Police intervene to stop the abuse and prosecute the abuser.
Correctional agencies administer the sentence.
This offers correctional agencies both the time and opportunity to transform abusers. The focus on abusers occurs for several reasons. The second reason is that children who are abused are thought to grow up to be abusers, creating a production cycle of abusers. Additionally, there is ample empirical evidence that a history of child abuse is related to a wide range of juvenile and adult behavioral problems, many of which land victims of abuse into the criminal justice system as offenders. Focus on Child Abuse Histories .