The hundreds of Liberian families who sought refuge in Arizona fled a West African civil war that piled the unthinkable upon the more routine horrors of conflict, many at the hands of children.

In Phoenix the families thought they had put all that behind them but in recent days they, and much of the rest of Arizona's capital, have grappled with what appears to be a terrible crime apparently made worse by an almost incomprehensible response.

It was bad enough that four boys, one only nine years old, allegedly lured an eight-year-old girl in to a shed with a promise of chewing gum and took turns raping and assaulting her. But what followed has left Phoenix residents and authorities perplexed and angry.

When the police arrived, the girl's mother told them to take her daughter away and not bring her back because she brought shame on the family by saying she was raped.

"Nothing has happened to my daughter. Nobody has touched my daughter," said the mother who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of her daughter.

The child's older sister said she only has herself to blame.

"I said to her: It's not good for you to be following guys because you're still little," she said. "She always bring trouble."

The girl has been taken in to care.

The police say there is evidence of rape. They allege that the boys held the girl down and took turns to "brutally sexually assault" her for about 15 minutes. The police were called when the girl was found screaming and with her clothes torn.

Four boys who were found running from the scene have been charged with kidnapping and sexual assault. Steven Tuopeh, 14, is being prosecuted as an adult. The others, aged from nine to 13, will be tried in juvenile court.

Now the mother is calling for her daughter's alleged attackers to be released saying that it is an internal matter within the close-knit refugee community of about 1,200 Liberians who fled their country's civil wars, notoriously brutal even by African standards, but cannot escape their legacy.

The conflicts were marked by indiscriminate killing, mutilation and rape - and the recruitment of child soldiers who were responsible for all three often while high on drugs or alcohol. Children were also frequently the victims of rape. Many others witnessed killings, sometimes of parents. Before they made it to America some were struggling by in refugee camps.

Lasana Kamara, who helped found a support organisation for Liberian refugees, the Arizona Mandingo Association, said that a culture of violence continues to grip children from the community.

"The families have been traumatised, the children have been traumatised. Sometimes they have seen things. Sometimes their parents were killed. The violence they have seen is part of them. They form gangs according to where they are from in Liberia," said Kamara, who fled the west African state in 1992 and now works as a detention officer at a local sheriff's jail.

"That war was total destruction. With all they have seen, then coming here, it's very difficult. It's going to take a very long time for the children to really get themselves together. Every month we have meetings and tell the kids don't do this. But sometimes it's beyond control."

Some of the children were too young to have witnessed the conflict first hand, but they are still drawn in to its aftermath, particularly with attitudes toward violence and rape.

Sexual violence in Liberia may have been widespread but it was barely taken seriously. The victims were often made to feel responsible. Rape was outlawed in Liberia only in 2006.

That law was passed by the country's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has sought to remove the stigma by revealing that she was the victim of attempted rape during the war. Johnson-Sirleaf criticised the girl's family.

"I think that family is wrong. They should help that child who has been traumatised and they should make sure that they work with the US law authorities to see what can be done about the other young boys who have committed this offence," she said. "Not only should they abide by the law, but they too need serious counselling because clearly they are doing something, something that is no longer acceptable in our society here."