While society has enormous sympathy for abused children, the judgment for those children is less benevolent should they become adult offenders.
Larsen observes, "People who have suffered abuse in childhood-especially if it's intense and constant--don't lead the same kind of lives as those who weren't abused. Not everyone lives with a howling lion in their spirits."
For some in the series, these are the memories they carry as wounded men:
- An eight-year-old repeatedly sexually abused by his brothers, then held by his ankles from a seventh-floor window for the fun of seeing him cry.
- A six-year-old tied naked to a tree for bedwetting.
- A seven-year-old locked in a closet for three days for talking back.
Relentlessly realistic, Abused Boys, Wounded Men takes an unconventional stance that's also an unshakable reality: identifying and overcoming the root cause of adult crime can be more effective than simple incarceration.
