Views of Child Sexual Abuse in Two Cultural Communities: An Exploratory Study among African Americans and Latinos

Abstract

This exploratory study investigates knowledge and ideas about child sexual abuse among African Americans and Latinos through focus group discussions. Participants defined and described child sexual abuse, acknowledged that it occurred in their communities, and expressed their sense that family risk factors, risky institutions, and offender propensities were its root causes. Latino participants identified cultural transitions as another contributor. Responses and conversational style differed somewhat by gender and cultural identity. The authors discuss implications for child sexual abuse prevention, intervention, and research.

Child sexual abuse: from prevention to self‐protection

“…With regard to cultural concerns related to oppression and views that discourage assertive behaviour, it is true that many cultures, including Asian, Puerto Rican, other Latino cultures, AfricanAmerican, Native-American and others (Fontes, 1993;Fontes et al, 2001;Wood and Mallinckrodt, 1990) may perceive assertive behaviour, particularly by women and children, as disrespectful, and may refrain from utilising assertive behaviour for fear of being perceived negatively due to issues of discrimination and oppression. Compounded by these culturally relevant factors, many children and families may be hesitant to report CSA to the systems they distrust due to the discriminatory and oppressive practices directed towards them by these very systems (Fontes, 1993).…”

“…Compounded by these culturally relevant factors, many children and families may be hesitant to report CSA to the systems they distrust due to the discriminatory and oppressive practices directed towards them by these very systems (Fontes, 1993). While not directly addressed in the literature on sexual abuse education, researchers have suggested that the cultural beliefs, issues of oppression and the context of specific situations be taken into consideration when conducting assertiveness training (Wood and Mallinckrodt, 1990) and sexual abuse prevention programmes (Fontes et al, 2001) with minority populations. Promising results have been found with research that has been conducted with 'Only a few studies reported negative side-effects in a small number of participants' 'Cultural beliefs, issues of oppression and the context of specific situations' children from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds who were sexually abused.…”

“…masturbating, using sexual words and making sexual sounds) (Currier and Wurtele, 1996). Other positive effects also include increases in parent-child communication about CSA (Finkelhor and DziubaLeatherman, 1995;Wurtele, 1990 Arguments against prevention programmes include: preschool children cannot understand self-protection concepts, such training increases anxiety and externalising behavioural problems; possible concerns about subsequent negative effects on sexual development; overgeneralisation of concept evidenced by overreaction to appropriate touches (Krivacska, 1990;Tutty, 1997); sexually reactive behaviour (Currier and Wurtele, 1996); and difficulty incorporating skills due to oppression and cultural beliefs associated with sexual abuse that discourage assertive behaviour (see Fontes, 2005;Fontes et al, 2001;Wood and Mallinckrodt, 1990). However, there is little to no empirical evidence to support these claims.…”

Paternal and sibling incest: A case report

“…A more recent case reported sexual harassment toward the daughter by her father 11 . Although most reported cases describe female victims, and mostly from western countries, sexual abuse during childhood is reported by both genders and among almost all ethnic groups and also different cultures 3,4,6,7,[12][13][14][15][16][17] . In a recent study by Saewyc et al 17 ethnic variation was minor, with African American, Native American, and Hispanic teens being slightly more likely to report abuse than White or Asian American youth 17 .…”

Knowledge and beliefs on child sexual abuse by Spanish university students

“…En base al análisis de las publicaciones nacionales e internacionales al respecto, se estudiará la existencia de posibles diferencias en las respuestas de los estudiantes en función del sexo (Davis y Lee, 1996;Davies y Rogers, 2009;Graham et al, 2007;RomeroSánchez y Megías, 2009;Spencer y Tan, 1999), el nivel educativo (Xenos y Smith, 2001) y el país de origen del encuestado (Fontes, Cruz y Tabachnick, 2001;Hestick y Perrino, 2009;Rodríguez-Srednicki y Twaite, 1999). Se hipotetiza que, pese a utilizar un instrumento y muestra diferentes, los estudiantes presentarán algunos conocimientos sobre abuso sexual infantil pero mantendrán creencias erróneas y estereotipos al respecto, de forma similar a lo obtenido en el estudio de López (1994) con población general.…”