Do some abusers become chronic offenders against children, and even try to suggest they were being helpful to the victims?

Yes, to both questions.

Inner disquiet and feelings of guilt in an offender can be lessened by mental gymnastics that include justifications, distortions or denial.

Furthermore, the achievement of sexual pleasure through behaviours that harm others can be habit-forming. Most vices (bad habits that are harmful) that people can acquire have a capacity to transform pain or tension into pleasure, and that is why they are used. (We can include here drug and alcohol abuse, gambling, and sexual and other compulsions: they recur through their efficacy in bringing a positive feeling state, or a less upsetting negative feeling state, into awareness). In a number of cases, the original childhood pain has become largely unconscious in the course of time, except that the individual resorts to acting-out as soon as they start to feel inner tensions that remind them of their internal pains (unmet needs) of childhood origins.

And, some abusers distort their perceptions and beliefs as a means of feeling more settled internally: they engage in negative distorted thinking to justify their actions after the fact. Sometimes such distortions help them to justify future offending when fantasies about re-offending come into mind as pleasurable anticipations.

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