NCJ Number
126575
Date Published
1988
Length
0 pages
Annotation
The film reenacts a sexually abused child's life from childhood through adult years and presents short recollections by adults in Knox County, Maine, who had been sexually abused as children.
Abstract
The video program opens with a view of a peaceful small town with voice overlays and photos of various adults recalling the sexual abuse that had been done to them during their childhood. The emotions felt then and later are briefly touched on by these recollections. The program then switches to the fuller story of a girl whose family had sexually abused her since she was four. The woman tells her story along with the emotions she remembers feeling. Her uncle started continuously abusing at age four; her brother abused her at age six. As a teenager, she thought about suicide and did attempt it once. Her father beat her; however, he stopped once she defended herself. She left home shortly after that and left high school to get married. There were no problems until they adopted two children eight years later. Then her husband started to sexually abuse both children. She divorced him and works now to help her children, particularly her daughter, through the trauma of the abuse. The video closes by listing the steps by which children can protect themselves and how other people outside the family can help.