Article Points To The Importance of Social and Political Climate for Addressing Trauma

Thanks for posting, this Laura. It's a very interesting read. I think it points out that we don't have a way of talking about the people who sexually abuse children very well. As the Sandusky case points out, there's clearly a lot of outrage, no doubt because so many people (about 45 million U.S. adults) were traumatized as children. But to label someone a "predator" and leave it at that doesn't speak to the issue that most child trauma occurs in the immediate family. And how do you look at a congregation of church, synagogue or mosque-goers...or a stadium full of sports fans....or a huge political rally...and come to grips with the knowledge that a significant percentage of those people are regularly abusing their children and/or creating an environment of chronic trauma?   

As you pointed out in the discussion on this network about the language of child abuse, we need to get away from blame. That's mainly because the people who are regularly abusing their children and/or creating an environment of chronic trauma are themselves living out the consequences of their own trauma. They need help to change, rather than being further traumatized themselves. That means that not only individuals have to shift from "blame" to "assistance", our institutions do, too.  

Another reason to get away from blame is that so many people who've been abused by their parents still love them or want to continue a relationship with them or are afraid to "divorce" them and live without family. Perhaps at some level they understand that, unless there's intervention, ACEs are passed on, and often amplified, from generation to generation. And perhaps, at some level, they also understand that the effects of ACEs are not who they or their parents really are.