Incest and its meaning: The perspectives of fathers and daughters

Phelan, Patricia

doi:10.1016/0145-2134(94)00096-d

Cited by 55 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…I was confused and didn't want to get hurt. Phelan (1995) reports that most of the 44 daughters in her study did not report the abuse the first time it occurred and in most cases the abuse was repeated on several occasions over periods of 0.125 to 8 years (Phelan, 1995, pp. 19-20).…”

Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social learning principles of desensitisation and progressive approximation, support the power of this technique to condition behavior" (Berliner and Conte, 1990, p. 39). It also appears that the sexualisation process is accompanied by distorted interpretations and beliefs about the child's involvement or desire for the abuse; for example, Phelan (1995) reports that more than half of the incestuous fathers in her study stated that their daughters enjoyed the abuse, that they willingly acquiesced or willingly initiated sexual activity, whilst none of the daughters reported enjoyment, willing acquiescence or initiation of the abuse (Phelan, 1995, p. 16). (ii) Justification and rationalisation are used by sex offenders to ensure continued access to the child.…”

Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the apparent fact that some people find it difficult to believe that offenders engage in intentional and pre-meditated sexual exploitation, as Berliner and Conte observe, this belief "contrasts with what the offenders themselves say about their own conduct … and the overwhelming evidence that they are fully aware of the process they employ" (Berliner and Conte, 1990, p. 38). Similarly, Conte, Wolf and Smith (1989), Phelan (1995) and Elliott, Browne, and Kilcoyne (1995) all report that offenders target children for sexual exploitation, condition the children over a period of time to accept sexual contact and increasingly serious types of sexual contact, and manipulate them verbally or non-verbally to maintain sexual access. Delays in reporting will also be an inevitable result of some cases of child sexual abuse where the child is of preverbal age or where the child suffers from traumatic amnesia.…”

Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prompt complaint as required by the criminal justice system, therefore, becomes an impossibility for those children who must adapt for survival reasons to the position of powerlessness that sexual abuse imposes upon them. Phelan (1995) considers that the failure of children to report can be understood in light of the social context in which children are raised, that is, the context in which "[f]amilies and schools … have historically socialised children to acquiesce to authority, to be compliant to adults, and to unquestionably follow the rules" (Phelan, 1995, p. 21). More particularly, the grooming process by child sex offenders supports the theory that child sex offending establishes specific relations of power between the offender and child (Cossins, 2000).…”

Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Hearsay Rule and Delayed Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: The Law and the Evidence

Cossins

2002

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

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T his article discusses the implications of two recent High Court cases on the admissibility of hearsay evidence of a child's delayed disclosure of child sexual abuse. It compares and contrasts the traditional legal significance of delayed disclosure (as being evidence of fabrication) with prevalence studies from the psychological literature which show that a majority of children delay disclosure and that, rather than being an aberrant feature of child sexual abuse, delay is a typical response of sexually abused children as a result of confusion, denial, self-blame and overt and covert threats by offenders. In addition, several self-report studies of offenders confirm that grooming processes create a relationship of power between the child and offender such that delayed disclosure appears to reflect the position of powerlessness of the sexually abused child within that relationship. In light of what the psychological literature tells us, this article challenges the narrow legal approach to the admissibility of hearsay evidence of delayed disclosure and suggests that a special exception should be made for hearsay statements of a child's delayed disclosure in child sexual assault trials.

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Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Impact Of Offender Patterns Of Sexual Abuse On Disclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Hearsay Rule and Delayed Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: The Law and the Evidence

Cossins

2002

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

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“…These broadly include: feelings of confusion, humiliation, fear of rejection, and being used (Mey and Neff, 1982); disturbed sexual functioning, marital breakdown (Beitchman et al, 1991); chronic headaches (Roesler and Wind, 1994); disbelief, confusion, guilt, anger (Phelan, 1995); problems in building and sustaining relationships (Newman Lubell and Peterson, 1998); feelings of "dirtiness" and worthlessness (DiGeorgioMiller, 1998); compulsive spending, nightmares (Rudd and Herzberger, 1999); low selfesteem, insomnia, flashbacks, a perception of the inability to please others, and work in low paying jobs (Salter, 2013). Victims of IFCSA may also experience a shattered sense of meaning and belief in a "just world" -where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get (Hudson, 2013).…”

Section: The Impact Of (If)csa (If)csa Has Psychological Behaviouralmentioning

confidence: 99%

The prevalence, nature, and impact of intrafamilial child sexual abuse: findings from a rapid evidence assessment

Gekoski

Davidson

Horvath

2016

JCRPP

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from a study commissioned by the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC) in England, concerning intrafamilial child sexual abuse (IFCSA)/incest. Specifically, it aims to explore what is known about the prevalence, nature, and impact of IFCSA and where the gaps in knowledge lie.Design/methodology/approach -A rapid evidence assessment (REA) was used, the function of which is to: search the literature as comprehensively as possible within given time constraints; collate descriptive outlines of the available evidence on a topic and critically appraise it; sift out studies of poor quality; and provide an overview of the evidence. Over 57,000 documents were scanned, and 296 ultimately systematically analysed.Findings -It was found that: there is wide variation in prevalence rates between studies; girls are more likely to be victims than boys; the onset of abuse is typically school age; abuse in minority groups is underreported; sibling abuse may be more common than that by fathers; female perpetrated abuse may be under-reported; families where abuse occurs are often dysfunctional; and IFCSA has significant adverse effects on victims.Research limitations/implications -A REA is not a full systematic review, differing in the scope and depth of the searches and depending almost exclusively on electronic databases, not accompanied by searching journals by hand.Practical implications -This work found numerous gaps in current knowledge about IFCSA, which the authors recommend be addressed by further research, including: the scale and nature of IFCSA in disabled victims, research on BME children's experiences; the prevalence of abuse by stepfathers as compared to biological fathers; the experiences of male victims; the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered child victims; the short-term impact of IFCSA based on child victims' experiences; and more widely, further research on the prevalence of abuse in clinical populations and the relationship between that and prevalence in wider society. In addition to such questions, the OCC inquiry will also investigate issues surrounding child protection and criminal justice responses to (IF)CSA and how these might be improved. The evidence base for this section of the inquiry is reported in Gekoski et al. (2016).Originality/value -The findings of this research provide the evidence base for a new twoyear inquiry into the subject of IFCSA by the OCC.

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Child Sexual Abuse‐Related Cognition: Current Research

Gannon

Wood

2007

Aggressive Offenders' Cognition

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Incest and its meaning: The perspectives of fathers and daughters

Cited by 55 publications

References 22 publications

The Hearsay Rule and Delayed Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: The Law and the Evidence

The Hearsay Rule and Delayed Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: The Law and the Evidence

The prevalence, nature, and impact of intrafamilial child sexual abuse: findings from a rapid evidence assessment

Child Sexual Abuse‐Related Cognition: Current Research

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