding and knowledge of the problem of online child sexual abuse, the way in which victims are targeted and how this phenomenon is, and might be, policed.

This clear-sighted reference offers a transformative new lens for understanding the role of family processes in creating - and stopping - child abuse and neglect. Its integrative perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of forms of abuse, the diverse mechanisms of family violence, and a child/family-centered, strengths-based approach to working with families. Chapters review evidence-based interventions and also model collaboration between family professionals for effective coordination of treatment and other services. This powerful ecological framework has major implications for improving assessment, treatment, and prevention as well as future research on child maltreatment. Included among the topics:* Creating a safe haven following child maltreatment: the benefits and limits of social support.* "Why didn't you tell?" Helping families and children weather the process following a sexual abuse disclosure.* Environments recreated: the unique struggles of children born to abused mothers.* Evidence-based intervention: trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children and families.* Preventing the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment through relational interventions.* Reducing the risk of child maltreatment: challenges and opportunities. Professionals and practitioners particularly interested in family processes, child maltreatment, and developmental psychology will find Parenting and Family Processes in Child Maltreatment and Intervention a major step forward in breaking entrenched abuse cycles and keeping families safe.

Myths and Lies About Dads: How They Hurt Us All is a groundbreaking book that destroys more than 100 of the most damaging beliefs about fathers. Using the most recent research, this pioneering work exposes these baseless beliefs and the toll they take on children's relationships with their fathers, parents' relationships with one another, and the physical and mental health of fathers and mothers. Tackling a wide range of topics from custody laws, to children's toys, to the sexist behavior of counselors, pediatricians, and lawyers, Dr Linda Nielsen describes in vivid detail how these myths are linked to many of our most pressing issues: Creating more gender equity in childcare and housework Reducing child abuse, post-partum depression, and fathers' suicide rates Expanding mothers' and fathers' options at home and at work Reducing children's academic, behavioral, and emotional problems Lessening the pressures of parenting for both parents Changing sexist policies and practices that hurt parents and children Improving the economic situations for parents and their children The book is not only a wake-up call for parents but also for students and professionals in medicine and family law, social work, child development, education, and in the publishing, advertising, media, and entertainment industries. Above all, the book empowers parents to free themselves from the myths and lies about fathers that bind them.

This comprehensive volume provides critical information on the diagnosis, evaluation, treatment and follow-up care of children suspected of having been abused or neglected.

Despite mounting references to the "transgenerational transmission of violence," we still lack a compelling understanding of the linkage between the interpersonal violence of early life and the criminal violence of adulthood. In Prologue to Violence, Abby Stein draws on the gripping narratives of 65 incarcerated subjects and extensive material from law enforcement files to remedy this lacuna in both the forensic and psychodynamic literature. In the process, she calls into question prevailing beliefs about criminal character and motivation. For Stein the early trauma to which adult criminals are subjected remains unformulated and, as such, unavailable for reflection. Contrary to common belief, these criminals, especially sex murderers, do not commit their crimes in a rational or fully conscious way. They are not driven by deviant fantasy, their psychopathy is not inborn, and they rarely commit acts of violence "without conscience." Stein's interdisciplinary analysis of her data infuses contemporary relational psychoanalysis with the insights of neuroscience, traumatology, criminology, and cognitive and narrative psychology. A powerful challenge to offender treatment programs to address the shaping impact of childhood trauma rather than merely to "correct" the cognitions of violent offenders, Prologue to Violence will be equally compelling to researchers and academics investigating child abuse and adult violence. Its mental health readership will be broad and deep, ranging beyond clinicians who work with offender populations to all therapists who wrestle with experiences of dissociation and aggressive enactment in everyday life.

