Before the movie was released, Steven did an interview that said that his parents were actually much warmer and loving than portrayed in the movie. They do seem very apathetic and aloof to Steven in the film, both before and after the abduction.
But maybe they exhaustive searching, stress, and anxiety that they had of not knowing where Steven was for seven and a half years emotionally drained them. However, they did not seem to be exactly friendly and warm before the abduction.
Steven at least by the movies' accounts was told to show respect to authority, so he initially had no sense of right and wrong growing up in Pernell's sick, pedophile world. But by the movie's accounts when Pernell started sending out bad signals to Steve's friends, he knew just how dangerous this man really was.
I disagree that Steven should have gone back with Pernell because of the abuse, but as Smileytfacesteph points out, what else could he do? Over seven years of his life was destroyed by a sick pervert who told him his family didn't want and couldn't afford him anymore. His family did not seem to comprehend the difficulty of Steven being able to just come back to a "normal life." Steve would never have the kinds of normal experiences for a child, teen, or adult. It seemed like everything for both him and his family was one turmoil of bad emotion than another.
Joe
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