Why do abusers abuse children

More than half of abusers report committing their first offense before the age of Department of Justice. Many of these children have been victims of child abuse or neglect themselves and are in need of therapeutic help to deal with their own current or past trauma.

These children are especially in need of our understanding and compassion. The encouraging news is that parents and trained child-care and education professionals can learn to identify problematic or abusive behaviors early on. With counseling from professionals skilled in this area and the support of their families, most children who have sexually offended can resume normal lives and become healthy children and adults.

If you want to find counseling services for you or someone you know has been sexually abusive, you can learn more here. Remember: t he most loving thing you can do for a person who has a sexual behavior problem is to make sure they get the help they need to stop the behavior.

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Medically reviewed by Karen Gill, M. Most child abusers are not only sexually interested in children. Children are often targeted for sexual abuse simply because they are usually more vulnerable than adults. Abusive people find it easier to act on their desires if they have convinced themselves that what they want to do is ok.

All of these things their desires, beliefs and psychological difficulties are influenced by past and present life experiences. So, for example, growing up living with domestic violence could make it more difficult to manage intense emotions, and make it easier to believe that it's ok to control others.

Messages they see or hear in society also play a large part in shaping how abusive people think, and can provide ready excuses. Our culture frequently shows people, especially women and girls, as sex objects, and often sexualizes children, especially teens. However, in some extreme cases, a person is confused enough to believe their harmful behaviors are somehow good. They may fiercely deny or blind themselves to the clear negative effects of the behavior.

They may even genuinely convince themselves that their actions are loving, and welcomed by children, therefore acceptable. In some cases, people who sexually use or abuse children feel genuine positive feelings toward the child, including caring feelings. In some cases, the person is extremely immature, terrified of emotional or sexual intimacy with adults and has no idea how to achieve either.

For others, the defenses may become so hardened over time that they are unable to ever acknowledge the devastating truth. Regardless of the reasons, every adult who sexually harms a child needs to be held fully accountable for the harm they caused.

A large percentage of all harmful sexual interactions with children are committed by other children or adolescents. Most kids who sexually use or abuse other kids are — at least in part — reacting to physical, sexual or emotional abusive experiences of their own.

Some are too young even to fully comprehend the difference between right and wrong. Toni Cavanagh Johnson. All groups are facilitated by a counselor. They function just like a chat room: choose an anonymous screen name, enter the group, and start typing. There's no audio or video, and we don't collect any personal information. Add to Gmail Calendar. Add to Outlook Calendar. Why do people sexually use or abuse children? This question always involves strong feelings.

Be sure to pace yourself. As you read this page, allow yourself to be aware of any strong emotions. Why Ask Why? Still loving the person who used or abused them, and hoping that understanding why they did it will bring healing to their relationship.

Hoping that understanding why the person who used or abused them will help them to prevent other children perhaps their own , from ever being sexually abused.