Friday, August 03, 2007 Oledan: Chain By Radzini Oledan Spices of Life
INCEST remains to be one of the most under-reported and least discussed crimes in our community. Considered as a taboo, incest often remains concealed by the victim because of guilt, shame, fear, social and familial pressure, as well as coercion by the abuser.
It is defined as "...the sexual abuse of a child by a relative or other person in a position of trust and authority over the child. It is a violation of the child where he or she lives -- literally and metaphorically. A child molested by a stranger can run home for help and comfort. A victim of incest cannot." (Vanderbilt).
It may also include sexual contact or interaction between family members, sexually staring at the victim by the perpetrator, accidental or disguised touching of the victim's body by the perpetrator, verbal invitations to engage in sexual activity, verbal ridiculing of body parts, pornographic photography, reading of sexually explicit material to children, and exposure to inappropriate sexual activity.
Incest does not discriminate.
It happens in families that are financially-privileged, as well as those of low socio-economic status. However, there may be discrepancies in the estimates of the number of incest victims. All too often, pressure from family members, in addition to threats or pressure from the abuser, results in extreme reluctance to reveal abuse and to subsequently obtain help.
Incest has been cited as the most common form of child abuse. Studies conclude that 43 percent of the children who are abused are abused by family members, 33 percent are abused by someone they know, and the remaining 24 percent are sexually abused by strangers.
Victims of incest are often extremely reluctant to reveal that they are being abused because their abuser is a person in a position of trust and authority for the victim.
Children are never responsible for their sexual abuse, adults are the ones responsible.
Studies show that often the incest victim does not understand -- or they deny -- that anything is wrong with the behavior they are encountering. Many young incest victims accept and believe the perpetrator's explanation that this is a "learning experience" that happens in every family by an older family member. Incest victims may fear they will be disbelieved, blamed or punished if they report their abuse.
In addition, some recent research suggests that some victims of incest may suffer from biochemically-induced amnesia. This condition can be triggered by a severe trauma, such as a sexual assault, which causes the body to incur a number of complex endocrine and neurological changes resulting in complete or partial amnesia regarding the event. Thus, any immediate and/or latent memory of the incident is repressed (Masakis, 1991).
Whether an incest victim endured an isolated incident of abuse or ongoing assaults over an extended period of time, the process of recovery can be exceptionally painful and difficult.
The recovery process can only begin with an admission of abuse and the recognition that help and services are needed.
There are services and resources available for incest victims -- both children and adult survivors of incest.
In addition to believing, listening to, and helping victims of incest in their process of recovery, we need to simultaneously search for ways to prevent future generations from enduring such abuse and from continuing the cycles of abuse within their own family and relationships.
In the area of prevention, providing information to the community and working with them to address child sexual abuse is a must.
Children also have to be taught to say "no."
Finally, the responsibility to protect the defenseless also falls on the shoulder of the recovering incest survivor. S/he must face the reality that s/he holds the information whose withholding keeps others at risk.
No perpetrator stops on his own. In breaking the secret, s/he has finally, the power to break the chain.
