Accounting for child sexual abuse : male discourses

Bibliography: leaves 48-51.This study explores discourses which relate to child sexual abuse and which seek to excuse or justify it. It is hypothesized that these discourses are wide-spread and are not held simply by a small minority of offenders. Similar discourses emerged in two very different groups of male subjects. The first comprised 45 male second year University of Cape Town students in the Department of Psychology in 1986, who enrolled for a gender socialization course credit option. The second consists of 26 alleged child sexual abusers admitted to Valkenberg Hospital for psychiatric observation in 1988/9. A discourse analysis methodology is used to analyse essays written by the students and transcripts of audiotaped groups in which they participated, as well as accounts of the alleged offence contained in the clinical records of the observation cases. Ten discoqrse1;i, relating to excuses or justifications for child sexual abuse, were identified by their repeated occurrence in the research material. Identified justifications of child sexual abuse are victim blaming, the belief that men are unable to control their sexual drive, the assertion of power, perceived rights over women, and doubting the evidence of girls and women. Illustrations of these discourses, which are present in both students' essays and groups, as well as in the alleged offenders' accounts, are discussed. These five discourses appear to be pervasive and may be indicative of generally held beliefs which relate to the different positions in which men and women are placed in society