ABSTRACT
The first step in the healing process for survivors is acknowledging that they were abused as children. However, all the details about how they were hurt won’t really help unless the abuse is first defined for what it was. Society and the helping professions talk about “exploitation of trust,” about “unequal balance of power,” about “inappropriate boundaries.” This language dilutes and minimizes reality. For too long, crimes of power and control perpetrated by adults against children have been disguised under a protective umbrella. Words and phrases such as sexual imposition, molestation, and fondling and excessive discipline and maltreatment somehow soften the violence and brutality of these betrayals and contribute to the stigma of blame and shame that attaches to victims.
