NEW YORK – While many Americans are riveted by the Penn State sex abuse trial, it has been particularly wrenching – and sometimes heartening – for those who were themselves victims of abuse in their youth.

Unlike the witnesses testifying against Jerry Sandusky, most of them never got the chance to confront their abusers in court, so the trial has been cathartic as well as troubling.

“It’s vicarious justice – the closest many survivors will ever get to a courtroom where the perpetrator is held accountable,” said Claudia Vercellotti of Toledo, Ohio, who says she was molested for years in her adolescence by a Roman Catholic youth minister.