10 May 2006
	Help for Adult Victims Of Child Abuse. A non-profit making organisation based in the UK dedicated to provide help, support and information to any adult who is suffering from past childhood abuse.

Revictimization: Examining Its Occurrence in the Lives of Survivors
By Mary Anne Reilly

So often, survivors' stories involve not one form of victimization, but many. In fact, study after study reveals that a significant percentage of battered women, runaways, rape victims, prostitutes, prisoners, and homeless women have been physically and/or sexually abused as children.

One woman, for instance, recalls getting involved with her first boyfriend at age 15 -- even though she knew that he'd tried to run over his previous girlfriend with the family car. Several abusive relationships followed, including a marriage that didn't end until she and her husband had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals.

Then a new boyfriend began beating her. "At first, he hit me in the face in kind of a back-handed way," she says, adding that since then, "I've been bitten, kicked, choked, and thrown. It took me six years to get out of it." Her situation is not unique. Shields and Hermeke (1988), for example, found that 33 percent of the participants in their study who had been battered by partners had also been sexually abused by family members as children. Vednita Nelson, a counselor for WHISPER (Women Hurt In Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt), a St. Paul, MN-based public education and counseling service for women seeking a way out of prostitution, asserts that more than 80 percent of her clients have been victims of sexual child abuse. And Maxine Harris, a clinical psychologist who works with homeless clients at Washington, DC's Community Connections, estimates that more than 50 percent of the women she sees on a regular basis have been  physically and/or sexually abused as children.

What Is Meant by "Revictimization"?
There is much discussion among researchers, service providers, and survivors about what "revictimization" is, why it happens, what the connection between an abuse history and further victimization really is, and what can be done to prevent it.

The term "revictimization" may be used to describe a series of traumatic events that befall the same person over a lifetime. A child, for example, may be first molested by a parent, then assaulted by a series of authority figures, then by partners and/or strangers, and finally by "caregivers" when she or he is elderly.

The way many societal institutions treat victims following an assault may also be termed revictimization. Victim advocates, for example, point to the tactics attorneys often use deliberately to discredit victims of rape and sexual harassment, such as accusing them of lying, or of bringing the assault upon themselves, as examples of revictimization.

Other instances of "secondary" or "systemic" revictimization are not as deliberate. Virginia psychiatrist Joan Turkus points out that a lack of institutional and professional awareness of sexual child abuse-related issues results in victims being "misunderstood" and "not given "the care that they need," rather than being injured on purpose. When that happens, as it does in courtrooms, examining rooms, and legislative hearing rooms across the nation, victims may feel "revictimized" nonetheless.

The negative feedback victims receive from onetime friends and family members once they disclose the abuse can also feel "revictimizing." In fact, statements like "you're crazy" and "you must have wanted it" probably represent the most common form of revictimization.

Myths Surrounding the Behaviour of Victims
Such responses indicate how pervasive some of the myths about abuse -- and about victims -- have become. And "empirical" research has contributed its share of them.

In Rape, Incest and Sexual Harassment, authors Kathryn Quina and Nancy Carlson point out, for example, that Sigmund Freud's discourse on the "seductiveness of children" dominated victimization studies conducted before 1974. One study (Bender & Blau, 1937) described child victims as seductive personality types who bore some responsibility for their sexual contact with adults. These children, the study concluded, merely "rationalized" their behaviour by saying that they complied out of fear.

Freudian psychoanalyst Helene Deutsch had another idea. She theorized that "real women" are masochists who are destined to seek pleasure through pain. According to this myth, "victimhood" is essential to sexual fulfillment for women of any age. This as been interpreted to mean that women not only want violent sex, but need it to thrive.

The once-celebrated Freudian "seduction theory" gave birth to a host of myths, permitting society to see accusations of sexual abuse as hysteria-induced fantasies. This opened the door to the view that victims are deluded souls in need of pity, rather than courageous people in need of support.

Finally, another myth maintained that, "morally upright" people aren't abused that only those who have "something wrong" with them or "something evil" in them "attract," or are attracted to, violent people. Somewhere, somehow, as this theory goes, victims have caused the violence that injures them.

Why Revictimization Occurs
Whatever the popularity of these would-be analyses, none has stood up empirically. And while several perspectives have developed to replace these old myths, none has emerged to fully explain why survivors often find themselves revictimized throughout their lives. One point of view states that if someone has known little else but abuse, it is difficult to imagine life any other way. "Being repeatedly abused as a child," Community Connections' Maxine Harris says, "sets you up for thinking that that's the way life is supposed to be."

Another view, echoed by psychiatrist Richard Kluft in his study of survivors who have been sexually abused by therapists, maintains that sexually abused children are "systematically taught to disregard their own needs and, hence, are more vulnerable to abuse in all settings." Viewed in this context, the plight of battered women and rape victims, for example, may be seen as a logical consequence of early victimization, rather than the result of "bad judgment."

