ABSTRACT
Children who have been parented in neglectful and violent ways need to be re-parented with loving care and nonviolence. The child victim of violence needs to experience a different way of relating to herself, to the adults in her life, to other children, and to nonhuman animals. Being a foster carer has its costs and benefits. Since the Clinton Act, foster carers are pushed to adopt the children placed in their homes. Once a house is full, those newly trained foster carers who have become adopters are lost to the system. One who has become a loving nonviolent person is best suited for the task of caring for childhood victims of violence. Social scientists have for some time noted that European and American culture has shifted from being largely "other-regarding" to "self-regarding". The literature is complex and there is by no means unanimity about either the diagnosis or prognosis for society.
