Re: Sibling Sexual Abuse

[Rachael Crowder <raven@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I apologize for not having given more background about my research - it 
probably would have helped stem some of the discussion.  I was a little 
self-conscious about taking up band width.  But here goes...

I agree that 'non-consensual incest' is an oxymoron, but I am responding to 
the fuzzy thinking of other writers, rather than my own.  The reading I 
have done over the past three months has reveled that some writers believe 
that "certain adult women can undergo this experience without trauma" and 
that some sibling incest is "nurturing, erotic, loving incest" (Bank 
1982).There is also confusion among parents as to what is age-appropriate 
sexual behaviour between siblings and what is not.  So because of the 
confusion about 'consent' and incestuous behaviour, I made that 
clarification.  Some feminist writers believe that because of the status 
male children hold in a family, that it is never possible for female 
children to give free consent.  I am less concerned with what 'the law' 
says, as with what a survivor's conscience tells her about whether she 
feels she consented or not.  It is, to me, as moot a point as 
father-daughter incest i.e. whether the child 'consented' or not.  Children 
cannot give consent.  They have no choice.  I believe it is the same for 
sisters when it comes to brothers who hold greater power in the family, and 
are usually also physically and psychologically overpowering.

I come to this study from a lengthy background in working with women 
survivors of sexual trauma.  Through my experience in the field I have 
become aware that women survivors of brother - sister incest face barriers 
in healing that I hypothesize are particular to sibling incest 
survivors.  One of those barriers is credibility.  This is a 'family 
violence' issue that is not talked about much, and it has been my 
experience that survivors as well as therapists tend to downplay sibling 
incest as 'not as bad as' father-daughter incest.  There is also some 
dismissal around sibling incest as sexual play or exploration.  There is 
also a tendency, in my view, for sibling incest to be romanticized in media 
(there is fascination and public speculation about the relationship between 
actress Angelina Jolie and her brother for example) and mythologized in 
psychotherapy as an 'unresolved Oedipal complex'.  Brother-sister incest 
receives also a cultural apology - the case of Egyptian sovereign brothers 
marrying their sisters often comes up in conversations about sibling 
incest. Being a 'structural' social worker, I am also interested in what 
social structures are in place that tolerate/support the abuse of and 
violence against girls and women in society and how that is mirrored in 
"the family".

All of these issues I intend to explore at some point in my research 
career, but for now - because this is a Masters thesis - I am trying to 
break down the barrier around the credibility of incidence.  Lots of social 
workers and therapists (in my anecdotal research) think that sibling incest 
is pretty rare.  I think not.  Since introducing my topic to my research 
class of about twenty five students, I have had three women disclose that 
they are sibling incest survivors as well as others who have told me about 
'women they know.'  There are also lots of interesting small sample studies 
that give valuable insight into the realities of the women survivors in 
terms of the impacts of the sibling sexual abuse, as well as the 
characteristics of the individuals in the sibling incest dyad and the 
family in which it takes place.

My thesis at this point is looking at the Ontario Incidence Survey of 
Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (which does contain sibling incest data, 
and by the way over 10% of reported cases of sexual abuse are perpetrated 
by siblings in this report) comparatively with research that is in the 
literature since the Finkelhor study in 1981 about sexual activity between 
siblings.  I am a Canadian writer, and so I am interested in looking at 
this issue in a Canadian context, in comparison with studies which I have 
collected from the U.S. and Australia.  My hope was to use the Canadian 
Incidence Survey, but data gathering methods for the sibling variable were 
not consistent across the country, so a national estimates cannot be 
made.  In the NIS (the American equivalent) the abuser was _assumed_ to be 
an adult in the questions asked.  This, of course, raises the question (and 
furthers my hypothesis that this issue is not taken seriously) as to why 
this issue is not being investigated (at all or with diligence) at the 
national levels of both countries.

The 'near sibling' idea comes out of the literature.  Those researchers who 
have done small-sample, treatment-based studies often refer to siblings and 
'near-siblings' usually meaning step and adopted siblings; or they state 
they make no distinction between them i.e. all 'categories' of sibling are 
included.

I hope this provides some answers to your questions.

Cheers
Rachael Crowder



At 00:04 18/12/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>
>------------------------------
>Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20011214180506.009eed10@mail.datasync.com>
>Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 18:07:37 -0600
>To: Child Maltreatment 
>Researchers   <CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu>
>From: Larry Wagoner <wagonerl@datasync.com>
>Subject: Re: Sibling Sexual Abuse
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>At about 12:33 PM 12/14/01 -0800, John M Price PhD said:
> >Since you've defined out consensual acts, why are you calling it 'incest'
> >then?  this is more of an abuse/rape issue than simple incest.  What is
> >your justification in elimninating consensual acts if you are studying
> >sexual behavior?
>
>How about the legal reality that incest as defined in law is *NEVER*
>consentual.  Indeed - the very expression "consentual incest" is an oxymoron.
>
>And - incest is usually defined as any sexual contact between persons of
>the third degree of consanguinity or closer - either due to biological or
>legal relationship - or to put it plainly - third cousins or closer -
>either by blood or law.
>
>
>Larry Wagoner
>
>------------------------------
>From: "Rob Newell" <rmnewell@hotmail.com>
>To: Child Maltreatment 
>Researchers   <CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu>
>Subject: Re: Sibling Sexual Abuse
>Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 16:16:43 -0800
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>Message-ID: <F79tjXFlKLrLn3xiGug00005038@hotmail.com>
>
>Rachael,
>
>I have a problem with your constructs.  For example, you define incest has
>"non-consensual interaction...."  Are you saying the "consensual" sexual
>interaction between children is not incest...is not abuse?  If so, how are
>these constructs different...theoretically as well as clinically?  Also,
>what is the theoretical rational for your "near-siblings" construct, etc.,
>as raised by others on this list?  Moreover, given that children, by virtue
>of being children, cannot give consent in a legal sense, is there really any
>such thing as "consensual" sexual interaction between children?
>
>I think that your prospective study still suffers from some conceptual
>unclarity (i.e., "fuzzy thinking") that needs to be addressed.
>
>Robert M. Newell, Ph.D.
>Seattle, Washington
>