>> For some reason I've got it in my head that Bruce's mother was killed when he was a toddler, so that's the way I've been writing this. Given his pernicious idea that family is bad, he may have bummed around with relatives before winding up in care.<<
You may want to sit through Hulk (2003) again. However, the flashback showing his father killing his mother is clearly after the one with her smiling at him as a four-year-old, while chatting with a female adult at the dining area.-- Total aside-- Notice how the flashbacks only show the parents interacting with Bruce separately? They're TOGETHER only in the scene where she dies. That implies a metric crap-ton about his family dynamics, right there. (I am DEFINITELY going to try to watch that again this weekend, now that I'm questioning accuracy of recall.)
But statistically, yes, he's likely to have bounced through every relative on either side until they'd exhausted all the options before placing Bruce with non-family foster parents. Given the craptastic job his parents displayed, that's likely to mean a lot MORE abuse to add to the roster.
Also given that statistics hover right around 1 in 4 boys being sexually abused WHILE in foster care, it doesn't immediately mean that any of THOSE placements were safe, either.-- That stat is separate from physical or emotional abuse incidents, just to really scare a sane person!
To top it all off, it takes legal procedures, with the resulting red tape,to strip an incarcerated parent of legal rights. His father was sentenced for murder, but for the whole duration of the elder Banner's incarceration before and during trial, Bruce would have been subjected to SHORT-TERM stays. That's at best a new family every few weeks. Once he reached the local official preschool enrollment date, that also meant a new school, new teacher(s), et cetera. Only after his father was convicted of murder would the foster system be allowed to place Bruce with the long-term intention of either stable fosterage or adoption.
If his father had ANY friends in the military hierarchy, it could've been quite easy to make Bruce a legal orphan, in complete limbo in terms of who actually had custody, because as far as I can find, it takes a military tribunal to strip parental rights of an active-duty service person. Was Brian Banner a civilian consultant, or military? It makes a difference. Don't even try to work out the reasons why prison /transportation/ regulations are allowed to strip parents of even the CHOICE of whether to attend a custody hearing, though, as it's a Kafkaesque nightmare.
Most specifically, look at the data analysis AFTER the body of the article, which is mostly "how did things go so horribly wrong?" but slants the problem against privatized foster care while downplaying the accusations made and proven against state-approved homes at the same time. Either way, Bruce is not in for an easy time, even after the horrible traumas he's already been through at age four.
All told, there's likely to be a history of rejection after rejection after bewildering transitions all coming AFTER that first emergency placement at age four, when his father was arrested. He'd have a few days to a week with that family while other relatives were sought.
The comparison to re-breaking bones resonates with me as particularly apt.
Especially given that it's recurring damage that could've been prevented if he'd been placed with someone like Uncle Phil for long enough to actually HEAL.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Phil is Awesome Again!
Date: 2014-04-25 09:11 pm (UTC)You may want to sit through Hulk (2003) again. However, the flashback showing his father killing his mother is clearly after the one with her smiling at him as a four-year-old, while chatting with a female adult at the dining area.-- Total aside-- Notice how the flashbacks only show the parents interacting with Bruce separately? They're TOGETHER only in the scene where she dies. That implies a metric crap-ton about his family dynamics, right there. (I am DEFINITELY going to try to watch that again this weekend, now that I'm questioning accuracy of recall.)
But statistically, yes, he's likely to have bounced through every relative on either side until they'd exhausted all the options before placing Bruce with non-family foster parents. Given the craptastic job his parents displayed, that's likely to mean a lot MORE abuse to add to the roster.
Also given that statistics hover right around 1 in 4 boys being sexually abused WHILE in foster care, it doesn't immediately mean that any of THOSE placements were safe, either.-- That stat is separate from physical or emotional abuse incidents, just to really scare a sane person!
To top it all off, it takes legal procedures, with the resulting red tape,to strip an incarcerated parent of legal rights. His father was sentenced for murder, but for the whole duration of the elder Banner's incarceration before and during trial, Bruce would have been subjected to SHORT-TERM stays. That's at best a new family every few weeks. Once he reached the local official preschool enrollment date, that also meant a new school, new teacher(s), et cetera. Only after his father was convicted of murder would the foster system be allowed to place Bruce with the long-term intention of either stable fosterage or adoption.
If his father had ANY friends in the military hierarchy, it could've been quite easy to make Bruce a legal orphan, in complete limbo in terms of who actually had custody, because as far as I can find, it takes a military tribunal to strip parental rights of an active-duty service person. Was Brian Banner a civilian consultant, or military? It makes a difference. Don't even try to work out the reasons why prison /transportation/ regulations are allowed to strip parents of even the CHOICE of whether to attend a custody hearing, though, as it's a Kafkaesque nightmare.
For a basic look at the California dual system (state and privatized) look at: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-foster-care-dto,0,5583241.htmlstory#axzz2zvqKqI33
Most specifically, look at the data analysis AFTER the body of the article, which is mostly "how did things go so horribly wrong?" but slants the problem against privatized foster care while downplaying the accusations made and proven against state-approved homes at the same time. Either way, Bruce is not in for an easy time, even after the horrible traumas he's already been through at age four.
All told, there's likely to be a history of rejection after rejection after bewildering transitions all coming AFTER that first emergency placement at age four, when his father was arrested. He'd have a few days to a week with that family while other relatives were sought.
The comparison to re-breaking bones resonates with me as particularly apt.
Especially given that it's recurring damage that could've been prevented if he'd been placed with someone like Uncle Phil for long enough to actually HEAL.