Abstract
Martin et al’s paper on experiences of child sexual assault in a cohort of 21-year-old Australians (Martin et al. 2011), represents a considerable effort and an impressive data set and sample size. In a sample of this size the findings that 10% of girls and 8% of boys reporting penetrative sexual abuse before the age of 16 years, provides a sobering, yet helpful, addition to prevalence data on child sexual assault.
What is less helpful is the focus on maternal factors as causative in the occurrence of child sexual assault. The authors claim that to consider these factors reflects an ‘ecological’ understanding of child sexual assault. However, a real risk exists that this represents a return to the understandings of the 1970s and earlier when mothers were held responsible for the abuse of their children through their hostility or frigidity (Cormier et al., 1962), pushing their offspring into the maternal role, becoming the father’s sexual partner, (Raphling et al., 1967, Justice and Justice, 1979, Heims and Kaufman, 1963) or by knowingly allowing abuse to continue (Kemp R and Kemp H, 1978).
Since that time considerable research has established that child sexual offending is in most instances a planned event or, series of events, in which perpetrators target vulnerable children, systematically establishing barriers to prevent the child disclosing, or being believed. Part of such an approach may include targeting vulnerable women who may be less able to protect their child. In attending to maternal behaviour, this study unwittingly harkens back to the earlier and discredited literature, rendering invisible once again the actions of the perpetrator.
In fact the associations hypothesised by the authors were not strong, suggesting that maternal socio-economic status is a weak predictor of abuse. Those associations which were found to be relevant, such as maternal educational levels and anxiety, may flag, not maternal responsibility as such, but maternal vulnerability to a potential offender. It is to be hoped that the authors will use these findings as a prompt to undertake further research informed by the known dynamics of abuse. In this way they may bring new light to bear on this subject rather than reintroduce old stereotypes that divert attention away from those responsible, that is, the perpetrators of abuse.
See Original Article by Martin et al., 45(8): 629–637.