Child sexual abuse by some people who were sexually abused in childhood.

political analyst

I've heard of several cases in which child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrators who have been convicted and, according to their lawyers at sentencing hearings, were sexually abused when they were children.

Obviously, most CSA victims who have reached adulthood do not commit CSA and the word of a perpetrator must be taken with a pinch of salt but it's inevitable that the claim of some perpetrators that they were abused in childhood is true in some cases but, obviously, still neither an excuse nor a defence for the crime.

What is it exactly that causes some of the people who were abused in childhood to, when they reach adulthood, do the same to children? I know that some victims, in cases where the perpetrators were parents of the victims, at first thought it was 'normal' but, surely, in adulthood, they must have known that, if it was 'normal', they'd be seeing such abuse take place everywhere they went.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058372162/child-sexual-abuse-by-some-people-who-were-sexually-abused-in-childhood

Could it be an excuse that they trot out when caught, rather than a statistical likelihood?

I mean, how many men who don't abuse were nevertheless abused themselves? By definition it's almost impossible to measure.

I would suspect that sex abusers up before the court are likely to use that excuse or even in some cases to exaggerate/invent it, whereas non abusers who were abused may not even talk about their abuse to close family, never mind announce it to everyone.

o1s1n

It's certainly trotted out a lot as a statement of fact but I've read articles with contrary opinions. I think the jury is still actually out as to whether it's a fact or just correlating things that shouldn't be correlated.

There seems to be a bit of thinking now at the moment that CSA survivors being many times more likely to also be abused as adults.

The effects of childhood sexual abuse can be extremely complex. Trauma response can include harm to oneself and/or others, unfortunately. It can lead to self destructive promiscuity, prostitution, taking part in the most degrading porn, and, particularly horribly, abusing children (I doubt the latter is common though).

You'd think such awful experiences would put someone off sex - and that CAN be a response too (which isn't great either) but it just doesn't always work like that. Survivors are "programmed" to be hypersexualised, to feel like that's all they're supposed to do/all that they're fit for, their only purpose/worth. It might be the only life they've ever known since very young. Terribly grim what it does to the brain. And they're totally damaged so they repress this with alcohol and drug abuse... which of course they can use sex to pay for.

If such a person abuses a child, it's their responsibility and they have to face justice for it... but they most likely wouldn't have done it were it not for being abused themselves.

Miserable state of affairs all round.