Some clinicians also point to a tendency to "re-enact" with someone else the trauma that one has experienced at the hands of an earlier perpetrator. This behaviour is attributed to the belief, however unconscious, that "things will work out better this time." Thus, survivors find themselves involved in abusive or "inappropriate" relationships or situations, without understanding how or why they got there.

Economics is another reason. "If a woman's only income is $370 a month, she can't get an apartment in a safe neighborhood," says Harris. "She's at high risk [of revictimization] because of her economic situation."

Still another contributing factor is the fact that abuse is a pervasive societal problem. As statistics show, survivors of sexual child abuse alone number in the tens of millions nationwide. Therefore, it is not difficult to conclude that victimization, and revictimization in its many forms, has affected the lives of a large portion of the population -- regardless of the precautions many can and do take to protect themselves.

As Florida battered women's shelter director Linda Osmundson has said: "As long as we have a society that allows rape and battering, as long as the power issues are out there, whether it's Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, or Washington, DC, the problem will still be there."

Linking Past and Present Abuse
While explanations of what causes revictimization may differ, its great cost to individuals and society remains largely undisputed. In fact, revictimization-related costs per individual in the form of medical, legal, and therapy bills, and its cost to society in the form of social, health care, and other related services are thought to be very large.

These costs, however, have never been tallied. This is so, in part, because much of society has yet to draw a direct or indirect causal link not only between different kinds of victimization, but between revictimization and he patchwork quilt of phenomena we call "social problems." 

To survivors who first remember their abuse after they've been raped by a stranger, or who see the connection between the years they spent "calling" on customers in hotel rooms and the time they spent trading sex for parental favors, the absence of such a connection may seem absurd. But it is absent, nonetheless. Many facilities that provide services to battered women, for example, do not systematically address sexual child abuse-related issues with adult residents.

"It depends on who's there," says B.J. Bryson, a former Atlanta, GA shelter director who now chairs the board of the 1,100-member National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "In Atlanta," she continues, "me of the people who ran a support group was a survivor so we routinely dealt with this." To be sure, many shelters and outreach programs do address sexual child abuse issues. Della Hughes, director of the 900-member National Network of Runaway and Youth Services, draws the connection this way: "Unfortunately, most of us fail to recognize the history that lies behind that anger and that the anger is serving a healthy purpose. Instead, we tend to further victimize these youth by punishing them for being rude and abusive."

"If this pain is not dealt with," she writes, "it will follow them through their adult lives. These young people will continue to look for ways to relieve the pain-and that can result in decisions to live on the streets, use alcohol and other drugs, seek multiple sexual encounters in an attempt to attain intimacy, attempt and commit suicide, or other equally harmful behaviours."

And in some areas of the country, organizations representing survivors and other victims of domestic violence and sexual assault have joined forces to educate themselves and the public about these issues. In Columbia county, north of Portland, OR, for instance, members of AMAC (Adults Molested as Children) groups recently assisted the local Women's Resource Center and others in fighting sexual harassment at the area's Boise Cascade plant. According to Holly Pruitt, a survivor who serves as the director of the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, "Once they learned that physical endangerment [of plant employees] and union collaboration with perpetrators was involved, they confronted state Commissioner of Labor [Mary Wendy Roberts], who then filed suit against the company and the union."

Why Revictimization Issues Haven't Been Addressed
There are several reasons for the differing levels of familiarity service providers have with revictimization issues. Denise Snyder, director of the (Washington) DC Rape Crisis Center and a former shelter director, offers a few of them:

"There was some resistance [to asking about a sexual child abuse history] on the part of case managers and frontline supervisors," she remembers. "The stated reason for their reluctance to ask about this during intake was that the women were not in a good enough state, that there was no rapport. . ."

That doesn't explain, however, why such issues aren't brought up after a victim has been living in a shelter for a while, or participating in a
support group. "It's not safe to assume," Snyder continues, "just because counselors and staff people are comfortable with domestic violence issues that they also have a comfort level dealing with sexual abuse. Some think 'God, if I open that can of worms, I don't have the expertise, knowledge, and time to deal with the other issues.'"

But Snyder points out that avoiding these issues may jeopardize victims' efforts to improve their lives. "Not making the connection between these things makes it difficult to heal," she says.

Some shelter directors concede that there is room for more education and coordination around abuse issues. And they appear interested in further exploring sexual child abuse-related questions. 

"Are we missing a real important component when we're looking at the whole [abuse] dynamic? Is the percentage [of survivors who are victimized later in life] really high?" wonders Wisconsin shelter director and former battered woman Linda White. She favors further education on sexual child abuse and revictimization issues, saying that it may give clients a "chance to deal with something they need to deal with."

