NCJ Number
111899
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Dated: (1988) Pages: 273-281
Date Published
1988
Length
9 pages
Annotation
In this study, 14 experienced North Carolina child protective service workers provided 20 vignettes of father-daughter sexual abuse in which the responsibility might reasonably be attributed to the father, mother, and daughter.
Abstract
From this sample, 12 cases were selected and altered to provide sufficient descriptive detail to make them credible and realistic. The effects of social workers' attributions of responsibility on their strategies in cases of father-daughter sexual abuse were examined. Social workers read three vignettes illustrating such father-daughter sexual abuse. Following each vignette, they rated the degree of responsibility they attributed to the father, mother and daughter described in each vignette, and the likelihood that they would recommend the incarceration of the father or the placement of the daughter into foster care. The more responsibility workers attributed to the father and daughter and the less they attributed to the mother, the more likely they were to recommend the father's incarceration. The more responsibility they attributed to the father, the more likely they were to recommend that the daughter be placed into foster care. Tabular data and 31 references. (Author abstract modified)