Wounded Innocents and Fallen Angels: Child Abuse and Child Aggression

by Gregory K. Moffatt

Violence of any kind is hard for most people to understand, but crimes against children and crimes committed by children are perhaps the most difficult to comprehend. Child abuse and neglect is a problem with generational effects. Women who were sexually abused in childhood, for example, are more likely than non-abused women to be harsh with their children, withhold affection, or even accept the sexual abuse of their own children by a spouse or lover. Yet children are not always merely the victims of aggression. They also perpetrate violent crimes in the form of bullying, assault, and homicide, as well as crimes on property, such as vandalism. Moffatt addresses the two sides of this cycle of violence, including examples from clinical case studies and treatment options.

Moffatt details crimes against children, ranging from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, sexual and physical abuse, neglect, filicide, and infanticide. He addresses aggression committed by children against other people, property, and self, including self-mutilation and suicide. Written for both professional and lay audiences, counselors, teachers, psychologists, law enforcement, medical professionals, and therapists will benefit from the psychological discussions about causes and effects of aggression.

328 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2003

Reviews

[Sigfrido · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of my favorites, reason being is because it gives you an insight on different mindsets from the abuser to the victim. It explains the reasoning behind some of the actions people do and not to give too much away, but it reviews some of the famous court case that deal with homicide. It's not your typical one main character book, it talks about many different people that have different cases. This book is written almost like it's a dictionary on physiological issues and how to deal with it. For example, it would talk about tagging and why kids do it in one part, but then in another part it will talk about why kids kill. I would personally recommend this book to basically everyone I know, because it changes ones perspective on how they view people and real life scenarios. What I really admire is how the book covers almost everything, because it come from a therapist personal experiences in life.