NCJ Number
161742
Journal
Journal of Marriage and the Family Volume: 57 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1995) Pages: 265-281
Date Published
1995
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Interviews with 10 men and one woman who had committed incest were used to test two hypotheses based on the literature on justice and care.
Abstract
The hypotheses were that (1) incest perpetrators have special regard for themselves and do not have regard for the impact of incest on their victims and (2) incest perpetrators are not morally integrated, and, if they have a moral focus, it will be on justice. The participants were recruited on a volunteer basis from maximum- and medium- security prison sex offender treatment programs and from snowball sampling from persons in community treatment and self-help groups. They ranged in age from 32 to 54 and were mainly working class and middle class whites. Nine were married at the time of the interview, and two were divorced. They had abused both male and female children; some had abused siblings and other relatives. They participated in multiple, openended life history interviews lasting a total average of 12 hours. The process was guided by the procedures of modified analytic induction. Results revealed that the participants typically defined incest as love and care and their behavior as considerate and fair. However, their professed care, love, and sense of fairness were contradicted in many ways, including their refusal to stop when children wanted to stop. Within their narratives were several other gender-based discourses found in the wider culture. 81 references (Author abstract modified)