Lynn Copen, a former police officer and emergency room administrator who now directs a victim witness program in Kenosha, WI, is already convinced that the cost of missing the link between abusive childhood experiences and adult victimization has been high. During her 11-year career, she has assisted victims of many crimes. Throughout much of that time, she didn't broach the subject of childhood abuse unless a client brought it up.

"There were many times when I wish I'd have asked them up front," she says of her former clients, "I suspected and now I'll never know." She does ask such questions now, and is eager to know how to provide better-targeted services to the people she serves.

What Can We Do Now?
What can be done to provide the necessary services? Survivors and service providers suggest a number of options.

First, survivors feel that it is vital for professionals and institutions not only to make the connection between a history of sexual child abuse and revictimization, but to communicate that connection to victims.

"When I was 17," one survivor remembers, "and my family and I were in therapy, I accused my father of 'showing an interest in me.' The therapist never mentioned it again and the case was closed."

Of course, it can take time for a survivor to confront his or her own history, even when the possibility of an abuse history has been suggested to them. Oregon crisis center trainer Johnson, for example, had sought help for migraines for years. But she only began to remember her own abuse after learning that her children had been molested by her ex-husband (their father) and her father (their grandfather) as well. 

A veteran of criminal and civil battles that have resulted in changes to several of Oregon's child abuse-related laws Johnson says: "Nobody should have to walk the path I walked to get justice. Society needs to wake up and change the system. Therapists should not be able to work with sexual abuse cases without being trained. Attorneys should not take cases unless they're educated about these issues. Judges need to be educated in it."

"Training is really key," says Denise Snyder, "extensive in-service training." These would include everything from basic information on sexual assault to understanding how other issues, such as substance abuse, can point to the existence of childhood and other trauma. 

Others see both research and training as vital to begin solving these problems. "There needs to be more research done on the dynamics of prostitution," suggests WHISPER counselor Vednita Nelson. "It should be part of the job of treatment center and halfway house organizations to deal with sexual abuse -- to understand the urgency -- to get involved."

B.J. Bryson offers a personal perspective on how to provide better services: "The women's movement is full of victims and survivors. We need to start with service providers. We need to provide as a part of training a willingness to let people say what's happened to them. That allows other people to do that."

Changing Public Policy
Although efforts to draw the connection between childhood abuse and later victimization are just beginning in some areas, some researchers and service providers believe that it is not too early to consider the impact that their work could have on public policy.

Andrea Sedlak, Director of Projects at Westat, a Maryland research firm, has occasion to think about such things. She is conducting a federally funded study on runaway youth that asks respondents about sexual child abuse-related issues.

Like others involved in such work, Sedlak competes against a variety of organizations for public sector funding. She suggests that the most effective way to collect more revictimization-related research data and eventually provide better services to victims is not to focus solely on the links between different forms of victimization. That alone, she says, will
not cause policy makers to focus on revictimization issues especially when funding for social service programs is already scarce.

What will work, she suspects, is taking the following approach: "You need to show," she says, "that ignoring such a connection leads them [victims] in all likelihood to greater victimization."

What may be needed, then, is a way to demonstrate to policy makers that victims who receive a broader range of care and support, (including treatment for sexual child abuse-related trauma), will ultimately require fewer service -- and cost taxpayers less money -- than those who do not. Once that happens, revictimization-related policy changes could begin to
occur.

Mary Anne Reilly, a freelance writer and editor, has published in a variety of publications including Newsday and The Texas Observer. A former social services professional, she is an associate editor of moving Forward.

Suggested Reading
Courtois, C. (1988). Healing the incest wound: Adult survivors in Therapy.
New York: W. W. Norton Company.
Ellis, E., Atkeson, B., & Calhoun, K. (1982). An examination of differences
between multiple-and single-incident victims of sexual assault. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 91, 221-224.
Finkelhor, D. & Pillemer, K. (1988). Elder abuse: Its relationship to other
forms of domestic Violence. In G. Hotaling, D. Finkelhor, J. Kirkpatrick &
M. Strauss (Eds.), Family abuse and its consequences: New directions in
research. (pp. 244-254). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Frieze, I.H. (1980) Causes and consequences of marital rape. American
Psychological Association meeting presentation. Montreal, Canada.
Hendricks-Matthews, M. (1990). The consequences of victimization. Ohio
Family Physician. April. (p. 20).
Mandold, C. & Burkhart, B. (1989). Sexual victimization: Is there a vicious
cycle? Violence and Victims, 4 (3),179-190.
Russell, D.E.H. (1986). The secret trauma: Incest in the lives of girls and
women. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Shields, N. & Hanneke, C. (1988). Multiple sexual victimization: The case
of incest and marital rape. In G. Hotaling, D. Finkelhor, J. Kirkpatrick, &
M. Strauss (Eds), Family abuse and its consequences: New directions in
research. (pp. 255-269). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Article Contents

HOME