| "If you have been
sexually abused, you are not alone. One out of three
girls, and one out of seven boys, are sexually abused
by the time they reach the age of eighteen."
(Bass and Davis, 1988, p. 20) The traditional definition
of incest is sexual intercourse between blood relatives:
it is illegal to marry because of such a close relationship.
There is now an evolving definition of incest that
takes into consideration the betrayal of trust and
the power imbalance in these one-sided relationships.
One such definition is: "the imposition of
sexually inappropriate acts, or acts with sexual
overtones ... by one or more persons who derive
authority through ongoing emotional bonding with
that child." (Blume, 1990, p. 4) This definition
expands the traditional definition of incest to
include sexual abuse by anyone who has authority
or power over the child. This definition of incest
includes as perpetrators: immediate/extended family
members, babysitters, school teachers, scout masters,
priests/ministers, etc. "Incest between an
adult and a related child or adolescent is now recognized
as the most prevalent form of child sexual abuse
and as one with great potential for damage to the
child". (Courtois, 1988, p. 12)
With the increase in the divorce rates, more children
are at greater risk than ever. Women, in their attempts
to find a mate, may unwittingly be putting their
children at greater risk for sexual abuse from the
men they date. If the mother remarries, according
to a survey done by Russell, the "stepdaughters
are over eight times more at risk of sexual abuse
by the stepfathers who reared them than are daughters
reared by their biological fathers." (Russell,
1986, p. 103) "As some researchers have begun
to suspect, it may be the case that a growing number
of stepfathers are really 'smart pedophiles', men
who marry divorced or single women with families
as a way of getting close to children." (Crewdson,
1988, p. 31)
In the Finkelhor study, "Boys' experiences
are somewhat different from girls'. They are primarily
homosexual (experiences), and they less often involve
family members. However, boys do seem to be victims
of force and coercion just as often as girls. Both
girls and boys report that in over half the incidents
some form of coercion was used." (Finkelhor,
1979, p. 143)
According to Diane Russell (The Secret Trauma)
and David Finkelhor (Child Sexual Abuse) 95% of
the perpetrators of girls are men and 80% of the
perpetrators of boys are men. (Bass and Davis, 1988,
p. 96) This may be the major reason why talking
about incest is a bigger taboo than incest itself!
Who hold the power in our society? Men. The majority
of judges, police, prosecutors and others responsible
for protection and enforcement are men.
Freud, in 1896, was the first to recognize the
connection between adult survivors' mental health
problems and their past histories of child sexual
abuse, thus explaining the problem of hysteria.
This led to his seduction theory. After much uproar
by his contemporaries (many of whom were implicated
as perpetrators), Freud denounced the seduction
theory and replaced it with the oedipal theory.
The oedipal theory viewed incestuous accounts by
victims as mere sexual fantasies. (Russell, 1986,
p. 4-6)
The largest number of incest cases from the population
at large comes from the Kinsey studies in the late
1940s and early 1950s. Even though the women in
his studies said that their experiences of childhood
sexual abuse was traumatic, "Kinsey cavalierly
belittled these reports. He hastened to assure the
public that children should not be upset by these
experiences. If they were, this was the fault not
of the sexual aggressor, but the prudish parents
and teachers who caused the child to become 'hysterical'
... By contrast, this group (the Kinsey group) demonstrated
a keen sensitivity toward the adult offender ...
Ignoring issues of dominance and power, they took
a position that amounted to little more than advocacy
of greater sexual license for men ... The public,
in the judgement of these men, was not ready to
hear about incest." (Herman, 1981, p. 16-18)
In the 1970s, the incest issue was once again brought
forth, this time by women themselves. It was during
the explosion of the women's liberation movement
that subjects like rape, wife- battering, and sexual
abuse of children were brought to the front. In
1979, Diana Russell interviewed "more than
nine hundred randomly chosen San Francisco women
about their childhood sexual experiences ... she
found that 38% of those questioned ... had been
sexually abused by an adult relative, acquaintance,
or stranger before reaching the age of eighteen."
(Crewdson, 1988, p. 25) There were some flaws to
her methodology but not enough to dismiss her study
as worthless. Bud Lewis of the Los Angeles Times
conducted a poll in July, 1985 to determine the
extent of sexual abuse. He sampled 2,627 men and
women from every state in the union. The results
showed that "27% of the women and 16% of the
men, said they had been sexually abused as children
... applied to the current population, it meant
that nearly thirty-eight million adults had been
sexually abused as children." (Crewdson, 1988,
p. 27-28)
"Approximately 40% of all victims/survivors
suffer aftereffects serious enough to require therapy
in adulthood. (Browne and Finkelhor, 1986)."