The development of knowledge and skills in working with perpetrators of sexual abuse over the past 15 years has been greatly aided by the establishment of specialist workers and teams. However, this has had the unintended effect of generating mystique about the nature of the work and discouraging non-specialists from engaging in it. The authors feel that this is counter-productive and must be addressed, as almost all work with perpetrators is undertaken by individuals with little support, specialist training or supervision. Only 6% of known perpetrators are treated in established specialist programmes. The underpinning theory and the key principles of practice with this group can be acquired by any professional worker. This book brings that knowledge to front-line staff to enable them to contribute effectively to the protection of children. The book sets out: .To demystify the theory of working with perpetrators of child sexual abuse. .To give practitioners the information they need to able to work effectively and safely with perpetrators. .To help practitioners acquire the skills to help perpetrators take responsibility for their actions and thus protect children. .To look at the gender issues inevitably embedded in this area of work. The book is aimed at the singleton practitioner within social work, probation, housing, community work and mental health work who is increasing faced with the need to work with sex offenders with little or no specialist support. The authors have between them over twenty years of experience in working and training in this field. In this book they have attempted to disseminate their knowledge. They have provided an accessible, readable and informative 'how to' guide. It will appeal to any front line worker who seeks practical advice to develop his or her competence in face to face work with this group. Contents: Context and theory . How Perpetrators Operate . The Grooming Process . Risk Assessment . Change, Monitoring and Containment. Professional Support . Multi-Agency Contexts . Impact on the Professional Lynda Deacon is Staff Tutor, Health and Social Welfare, Open University, with extensive experience in child protection work. Bryan Gocke is a Child Protection Manager and former Probation Officer with experience with adult and adolescent abusers.

Explore current social developments, issues, and controversies concerning young victims! The Victimization of Children: Emerging Issues keeps students and practitioners working with young victims on the cutting edge of the latest research developments regarding crimes against children. Leading experts from the legal, medical, and sociological communities explore some of the most urgent issues involving child victims. Researchers and practitioners in victim services, social work, mental health, public health, and criminal justice will all benefit from this useful resource. While numerous books have been written on the topic of child abuse and neglect, few delve into the more contemporary issues and problems. The Victimization of Children fills a large void in the literature by offering advanced discussions of today's most relevant topics, making this book an in-depth supplement to generic textbooks. Forward-thinking and thought-provoking, this timely resource provides sound research to expand your knowledge base. This book provides insights into such contemporary issues as: the victimization of youths on the Internet children as victims of war and terrorism spatial patterns of child maltreatmentthe concentration of child maltreatment within certain geographical areas religion-related child abuse the role of health care professionals in response to child victimization children with disabilitiesabuse, neglect, and the child welfare system fetal homicideemerging statutory and judicial regulation of third-party assaults legal and social issues surrounding closed-circuit television testimony of child victims and witnesses juvenile courts and their role in addressing family violence The Victimization of Children provides tables, figures, and the latest statistics of various aspects of child victimization to complement the experts' contributions. This book offers new and different responses and interventions to meet the increasingly diverse contexts and situations within which child maltreatment occurs. Emerging trends are explored within this book from a cross-section of disciplines, including law, sociology, criminal justice, psychology, and health services.

'We were just sacks of flesh existing as punchbags for their rage, or toys for their entertainment' Chris Wild lost his dad aged 11, leaving him to grow up in the care system. There, he witnessed the incessant physical and sexual abuse of children, with the only escape leading to the streets. So many others like him, failed by the systems put in place to protect them, ended up with nothing but drink, drugs, prostitution and crime as their normality. Later, working in a care home himself became the only way Chris could help, but he was shocked to discover little had changed and vulnerable children were still being failed. In Damaged, he shares heartbreaking memories of the care system along with the stories of all the boys, girls, men and women he met along the way - exposing why we must take action now to protect all of Britain's forgotten children.

