There’s something called ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) that I’ve discussed in the past. ACEs are measured by researchers using a non-exhaustive point system, so it does not necessarily account for all types of trauma. However, the goal is to see what kind of life outcomes people with ACEs experience.
Studies have shown that adults with high ACE scores are more likely to experience a wide variety of adverse outcomes in adult life. This does not mean that all people with ACEs are doomed to have adverse experiences throughout their life, but to show that people with ACEs are at risk.
I have an ACE score of about a 7 or 8 out of 10, depending on how you interpret the questions. I have a very successful life and I don’t have poor interpersonal relationships, but I do have chronic health problems stemming from some of the ACEs I’ve experienced.
ACEs are associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes, poor interpersonal relationships, substance abuse, as well as increases one’s risk of being a victim of violence including further abuse and exploitation. This is made more likely when no one intervenes to support a child with ACEs.
PACEs, or Protective and Compensatory Experiences, are interventions meant to negate the harm of ACEs. They help children with ACEs not only survive, but thrive. This reduces risk for adverse experiences in adulthood, like facing violence in a relationship.
Billy is already preyed on as a teenager. He is seeking out partners, participating in risky sexual behavior, not just for enjoyment but because he is not safe in his own home, he has no adult family or mentors to support him, and he does not receive love and kindness from his parents.
Billy has no frame of reference for what a positive, healthy relationship looks like. He knows what it is like to be abandoned. He knows what it is like to be controlled by another adult. He views relationships as transactional - he must give of himself (his body) to get something he wants (affection).
Like, yes, Billy is at high risk of experiencing these things in adulthood (if he survived). However, we already have evidence that this was his reality before he was killed - and death at a young age is also a poor life outcome associated with ACEs regardless of the cause.
Everything Billy’s witnessed and experienced has taught him that he should just accept being abused and abandoned and violated because no one will help him. That’s why he hangs up the phone after being assaulted. That’s why he doesn’t expect anyone to intervene on his behalf.
Billy as an adult would need to learn about boundaries, self advocacy, sexual health and safe practices, identifying abuse in a relationship, and so on and so forth. Children in stable loving homes learn these things from positive models around them, which Billy did not have.
