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A Northeastern University professor says the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who are serving life imprisonment for the shooting deaths of their wealthy parents in 1989, indicates a major societal shift in how male victims of childhood sexual abuse are perceived — and believed.

Around the time they were convicted of first-degree murder for killing Jose and Kitty Menendez, the young men were ridiculed in newspaper columns, talk shows and even “Saturday Night Live” as being motivated by greed.

But 28 years after their sentencing, family members are calling for the brothers’ release, saying they were driven to desperation by longtime sexual abuse at the hands of their father, a well-known executive in the entertainment industry. 

Carlos Cuevas, Northeastern professor of criminology and criminal justice, says in the decades since the Menendez sentencing there has been growing recognition that childhood sexual abuse affects boys as well as girls.

Tens of thousands of victims

“As time has gone by, there has been more openness about talking about abuse in general and particularly abuse of boys,” Cuevas says.

Eyes also have been opened by investigations and lawsuits concerning the involvement of powerful institutions in covering up the abuse of boys and young men, with the Boston Globe’s 2002 Spotlight series about the Catholic Church coverup winning a Pulitzer Prize for public service.

In recent years, the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America have paid out billions of dollars to settle cases going back decades involving tens of thousands of victims abused as boys and young men by priests and Scout leaders.

“The Catholic Church scandal probably brought it more to the forefront,” Cuevas says. “But it’s really been sort of a gradual process,” beginning in the 1980s, of recognizing that childhood sexual abuse, including victimization of boys, is a real issue, he says.

The effects of childhood sexual abuse

“But in certain circumstances it is still sort of minimized in a way I don’t think it is minimized when the victim is a girl or a woman,” Cuevas says, adding that might be because of the greater number of girls and women affected by sexual abuse.

According to RAINN, an organization that advocates for victims, one in nine girls and one in 20 boys under the age of 18 experiences sexual abuse or assault.

Whether the survivor is male or female, the repercussions of sexual assault can be severe, including post-traumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, depression, anxiety and substance abuse, Cuevas says.

Survivors may also struggle with dissociative disorders, self harm and panic attacks, says RAINN.

The effects are typical of “the kind of thing you see with individuals who are survivors of sexual abuse,” Cuevas says. “And they can be particularly exacerbated by not being believed, not being supported.”

Extreme physical retaliation or murder is rare, he says. “Most victims of abuse don’t kill their perpetrators. It’s not a common occurrence.”

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Victims … and killers

Cuevas says what complicates the Menendez case in the popular imagination is the brothers’ perpetuation of a heinous crime, gunning down their parents as the couple watched TV in their mansion’s den. 

“People have a tendency to label you. You’re either a victim or a perpetrator,” he says, adding that in reality you can be both. 

“A lot of people who commit offenses and crimes are also victims of abuse or other forms of victimization,” Cuevas says.  

“It’s really hard for people to understand the context around that, which is that they committed a serious crime, but they were also victims of abuse.”

Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were 21 and 18, respectively, at the time of the killings, may get a chance to tell their side of the story in court again, since their case is being reviewed for possible resentencing by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón following the emergence of new evidence. 

The evidence includes a letter purportedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano referring to the abuse months before the murders occurred as well as allegations by a member of the boy band Menudo, Roy Rossello, that he was abused by Jose Menendez when he was 14.

During the brothers’ first trials — one for each brother — their cousin Diane Vander Molen testified that when she was a teenager staying at the Menendez home, 8-year-old Lyle told her his father was molesting him.

Vander Molen testified that she told Kitty but never heard what if anything became of the boy’s disclosure. The trials ended in a hung jury. 

During the second trial, which ended with the life imprisonment sentencing in 1996, the prosecution alleged the abuse didn’t occur and the judge didn’t allow much evidence of the molestation to be presented, according to defense attorneys.