The international feminist contributors to this book look through the lens of poststructuralism at how child sexual abuse is differently represented and understood in the populist, academic, clinical, media and legal contexts. Reworking earlier feminist analyses, they show how child sexual abuse is not just about gender and power but also about class, race and sexuality. The first, theoretical section of the book critiques normative theories of the 'effects' of abuse, explores the impact and consequences of feminist interventions and critically examines the potential usefulness of a feminist post-stucturalist approach. In the second part, these understandings are applied to specific arenas of practice with the aim of providing a framework for critical intervention and alternative and better ways of working with child sexual abuse.

Given their rhetoric on safeguarding, the response of religious organisations to abuse by the clergy - sexual, physical and spiritual - has been inept, thoughtless, mean, and without any sense of urgency. Sex, Power, Control explores the underlying reasons for the mishandling of recent abuse cases. Using psychoanalytical and sociological insights, and including her own experiences as shown in the BBC documentary Exposed: The Church's Darkest Secret, Gardner asks why the Churches find themselves in such a crisis, and how issues of power and control have contributed to secrecy, deception and heartache. Drawing on survivor accounts and delving into the psychology of clergy abusers, she reveals a culture of avoidance and denial, while an examination of power dynamics highlights institutional narcissism and a hierarchical structure based on deference, with defensive assumptions linked to sex, gender and class. Sex, Power, Control is an invaluable resource for all those in the church or similar institutions, and for anyone concerned about child abuse.

Diagnose and treat shaken baby syndrome with advice from experts in the field!When an angry adult shakes a baby, the child may suffer brain damage, broken ribs, deafness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, coma, or death. Often there are personal, ethical, and legal consequences as well for everyone involved. The Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Multidisciplinary Approach is the first book to cover the full spectrum of shaken baby syndrome (SBS), from public health implications to prosecution. Because SBS causes so much damage and has so many implications, every case requires the cooperation of a team of professionals ranging from ophthalmologists to attorneys. The Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Multidisciplinary Approach will help you understand what responsibilities each member of the SBS team has, thus enabling you to work together more productively. The more smoothly the team works, the better the results for the child are likely to be.The Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Multidisciplinary Approach offers expert information and advice on every aspect of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up, including: who shakes babies and why they do it what biomechanical effects occur when a child is shaken what symptoms and signs various medical specialists--radiographers, ophthalmologists, neurologists, pathologists--should look for in potential cases of SBS how medical social workers should approach cases of suspected SBS how police can most effectively investigate SBS how to prosecute SBS perpetrators how educators, public health workers, counselors, and social workers can prevent SBSThis comprehensive reference is essential for anyone who encounters SBS, including emergency room personnel, physicians, nurses, social workers, police officers, attorneys, and child care workers. Every year thousands of babies are shaken badly enough to cause damage. The Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Multidisciplinary Approach offers the information you need to help those children.

Psychosis and the Traumatised Self explores what it is like to experience psychosis for individuals with histories of childhood physical and sexual abuse. The book additionally explores how meaning expressed in psychosis might originate from the effects of abuse, but also long-term life difficulties, motivations, memories, social history, and struggles to narrate and understand. One chapter focuses on refugees who suffered trauma as adults and later became psychotic. Another chapter examines how trauma leads to the destruction of certainty and trust, thereby opening a pathway to persecutory ideas. Drawing on a developmental model of trauma, it is proposed that dissociated parts of the self that developed during childhood contribute to psychosis in adults when undergoing difficulties and stress. Presented with case illustrations, the book will be useful for those who work in the area of psychosis and abuse to understand the experiences of individuals, and how we might develop appropriate therapy and care.

In his study of children and criminality, criminologist and research analyst Ronald Flowers provides an understanding of the relationship between child victimization and juvenile delinquency as well as a comprehensive review of the literature. Assessing the effectiveness of present conceptual frameworks, modes of research, and social and legal measures, he offers recommendations for furthering professional and research efforts in the field. His analysis blends the findings of leading experts and researchers in a variety of disciplines with relevant FBI and law enforcement data. An additional feature is the "model statute" for the study, prevention, and treatment of child victimization in all of its guises.

