Similarities of Neglectful and Abusive Families
             Clients, who have been brought to the attention of Social Services or other professionals due to abuse and/or neglect of a child, may be resistive to treatment. The family may resent the interference of an outside agency in their family. The family may not see their parenting as wrong or inappropriate. The negative patterns of behavior established in the family keeps the family together. Treatment may force the parents to break the dependency on each other and result in increased isolation (Crosson-Tower, 2002).
             Abusive and neglectful parents also are afraid of being labeled and in need of services (Crosson-Tower, 2002). For example, a parent may not initiate psychiatric or psychological treatment because of being labeled "crazy" for seeing a "shrink." Dysfunctional family patterns may have been generational and the parents view of their actions and disciplines for raising their children as their own business. Crosson-Tower, (2002) cite "neglect seems to permeate the lives and generational histories of the families involved and is difficult to combat" (p. 306). For example, The Roger's family, the three children were placed in foster care due to extreme neglect and abandonment. The mother (one of seven) was also raised in a neglectful environment where scrounging for food was a norm. The mother had no idea that leaving her children with people that she barely knew was wrong. She would leave them with people who were able to feed her children. Subsequently, the children were sexually abused by the persons she thought would care for them by feeding them. She was angered over the fact that the court stepped in to intervene because the way she raised her children "was no one's business but my own" (Taylor, personal case documentation, 2003).
             Greenwalt, Sklare & Portes (1997) state
             If the primary goal was to treat the family to stop the abuse and provide a safe environment as the li...