Breaking the Cycle of Violence

One of the most exciting possibilities of recent years is the potential to use EMDR to break the cycle of violence. The following is a section from the new book (EMDR, Shapiro & Forrest, 1997, BasicBooks) to illustrate that point:

EMDR may also show us that one way of stopping tragedy is to target the trauma that underlies potential violence before it breaks to the surface. Of course, perpetrators must be held responsible for their actions, but it seems eminently better to fix the problem than merely to fix blame. Such a stance was taken by Reverend David Price, an EMDR therapist at Bowden Institution, Canada*s largest federal prison. He has reported that the majority of the prison*s population are sex offenders and that the most difficult are the pedophiles, who are often thought to be untreatable. When a small number of pedophiles were to be released in ninety to one hundred days into the community without supervision, he decided to try EMDR with three of these men. They had been active participants in sex offender programming during this as well as previous incarcerations. Each of them had a history of sex offending and a pattern of repeating their crimes, on average, three to six weeks after being released. Reverend Price chose to work with these particular men because all three had taken responsibility for their crimes and had a spiritual relationship to a *higher power.* It was important for the EMDR work that all had identified their *crime cycle,* a process that involves mapping the events that trigger the heightened emotions and the thoughts and behaviors that progressively build and culminate in the criminal behavior.

One of the three, Sam, processed the traumatic memories associated with his nine triggers. As Reverend Price put it, *A major breakthrough occurred in Session 4. Sam recollected a repressed memory of rage. His sister, eight years his senior, would threaten and actually destroy his favorite toys if he did not perform sexual acts with her. Only nine years old, Sam had buried his rage, shame, and confusion over his sister*s behavior for years. Sam participated in fourteen EMDR sessions over a two-month period and, like the other subjects, was followed after his release. Sam reported that his old thought patterns were gone and that, even though he was harshly treated by his peers, he felt a sense of strength, peace, and control.

*I have maintained a biweekly telephone follow-up with Sam,* Reverend Price reports. *He has experienced rejection, abandonment, shaming, as well as ridicule and denial of employment. In his untreated past, any one of these events would have caused him to isolate and progress to his offending cycle. To his delight, none of these emotional and behavioral patterns has emerged. Instead, Sam has established a positive support group, utilizing self-management skills he has learned. He keeps working at finding employment and made voluntary connections with the police. He is even working with the police to help set up prevention programs for parents and children. He reports no rage at society or self-loathing. He is gradually developing an appropriate relationship with an adult of his own age. He has been in free society for nine months, crime-free. The other two men report similar results.*

• Studies of Adolescents at Risk by Francine Shapiro, 10/26/97