INSTITUTIONS AND FIRST AND 2ND-ORDER VICT IMIZATION OF CHILDREN

The objective of the present paper was to investigate two types of ins titutional victimization of children -first and second order victimiza tion-. in first order victimization, the institutions become perpetrat ors during the process of executing their protective functions (e.g., the school). Second order victimization derives, in contrast, from the institutional attempts to protect a child from the victimization by a third party (e.g., abuse of the child in the foster home to which he/ she was sent to be safe from familial abuse). To investigate first and second order institutional abuse in Argentina, four descriptive studi es were conducted, The first two studies provided retrospective quanti tative and qualitative data on the incidence of abuse in institutional contexts. Among the cases of institutional abuse, the most important perpetrator was the teacher in the school context. The third study was an analysis of child abuse court files in which we observed considera ble neglect in case management. The last study was an interview to the rapists treating child abuse cares that investigated the frequency of therapeutic techniques designed to protect the children from second or der abuse. Results are analyzed in light of their implications for res earch and decision making regarding institutional abuse.