‘Breeding’ Victims: No longer Deniable

By Jeanne Sarson | Jun 18, 2012

Twenty years. It’s unbelievable to me that Linda and I will soon be entering our 20^th year of ‘digesting’ the reality that torture victimization can and does begin in infancy. Women who were so victimized have spoken to us of this reality repeatedly; they have also told others. When they were children, youth and even adults they have attempted to report their victimization to child protection workers, to professionals and to the police only to be disbelieved, told they were lying or considered “crazy”. And, if by chance they were ever hospitalized and given a mental illness label this wrongful pathologization haunts them. It discredits them for whenever they tried to repeatedly tell red flags of ‘mental illness’ histories surfaced. Discrimination set in and they and their attempts to report dismissed. Historically, this dismissal scenario happened over and over and over again. It continues today.

I speak of torturers because the persons who contact us and to whom we have supported identify that they suffered torture perpetrated by parents and other like-minded family members and their friends, and/or by guardians, babysitters and by those who they were trafficked to—perpetrators who sought baby, toddler and young child victims. As one woman stated it, she was “rented out”—trafficked—to pedophilic perpetrators who desired a toddler “who had been trained to withstand torture”.

Evidence

I make reference to two recent newspaper articles. One American, one Canadian. The Canadian article relates to a 22-year-old man being taken into custody in a Saskatoon courtroom for possessing over 4,500 images and videos, most of which depicted “horrifying sexual abuse and torture of small children.” He stated “he was trying to get his fiancée pregnant and he intended to begin using the infant ‘for a sex toy’ as soon as... [the infant] was born.”[1] 

The American article was entitled, Over 20 arrested in international child porn ring: Officials. It mentions that recently, in Indianapolis, a group of like-minded perpetrators were arrested, charged and some had already been imprisoned for their specific ‘pleasure’ of committing violent sexualized crimes against babies and children under five, as well as engaging in the exchange of such violent images. The police stated that “one suspect had an ultrasound image of an unborn baby whom the prosecutor characterized as a potential future victim.” The police also said they “have examples of offenders who were planning on having children for the purpose of having a class of victims.”[2]

The police have delivered the evidence—perpetrators impregnate for this purpose—to have infant/child victims on whom they will wantonly inflict their brutal pleasures as well as exploit them for financial gains. Both of these articles give this evidence. The truth is that some pedophilic perpetrators seek the impregnation of women to gain access to future infant and other young victims. This reality supports what women have told us. Some women speak clearly of knowing that women were considered “breeders” for “the family.” Women tell of forced impregnations for the purpose of giving birth to another generation or “class” of victims. The terminology—the family—is frequently used by women from various countries to describe families who perpetrate intergenerational torture of all forms, including sexualized tortures and who engage in exploiting their young children into their criminal activities of pedophilic ‘pornography’ as well as human trafficking.

These articles validate the reality that infant/toddler victimization occurs. Bystanders or professionals who opt to deny that there are women or older girls who have been forcedly impregnated for the purpose of delivering another generation of victims are out of order. Not only are they out of order for rejecting reality, their rejection contributes to the on-goingness of such horrific crimes. Denial creates a culture of impunity which supports the perpetrators.

Women, when speaking about their infant and/or toddler torture victimization frequently describe these as complex sensory experiential memories. They speak of having preverbal sensory memories, of a knowing that they were always in danger. As they grew older some women speak of witnessing infants being tortured. As adults some knew they were “breeders,” giving the torturers another generation of victims or a reason to force abortions in order for the perpetrators to engage in necrophilic acts of torture. Some women speak of knowing that male siblings were victimized and also “trained” to be the next generation of torturers. But there is another aspect to this reality of forced impregnation for the ‘delivery’ of victims that requires be brought into social awareness. This is the reality of survival bonding.

Survival Bonding

What is survival bonding? It occurs when an infant is born into a situation that provides no sense of safe relational love bonding, rather they are born into familes of perpetrators. Survival bonding begins with their first breaths. For those who speak with Linda and me, their survival depended on developing a bond with their adult-parent-torturers. They had to survive; their wee bodies had to find ways to do this. Disconnecting from the severity of the torture pain and suffering they spontaneously experienced dissociative survival responses, losing their normal childhood developmental experiences of connecting to their bodies. In fact, actually losing their sense of being persons, of being human; many speak of how they perceived them Self as an “it”, as a “nothing”, as a “nobody”. 

There are many ways that torturers inflict such developmental disconnection and dissociation from Self responses onto those they victimize. Healthy and safe bonding acts such as being picked up and cuddled is transformed into being yanked at and intentionally hurt by being dropped onto the floor; crying—a baby’s way of communicating—becomes life-threatening as they are silenced with a pillow placed over their face. In safe environments babies learn about growth and development by touching the adults around them, by poking their wee fingers into adult cheeks and mouths and having skin-to-skin contact. This is not possible in torture environments. Adults, parents, family and like-minded others become monsters with hands that hurt, with teeth that bite, with skin that smells of violent body odors, with human waste replacing normal nutrition of infancy as stated in this poem by a Nova Scotia woman.[3]  

My Infancy

Here I lie, in a bottom dresser drawer,
Alone but not alone,
Feelings of coldness, dampness, pain, fear
And death
No food, no milk, no warmth
My drink, human urine
From that fountain, that penis fountain
that enters my tiny mouth
Later that penis fountain also becomes known,
As a lollipop
I hear an angry voice
Suck, Suck, Harder, Harder
While the hair on my head
is grabbed and my face rammed
into that fountain, lollipop, penis
My mouth aches, my head hurts
I say nothing, express nothing
I just do.

Therefore, there is a dire need to listen and accept that there are those who walk, work and volunteer—who live within communities and societies—whose desires and pleasures to harm seem incomprehensible to those not so like-minded. These newspaper articles reveal these truths; they make such incomprehensibility and denial impossible. To continue to deny will contribute to the perpetrators’ freedom and to the suffering imprisonment of the infants, toddlers and children who become adults who were never heard or believed when they tried to tell.

Concluding Recommendation

In closing, the recommendation I offer is about believability—the truth is that some infants and toddlers and wee children are victims of torture by private individuals and they have been for eons. Some of the women Linda and I hear from are in their 70s and they were never believed nor protected. They still suffer today because of the socio-culture norms which silenced them and legal systems that have resisted and continue to resist admitting that torture by private individuals happens. Torture victimization involves violent acts that cause destruction, it hurts, it harms and it inflicts long term severe suffering. These violent acts attack the inherent dignity and the human rights of the infants, toddlers and preschoolers—of children of any age and of adults who were tortured as children. They all had and have the human right to expect not to be subjected to torture—this is a universal human right—it remains their humen and legal right!

Endnotes

[1] Coolican, L. (2012, June 15). Judge ponders sentence for child porn purveyor. The Star Phoenix.
[2] The Associated Press. (2012, June 7). Over 20 arrested in international child porn ring: officials.
[3] A Canadian Child, December 2, 2002
Please note, the little girl drawing is by David MacDonald ©