The Abusing Family

The Justices, in their Preface, make clear that their work is meant to be a step forward away from the view that there is little or nothing that can be done about child abuse: "Both treatment and prevention are far from being effective in many cases, but we are convinced that the 'can do' attitude is justified. The combination of clinical skills, scientific rigor, and community effort is making a difference --- both among the families where abuse has occurred but can be stopped and among those at high risk where abuse can be prevented" (p. ix).

In the book's Introduction, the authors consider the impact of society-wide denial which has kept child abuse in the closet, and argue for a continued fight against such abuse, now that it appears to have finally emerged from that closet. Difficulties with community efforts, laws, and definition of abuse should not be allowed to drive abuse back into the darkness of denial and ignorance. As they write: "One . . . important purpose of this book is to distinguish the factors that help explain how some people have survived abusive environments without the disabling consequences that are common to such experiences" (p. 10).

In that regard, the Justices aim to express both hope and practical techniques for fighting both c

. . .
y is one of great intensity, force, and fusion (the 'stuck-togetherness' that has been found in many kinds of dysfunctional families)" (p. 49). In "Epidemiological Features," the authors note risk factors which researchers have found to be present in abusive families, which means that such abuse can be predicted, to some degree. The authors are realistic about the potential for successful treatment of abusive families. The statistics on success are hardly encouraging, but it is clear that without the kind of work the Justices are doing, those statistics would be not only discouraging, but hopeless. The chapter on "Treatment Issues with Abusive Parents" is particularly disturbing, for it details the problems of the average abusive parent within the context of the abusive family, and it makes clear the tremendous amount of work necessary before any sort of serious healing can begin to take place in such a family where abuse prevails. The abusive family is a tightly-knit system in which secrets control communication, and the treatment of such a family requires the family to give up all those secrets, to give up all those unhealthy means of coping with stress and emotional turbulence, and to institute an entirely new way of seei
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Justices Preface, Consequences Abuse, Caregivers Parent, Abusive Parents, Child Abuse, System Model, Response Stress, Epidemiological Features, Abuse Occurs, Rita Justice, child abuse, abused child, abusing family, abusive families, treatment issues, treatment abused child, community efforts, treatment abused, prevention child abuse, authors emphasize, family approach, authors write, child childhood life, abused child childhood,
Approximate Word count = 1522
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The Abusing Family