NCJ Number
143503
Date Published
1993
Length
110 pages
Annotation
This booklet appeals to adults to become more aware of the signs of child sexual abuse, particularly within the immediate family, and take steps to stop the abuse that can have long-term psychological effects on the child victim.
Abstract
The author makes her appeal for incest prevention through the dramatization of her own feelings as a child victim and adult survivor of sexual abuse by her father. The format for her presentation consists of letters to her deceased father in the course of the progression of her father's sexual abuse and its consequences for her psychological states as a child, adolescent, and adult. She portrays the incest as the only context for bonding with and pleasing her father, a context that became the breeding ground for secrecy, guilt, a sense of abandonment by her parents, and eventual hate for her father. As an adolescent and adult the consequences of the incest undermined her sense of being loved and accepted by the men whom she dated; in most cases the behavior of her male companions confirmed her perception that men only wanted to use her for sex rather than love her as a total person. The pain and maladjustment occasioned by the incest and subsequent destructive relationships has continued into her adulthood. One section of the book focuses on the responsibility of the mother of an incest victim to recognize the symptoms of incest and take action to protect her child.