Sexual Abuse - Beyond the Family Systems Approach (From Treating Incest - A Multimodal Systems Perspective, P 53-65, 1986, Terry S Trepper and Mary Jo Barrett, eds. - See NCJ-103020)

• NCJ Number: 103023
• Author(s): D Finkelhor
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Haworth Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper identifies the limitations of the family systems model for understanding child sexual abuse and proposes an expanded model for analyzing both intrafamilial and extrafamilial child sexual abuse.

Abstract

The family systems analysis of child sexual abuse is limited in its focus on father-daughter incest, its distinction between the nature of intrafamilial and extrafamilial child sexual abuse, its indifference to offender individual characteristics, and its tendency to place moral responsibility for father-daughter incest on the mother. The proposed expanded model identifies four preconditions for both intrafamilial and extrafamilial child sexual abuse. (1) A potential offender must have some motivation to sexually abuse a child. (2) The potential offender must overcome internal inhibitions against acting on the motivation. (3) The potential offender must overcome external impediments to acting on the motivation. (4) The potential offender or some other factor must overcome the child's resistance to sexual abuse. This model incorporates and expands on most of the insights of the family systems approach while focusing more on dynamics within the offender and facilitating a more insightful assignment of moral responsibility for the abuse. 31 references.