| "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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