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Example research essay topic: Child Sexual Abuse Violence Against Women - 1,956 words

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... al family relationships and they see the sexual abuse as secondary. Child sexual abuse is not seen as a crime but as a family problem. Thus this approach is not victim oriented, instead it focuses on the functioning of the family. This approach also displaces the responsibility of abuse from the abuser to the whole family, and most frequently to the mother.

The dysfunctional family model looks at every one in the family as equal, but there is no equality between parents and children. Like the psychoanalytical model, this theory ignores the age difference and the power relationships between the father and daughter. This theory also ignore the gender variable of child sexual abuse, it does not acknowledge the fact that abusers are predominantly male and the victims are predominately female. Another limitation to the dysfunctional family model is that the theory argues that males needs must be met one way or another.

If his needs are not meet then he has to go somewhere else. The mother has to make sure she performs her wifely duties' because if she fails to do so he will then have to get his sexual needs met by someone else, Mom must fulfill her traditional feminine role. This reinforces mother blame, and takes responsibility away from dad, thus according to this model mom is to be dads sexual gatekeeper. Mom is suppose to be home in the house doing the house work and making sure sex is readily available to her husband but moms needs are ignored.

Mom is inadequate and absent and is therefore blamed for dads actions. In a prevalence study by Diana Russell (1986) found that when mothers work outside the home it does not create an increase risk of a child being sexually abused. Studies have also found that often times the mother withdraws from sex with the father as a consequence of finding out about the incest and the majority of mothers who find out about the sexual abuse of their daughter leave their husbands (ward, 1984, p. 169) This goes against the notion of the collusive mother as assumed in the dysfunctional family model. This theory is not starting on the micro level but instead starts on the macro level. It reinforces the status quo (the patriarchal norm) or in other words the hierarchal, patriarchal family as the norm. What is really dysfunctional in these families is not that members of the family fail to conform to their traditional role but that family members are fulfilling their traditional role.

All this theory does is support stereotypical traditional gender roles where men hold to right to sexual service, power and women and children remain powerless and objectified by men. Feminism presents a different explanatory framework, This explanation understands sexual assault to be a violent way in which men choose to impose their power over women. This framework understands incest as an abuse of power that is gender specific and age oriented (It is fathers (men) who hold power that sexually abuse their children). Unlike the theories discussed above, the feminist theory begins from the victim of this crime, and locates its causes within society rather than biology or in the mind of individual perpetrator. Feminists have listened to the women and children who have broken the silence around this crime and spoken of their experiences. By taking a victim oriented approach feminist have contributed a great deal to understanding child sexual abuse.

They have placed the blame of child sexual abuse where it belongs - on the offender not the victim. Feminist today have challenged the limited definition of what constitute sexual violence and broadened the definition of sexual abuse such as the continuum of sexual abuse. (Liz Kelly, 1988) This theory also focuses on the wider picture, of women living in a society which is dominated by men. We live in a patriarchal society where men hold the most powerful positions in the social, political, economic, legal, educational, religious and family institutions. Men have held their position of power through rules and laws which have come to appear natural and which places women in an inferior position Men have economic, legal, political, physical, medical and social power over women, but at the root of all these is sexual power. Sexual power is exercised at the most intimate level, the most personal level. Male sexual power over women is expressed in public and private.

It is applied to women individually and collectively. It attempts to determine how women dress, how they walk, how they sit; it maintains that every woman is good or evil; and that no matter which she is, all she really wants is a good censored '. With his ramrod he will tame her, brand her, possess her. Father-Daughter rape is the paradigm par excellence of this social structuring of heterosexual relations. In Father-Daughter rape we find the most powerless females being sexually used by the most powerful males. Male adult to female child. (Ward 1984, p. 195) Women and children hold little status in society.

Women are seen by society as subordinate and inferior to men. For example Women are discriminated against in the workplace. A woman earns approximately 70 cents for every dollar a man makes. Jobs that are available to women are often low-paying and dead-end.

when explaining why men hold the power in society feminist use the word gender' rather than sex. Gender is the social construction of masculinity and femininity. Men are socialized by society to be aggressive, emotionless, dominating, to objectify and conquer women. Gender is a social construction and a social fact not a biological fact.

To call gender a social fact means that the division between the sexes is based on the way society is arranged. Images and attributes of femininity and masculinity have been constructed, they are not natural. And they have been constructed as a hierarchy of power'. Sexual assault is a brutal way of reinforcing the message that men are dominate over women.

