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Burgess et al. / SEXUAL HOMICIDE trouble.” The ineffective social environment expands from caretakers to individuals in a community whose work brings them into contact with the young person (€.g., teachers, counselors, ministers, police). (2) Formative Events There are three factors that contribute to the formative events component of our model. The first of these is trauma, in the form of physical or sexual abuse. The developing child encounters a variety of life events, some norma- tive (e.g., illness, death) and others nonnormative. Those nonnormative events in the murderer sample include direct trauma (physical and/or sexual abuse) and indirect trauma (witnessed family violence). Within the context of the child’s ineffective social environment, the child’s distress caused by the trauma is neglected. The child is neither protected nor assisted in recovery from the abusive and overwhelming events; the external environment does not address the negative consequences of the events. One assumption regarding early traumatic events is that the child's memorirs of frightening and upsetting life experiences shape the child’s develop ng thought patterns. The type of thinking that emerges develops structured, p ..erned behaviors that in turn help generate daydreams and fantasies. The lucrature on children traumatized by sexual and physical abuse and by witnessing violence reports the occurrence of dreams, night- mares, and disturbing memories of the trauma (Burgess & Holmstrom, 1974, 1979; Conte, 1984; Pynoos & Eth, 1985). Other studies have documented these children engaging in painful, repetitive acting-out of the traumas (Axline, 1969; Gardner, 1971; Terr, 1979, 1981a, 1981b, 1983). Play of emotionally disturbed and troubled children often contains conflicted and. obsessive themes, contrasting with the creative and flexible themes noted in nondis- turbed children. We believe the traumatized child's play remains fixed on thoughts associated with the traumatic event and is held separate or encap- sulated (Hartman & Burgess, in press) rather than integrated in play activities or in art expression through drawings (Wood, Burgess, & McCormack, in press). Successful resolution of traumatic events results in the child being able to talk about the event in the past tense and with equanimity. Unsuccessful resolution of the trauma underscores the victim’s helplessness often with the emergence of aggressive fantasies aimed at achieving the dominance and control absent from reality (Burgess, Hartman, McCausland, & Powers, 1984; MacCulloch et al., 1983; Pynoos & Eth, 1985). A second assumption regarding early traumatic events is that manifesta- tions of the impact of distressing events, such as direct sexual and physical abuse, are influential in the child’s social development (Burgess et al., 1984; Conte, 1984; Pynoos & Eth, 1985). Concurrent with the abusive event, the child may experience a sustained emotional/physiological arousal level. When this sustained arousal level interacts with repetitive thoughts about the 51