(Courtois, 1988, p.6) Some of the aftereffects can
include: inability to trust (which effects the therapeutic
relationship), fear of intimacy, depression, suicidal
ideation and other self-destructive behaviors, and
low self-esteem, guilt, anger, isolation and alienation
from others, drug and alcohol dependency, and eating
disorders.
"Briere questions the use of psychiatric labels
(for victims of sexual abuse). He suggests instead
that the psychological disturbances experienced
by survivors of sexual abuse be considered post-sexual-abuse
trauma. This term refers to symptomatic behaviors
that were initially adaptive, but that over time
have become `contextually inappropriate components
of the victim's adult personality'." (Gil,
1988, p. 28) This view gets away from stigmatizing
and blaming the victim. The person responsible for
inflicting the trauma is to blame - the perpetrator.
Children are never responsible for their sexual
abuse, adults are the ones responsible. At the turn
of the century, Freud labeled victims of sexual
abuse (predominately women) "Hysteric".
For the next 70 to 80 years society has labeled
these victims as "mentally ill". It is
now understood that survivors of sexual abuse are
actually suffering from the aftereffects of the
trauma.
Traditionally, sexual abuse of children was considered
either incest or pedophilia. Now, it is viewed as
being on a continuum. While some incestuous men
have sex only with their own children, according
to one study (Abel, 1983), "at least 44%, abuse
children outside the home during the time they are
having sexual contact with their own children,"
and other men have sex with children they aren't
related to. Characteristics that offenders have
in common are: "dependent, inadequate individuals
with early family histories characterized by conflict,
disruption, abandonment, abuse and exploitation."
(Encyclopedia of Social Work, 1987, p. 256) Not
all offenders are men. While some offenders were
sexually abused as children, they still need to
be held accountable for their abuse of children
and receive sex offender treatment. Unfortunately,
court action may be the only way to assure offenders'
participation in treatment programs.
The social work profession is dedicated to the
values of human dignity, personal autonomy, self-realization
and self- determination. These are the very areas
that victims are the most severely damaged.
In order to be effective in identifying and treating
victims of child sexual abuse, the social worker
needs to be knowledgeable about the characteristics,
aftereffects, and treatment strategies relevant
to this issue. Intervention activities should ideally
include the victim, the "silent partner",
and the perpetrator. Intervention activities may
include referral to appropriate individual and/or
family counseling services, securing emergency shelter
if necessary, referral to medical and legal services,
and advocacy for clients. Because it is a very complex
issue, the social worker needs to be able to coordinate
an array of community services.
In the area of prevention, the social worker can
provide education to the community and work with
citizens groups for legislation to address child
sexual abuse. Educating the child to say "no!"
is not enough. "Finally, the responsibility
we all bear to protect the defenseless falls on
the shoulders of the recovering incest survivor
as well. She (he) must face the reality that she
(he) holds information whose withholding keeps others
at risk. No perpetrator stops on his (her) own.
In breaking the secret, she (he) has finally, the
power to break the chain." (Blume, 1990, p.
72-73)
Bibliography
Bass, Ellen and Laura Davis. 1988. The Courage
to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual
Abuse. Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, NY
Blume, E. Sue. 1990. Secret Survivors: Uncovering
Incest and Its Aftereffects in Women. John Wiley
and Sons, New York, NY
Courtois, Christine A. 1988. Healing the Incest
Wound: Adult Survivors in Therapy. W.W. Norton &
Company, New York, NY
Crewdson, John. 1988. By Silence Betrayed: Sexual
Abuse of Children in America. Harper & Row,
Publishers, New York, NY
Finkelhor, David. 1979. Sexually Victimized Children.
The Free Press - a division of Macmillan Publishing
Co., Inc., New York, NY
Encyclopedia of Social Work - Eighteenth Edition.
1987. NASW, Silver Spring, MD
Gil, Eliana. 1988. Treatment of Adult Survivors
of Childhood Abuse. Launch Press, Walnut Creek,
CA
Herman, Judith Lewis. 1981. Father - Daughter Incest.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Kroll, Paul. "A Conspiracy of Silence: Sexual
Abuse of Children" in The Plain Truth, July
1990, pgs. 16-20.
Russell, Diana E. 1986. The Secret Trauma: Incest
in the Lives of Girls and Women. Basic Books, Inc.
Publishers, New York, NY
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