Feminist see child sexual abuse as a continuum of violence against women. "The something' or object' that the girl child becomes in the eyes of the father is a sexual aid' to his own expression of sexual power. The stimulus, in the being of the girl-child, consists of her powerlessness and her femaleness" (Ward, 1984, p. 142). Men assert their power over women and children thought the use of violence. In a family were incest is occurring it is men who hold the power, women and children are powerless. Women and child are financially dependant on the father, children are also emotionally dependant on their father, the father dictate the rules and it is women and children who obey these rules. Leni Dominelli (1989) call these families patriarchal nuclear families.

Within these patriarchal families there is a sever power imbalance between women, children and men. This power imbalance is shaped by two variables 1) inequality of women + children and men 2) inequality of age. The power imbalance between fathers and daughters is sever when incest is occurring. When fathers rape their daughters they are abusing their power, The child complies with the abuse because her father is the head of the household and a adult authority. To sum up, if we use the feminist framework through which to view sexual assault, we use the concepts of power, patriarchy and gender. We are then able to explain in a very much more detailed way the high incidence of sexual assault in our society.

Sexual assault, rape and child sexual abuse are degrading enactments by men who choose to assert and reinforce their power through violence, of a social system which is filled with the view that men are superior to women. While the Feminist theory did break the silence around Incest, and is effective in helping to understanding incest, like all theories it also has some limitations. Firstly, the initial Feminist theory (as does Freud's psychoanalytical theory and dysfunctional family model) only focuses on one type of abuse - Incest. The sexual abuse of girl children by their fathers in the household. Thus, feminist theory ignored the sexual abuse of boys. This theory is limited in that it doesn't account for the sexual abuse of males.

Another downfall is that Father-Daughter Incest only accounts for 1 / 3 of child sexual abuse. As a result the initial feminist perspective did not account for child sexual abuse that occurs outside the family or in institutions by abusers other than fathers. This is critical since a prevalent study by Diana Russell (1986) found that 62 % of abuse occurs outside the home and uncles are the number one abuser. Secondly, the initial aim of feminism was to educate not to develop a theory on child sexual abuse and as a result feminist have understood incest as abuse of power that was gender specific and age oriented. This understanding does not give a definition of power it just tells us how power is shaped by gender and age. But in order for a concept to be a analytical tools the concept must be defined.

Thirdly, Children's experiences are not the focal point of feminist analysis (as with dysfunctional family and Freud's psychoanalytic theory). Thus feminist analysis is not a child centered approach. Women's experiences have been missed historically and feminist have said that women's experiences are being tagged on to men's. Now the feminist analysis of child sexual abuse is missing children's experiences, they are tagging children's experiences on to women's. For example sexual violence against women includes child sexual abuse. The term patriarchy is used to understand child sexual abuse.

Patriarchy is defined as male dominance over women, children are invisible in this definition. Finally, Feminism see the social construction of male sexuality as problematic but the problem is how some male sexuality is socially constructed because not all men are rapists or sexually abuse. While feminist analysis of sexual abuse does have some limitations we have to acknowledge that it does have many strengths. Feminism has brought us closer to understanding child sexual abuse better than any other theory that I've read on the subject. To get an even better understanding we need to take what we know from feminist and broaden it out and develop it into a child centered approach that focuses on the experiences of children not only on the experiences of adult survivors. We also need to compare men who abuse and men who don't abuse and see what are the differences are.

Maybe then we can get an even better understanding of child sexual abuse. Armstrong, Louise. 1994. Rocking The Cradle Of Sexual Politics. Addison Dominelli, Lena. 1989. "Betrayal of Trust: A Feminist Analysis of Power Relationships in Incest Abuse and its Relevance for Social Work Practice. " British Journal of Social Work. 19: 291 - 307.

Kelly, Liz. 1988. "What's in a Name? : Defining Child Sexual Abuse. " Feminist Review. 28: 65 - 73. Kelly, Liz et al. , 1991. An Exploratory Study of the Prevalence of Sexual Abuse in a sample of 16 - 21 year Olds. London: University of North London. MacLeod, Mary and Ester Sarah. 1988. "Challenging the Orthodoxy: Towards a Feminist Theory and Practise. " Feminist Review 28: 16 - 55. O'Hagan, K. 1989.

Working With Child Sexual Abuse: A Post- Cleveland Guide Effective Principles and Practice. Milton-Keynes. Russell, Dianna. 1986. The Secret Trauma. Sigmund, Freud. 1977. "Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes" in Sigmund Freud on Sexuality.

Harmondsworth: Penguin. Waldby, C. et al. "Theoretical Perspectives on father-daughter incest. " in Child Sexual Abuse (eds) E. Driver and AS. Driven.

London: Macmillan. Ward, Elizabeth. 1984. Father-Daughter Rape. London: the Women's Press. Bibliography:


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Research essay sample on Child Sexual Abuse Violence Against Women

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