Some Issues in the Individual Treatment of Exploited Children (From Sexual Exploitation of the Child, P 79-83, 1986, Thomas M Frost and Magnus J Seng, eds. - See NCJ-104925)

• NCJ Number: 104933
• Author(s): R Calica
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 5 pages
• Sale Source: Loyola University of Chicago
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Aspects of counseling sexually exploited children include determining whether or not they belong with their parents, understanding their behavior without approving it, viewing the world from their perspectives, and dealing constructively with their expectations of the counselor.

Abstract

Since therapy cannot be effective without a supportive home environment and parental cooperation, the counselor must decide whether or not the child belongs in the home. If the child continues in a victimizing environment, therapy has little chance of modifying the child's behavior and mental state. The counselor must also make clear to the child that although certain destructive behaviors stem from victimization experiences, destructive behavior will not be permitted and must carry adverse consequences for the child. Counselors must also deal with their own reactions to the characteristics of the child's world, such as the lucrative earnings of the child prostitute and the sexual freedom of the prostitute's world. The counselor must recognize that the apparent enviable benefits of the child's world mask an internal world of emotional pain. The counselor also must address the child's expectations of the counselor which reflect what adults have rendered the child in the past, i.e., abuse, exploitation, seduction, and instability. The child will attempt to make the counselor fit these expectations, so the counselor must be prepared to maintain the therapeutic role to teach the child how to respond to a nonexploitative and caring adult.