An expert on juvenile sexual deviance who has worked with young people who have committed terrible crimes will be giving a lecture at a special workshop in Bermuda.

Lynn Sanford, an associate professor in forensic social work at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, will give a talk entitled 'Children Who Act Out Their Pain' at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

As a forensic social worker Ms Sanford often works with young people who have committed crimes such as rape, physical assault or other kinds of violence.

Previously, she worked as clinical director of an outpatient trauma clinic, and on a 40-bed ward for teenage boys who had committed crimes against people.

But her career path didn't start out in this direction. In the 1970s, she was in graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, studying to become a suicide prevention counsellor. A serial killer raped and killed two women a few doors down from her dormitory. The serial killer was later identified as Ted Bundy.

"We found out later that he had tried to attack a woman in our dorm, but she fought him off," said Ms Sanford. "There was tremendous fear on campus at the time."

Ms Sanford stepped in by putting together a rape prevention forum to try to teach self-defence techniques. Later, she wrote a book called 'In Defense of Ourselves: A Rape Prevention Handbook for Women'.

"Ted Bundy wasn't apprehended for another four years and there kept on being murders of women on campus," said Ms Sanford. "Fear persisted.

"I ended up starting a grassroots sexual assault prevention agency, because there were so many demands for what I came up with for the campus.

"I thought it was a one time thing but it grew into an agency and a book."

In 1983, her life took another turn when she started to work with perpetrators, because no one else would do it. "So I volunteered but I said 'I don't think I am going to like this'," she said. "I don't think I will do it for very long. It ended up being very rewarding."

She said it could be dangerous, but because she often worked in jails, there were usually a lot of people to watch her back.

"I like working with juveniles better than adults," she said. "I do like teenagers a lot."

Ms Sanford is well-known in Bermuda, as she has done training with people working in residential treatment services.

"It is about dealing with kids who use their hands and bodies instead of words to express themselves," she said. "Sometimes they have disorders of impulse. I have done some training and trauma assessment on some of the kids in their care."

The training she will be doing at the BUEI will be focusing on sexual behaviour problems in children in adolescence.

"We will separate out what is motivating the behaviour and come up with the best treatment plan for that kind of problem,' she said.

Ms Sanford said when kids act out in these ways they are usually trying to say something.

"When we see violence against people, one possibility we would look at is untreated childhood trauma," she said. "Not all survivors end up becoming violent but there are a small number, less than 25 percent, who do transmit violence onto someone else. There is a quote by William Faulkner that I like 'The past isn't dead and buried. My goodness, it is not even the past.' Some of these kids live in their pasts."

Other reasons would be undiagnosed mental illness or substance abuse. Ms Sanford has taught at Simmons College for the last five years. She is an associate professor of social work there, but she misses working in jails.

She enjoyed working with children and professionals in Bermuda. "The thing that is different that I really like about Bermuda is the way extended families get involved in helping the kids," she said. "Sometimes they are not even blood relatives.

"In Bermuda, the idea that you take responsibility for the future of the children around you is very good.

"It is different than some parts of the United States. I also think the level of empathy and sophistication of the workers that I have met there is higher than in the United States, in some cases."

She said the caseworkers she has met in Bermuda don't give up on children. "Kids here often go through so many programmes they get a reputation as being beyond help and they are not."

She said her talk tomorrow would be aimed at parents, and also at people who work with troubled kids in the foster care system. With proper treatment, the prognosis was good, she said. "Kids can be absolutely cured from this sort of thing," she said. "There is a lot of hope when treating kids with sexual behaviour problems particularly if we are careful about our relationships with them. It is about teaching them to love again without love or violence."

She is also the author of 'Strong at the Broken Places: Building Resiliency for Survivors of Trauma' and 'Silent Children: A Parents Guide to the Prevention of Sexual Abuse'.

The free talk arranged by 'Schools to Know' will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the BUEI tomorrow.

There will also be a special needs programme fair and exhibit in the lobby of the BUEI from 12.30 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Space is limited to 100 people. Please RSVP Tory Dodge at schools2kn@aol.com or telephone 295-2070 ext 322.

For more information about Lynn Sanford go to www.lynnsanford.com.