This book approaches as a serious and severe form of child abuse. While early research tended to portray victims as seductive provocateers, recent studies indicate that birth order, family configuration factors, personality, physical and socio-economic factors may predispose children to risk of incestuous victimization. Incest is associated with anti-social, deviant, illegal and/or self-destructive coping mechanisms in many victims. This book contains data from two sets of substantiated and investigated incest cases taken from official reports by the Department of Welfare in Mississippi and the Department of Welfare in Virginia. It compares the findings from these two data sets to further delineate risk factors and family variables found in incest families. The authors further compare the case studies with previous research findings in order to provide direction for future research, intervention and prevention.

This inspiring book describes the treatment approach, the clientele, and the community networking of Cedar House, a pioneering and successful child abuse treatment program in Long Beach, California. Cedar House: A Model Child Abuse Treatment Program explains Cedar House 's hands-on treatment of families in which children have been abused. Each facet of the treatment process is explored and explained. The authors offer ideas on how the treatment they used can be adapted to your own treatment setting. Cedar House: A Model Child Abuse Treatment Program gives practitioners hope, ideas, and support for hands-on work with multiproblem individuals and families, along with some pitfalls to avoid. Those treating clients who attempt to intimidate with bullying behavior or outbursts can gain understanding and more confidence to deal with others'anger. In addition, therapists and administrators will find ideas for the prevention of burnout. The theme of the book springs from a mind-set of inclusiveness--including clients in every step of the process related to them, enlisting their abilities to help each other as well as themselves, embracing community members in the search for answers, and providing channels for people at all levels to give and to grow. You ll gain new perspective on treatment efforts as Cedar House: A Model Child Abuse Treatment Program explores: nine premises on which the Cedar House program is based the use of staff volunteers as a team actual client profiles and case studies elements of the treatment approach at Cedar House findings from two student research projects relating to the children of Cedar House Cedar House 's relationship with the community a contemporary evaluation of Cedar House and follow-up comments from former clients regarding their families 15--20 years after treatment findings from a study of the dynamics of rage to better understand the breeding ground of violence and abuseCedar House: A Model Child Abuse Treatment Program dispels stereotypes and stresses the rewards of child abuse treatment and the joy found in sharing the journey as families find their footing and as children grow and develop. In 1979, Cedar House became the model treatment center for Los Angeles County 's Neighborhood Family Centers.

Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse in Out-of-Home Care brings into the open current or past sexually, physically, or emotionally abusive behaviors between children or between children and their caregivers in out-of-home care and helps prevent future victimization. The curriculum gives you 20 exercises that promote respectful and nurturing interactions among caregivers and children by offering healthy concepts of touching, communication, and boundaries. By implementing the concepts in this curriculum, you ll help create positive, healthy attachments for children in out-of-home care who may feel abandoned and alone. Exercises in Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse in Out-of-Home Care assist children and caregivers in understanding their rights and others'rights in residential treatment centers and group or foster homes. Exercises focus on: communication on a continuum--teaches children and staff about their own communication and the communications they receive from others a touch continuum--provides an excellent vehicle for discussing the comforting and soothing touch children need and how to differentiate this from eight other types of touch differentiating sexual play from problematic sexual contact between children--helps children and staff talk about sex personal space and boundaries--discusses these as areas of major violations in children who have been abused sexual knowledge--teaches the body parts and their functions discovering what a sex offender does to trick children into situations that end up in sexual abuse--asks the children to make rules that assist other children to recognize unsafe situations, and then gives them the opportunity to create a video, pamphlet, advertisement, or commercial to tell other kids these rulesThis curriculum is unique because it can be completed through children and adults talking together. It assumes that there will be difficulties and conflicts between staff and children and among children themselves and provides a forum in which to raise and discuss these issues. You ll find the curriculum perfect for caregiver training or as exercises caregivers and children do together. You ll also find it very useful for working with children 's families either in family sessions or in multifamily groups.