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Documents |
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| NCJ Number:
|
NCJ 151979
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| Title:
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Universality of Incest
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| Journal:
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Journal of Psychohistory Volume:19 Issue:2 Dated:special issue (Fall 1991) Pages:123-164
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| Author(s):
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L Demause
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| Publication Date:
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1991 |
| Pages:
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42 |
| Type:
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Histories/historical perspectives |
| Origin:
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United States |
| Language:
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English |
| Annotation:
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This essay considers evidence to support the hypothesis that incest itself, and not the absence of incest, has been universal for most people in most places at most times. |
| Abstract:
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The study further hypothesizes that the earlier in history one searches, the more evidence there is of universal incest, just as there is more evidence of other forms of child abuse. Two kinds of incest are considered: direct incest (overt sexual activity between family members other than spouses) and indirect incest (parents providing their children to others for sexual molestation). The first section reviews various psychoanalytic views on the reality of incest, including those held by Freud, Bonaparte, Jacobson, Greenacre, Reich, Rheingold, and Fliess. It notes that although early psychoanalysts had evidence of childhood sexual abuse, they usually paid little attention to it in their case histories. In recent years, psychoanalysts have begun to report uncovering considerable early sexual abuse that was previously unrecognized. This section is followed by a review of evidence of childhood sexual abuse in contemporary Western societies and pedophilia in the East and Middle East. The author comments that although the rates of childhood molestation are high in contemporary Western countries, the incidence in countries outside the West is likely to be much higher. This is because they have only recently moved beyond what the author terms the "infanticidal mode of childrearing," whereby as much as half of the children born were killed by their parents, children were used for the emotional needs of adults, and general attitudes fostered widespread incestuous acts. 200 footnotes |
| Main Term(s):
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Child victims |
| Index Term(s):
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Criminology ; Incest ; Child sexual abuse ; Cross cultural analyses |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=151979
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