Using systematic sociological introspection, this study is simultaneously a retrospective participant observation of the experience of being sexually abused as a child, and an argument for a new writing format, the “layered account.” Acknowledging that sociology is a personal reflection of the sociologist creating it, the author has structured the layered account to emulate the freedom of the duree. It enables ethnographers to break out of conventional writing formats by integrating abstract theoretical thinking, introspection, emotional experience, fantasies, dreams, and statistics. The author concludes by examining the intertextual quality of the two texts—child sex abuse and social science reporting—presented here.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Agger, Ben.
1989. Reading science: A literary, political, and socioloigcal analysis.New York: General Hall.
2.
Angelou, Maya.
1970. I know why the caged bird sings.New York: Random House.
3.
Bagley, Christopher
, and Kathleen King. 1990. Child sexual abuse: The search for healing.New York: Tavistock/Routledge.
4.
Bagley, Christopher
, and R. Ramsay.1986. Sexual abuse in childhood: Psychosocial outcomes and implications for social work practice.Journal of Social Work and Human Sexuality4:33-47.
5.
Bagley, Christopher
, and L. Young. 1988. Depression, self-esteem, and suicidal behavior as sequels of sexual abuse in childhood: Research and therapy. In Child maltreatment: Expanding our concept of helping, edited by Michael Rothery and Gary Cameron.New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.
6.
Bass, Ellen
, and Louise Thornton. 1983. I never told anyone: Writings by women survivors of child sexual abuse.New York: Harper & Row.
Bourdieu, Pierre.1989. Social space and symbolic power.Sociological Theory7:14-25.
9.
Bourdieu, Pierre
, and Loic J. D. Wacquant. 1992. An invitation to reflexive sociology.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Brownmiller, Susan.
1978. Against our will: Men, women, and rape.Toronto: Bantam.
11.
Davis, Laura.
1990. The courage to heal workbook.New York: Harper & Row.
12.
De Francis, Vincent.
1969. Protecting the child victim of sex crimes committed by adults.Denver: American Humane Association, Children's Division.
13.
Denzin, Norman K.
1992. The many faces of emotionality: Reading persona. In Investigating subjectivity: Research on lived experience, edited by Carolyn Ellis and Michael Flaherty.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
14.
Ellis, Carolyn.1991. Sociological introspection and emotional experience.Symbolic Interaction14:23-50.
15.
Ellis, Carolyn
, and Arthur P. Bochner. 1992. Telling and performing personal stories: The constraints of choice in abortion. In Investigating subjectivity: Research on lived experience, edited by Carolyn Ellis and Michael Flaherty, 79-101. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
16.
Ellis, Carolyn
, and Michael G. Flaherty. 1992. An agenda for the interpretation of lived experience. In Investigating subjectivity, edited by Carolyn Ellis and Michael G. Flaherty, 1-13. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Finkelhor, David
, and Gerald T. Hotaling.1984. Sexual abuse in the national incidence study of child abuse and neglect: An appraisal.Child Abuse and Neglect18:23-33.
19.
Fromuth, M. E.1986. The relationship of childhood sexual abuse with later psychological and sexual adjustment in a sample of college women.Child Abuse and Neglect10:5-15.
20.
Garfinkel, Harold.
1967. Studies in ethnomethodology.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
21.
Giarretto, Henry.
1982. Integrated treatment of child sexual abuse: A treatment and training manual.Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.
22.
Goffman, Erving.
1959. The presentation of self in everyday life.New York: Doubleday.
Groth, A. Nicholas.
1978. Patterns of sexual assault against children and adolescents. In Sexual assault of children and adolescents, edited by Ann Wolbert Burgess, 3-24. Lexington, MA: Lexington.
25.
Herman, Judith Lewis
, and Lisa Hirschman.1977. Father-daughter incest.Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society2:735-756.
26.
Hyde, Margaret O.
1987. Sexual abuse: Let's talk about it.Philadelphia: Westminster.
27.
Johnson, Janice Tyler.
1992. Mothers of incest survivors: Another side of the story.Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
28.
Kempe, C. H.
1984. The common secret: Sexual abuse of children and adolescents.New York: W.H. Freeman.
29.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois.
1988. The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
30.
McCarthy, Thomas.
1978. The critical theory of Jurgen Habermas.Cambridge: MIT Press.
31.
Mead, George Herbert.
1962. Mind, self, and society.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
32.
Merton, Robert K.
1968. On the history and systematics of sociological theory. In Social theory and social structure, 1-38. New York: Free Press.
33.
Orum, Anthony M.
, Joe R. Feagin, and Gideon Sjoberg. 1991. Introduction: The nature of the case study. In The case for the case study, edited by Joe R. Feagin, Anthony M. Orum, and Gideon Sjoberg, 1-26. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
34.
Richardson, Laurel.
1992. The consequences of poetic representation: Writing the other, rewriting the self. In Investigating subjectivity: Research on lived experience, edited by Carolyn Ellis and Michael Flaherty, 125-137. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
35.
Richardson, Laurel
, and Earnest Lockridge.1991. The sea monster: An ethnographic drama.Symbolic Interaction14:335-340.
36.
Riemer, Jeffery W.1977. Varieties of opportunistic research.Urban Life5:467-477.
37.
Ronai, Carol Rambo.
1992. The reflexive self through narrative: A night in the life of an erotic dancer/researcher. In Investigating subjectivity: Research on lived experience, edited by Carolyn Ellis and Michael Flaherty, 102-124. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
38.
Russell, D.E.H.1983. The incidence and prevalence of intrafamilial and extrafamilial sexual assault of female children.Child Abuse and Neglect7:143-146.
39.
Sartre, Jean-Paul.
1952. Saint Genet: Actor and martyr.New York: George Braziller.
40.
Schneider, Joseph W.1991. Troubles with textual authority in sociology.Symbolic Interaction14:295-319.
41.
Schutz, Alfred.
1970. On phenomenology and social relations.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
42.
Scott, James.
1985. Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
43.
Scott, James.
1990. Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
44.
Sjoberg, Gideon
, Norma Williams, Ted R. Vaughn, and Andree F. Sjoberg. 1991. The case study approach in social research: Basic methodological issues. In The case for the case study, edited by Joe R. Feagin, Anthony M. Orum, and Gideon Sjoberg, 27-79. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
45.
Sorrenti-Little, L.
, Christopher Bagley, and S. Robertson.1984. An operational definition of the long term harmfulness of sexual relations with peers and adults by younger children.Canadian Children: Journal of the Canadian Association for Young Children9:46-57.
46.
Summit, R.
, and J. Kryso.1978. Sexual abuse of children in a clinical spectrum.American Journal of Orthopsychiatry48:237-251.
