Sibling sexual abuse

[walkitout]

Every few years, I take a look around to see if anyone is talking about this yet. I talk about _everything_ because, well, I'm inherently inappropriate. It's just the way I am. But this topic is amazingly, persistently inappropriate. I've been quite forthright about what happened when I was young, but it has been insanely hard to find any resources.

There's finally stuff out there!

http://www.pandys.org/articles/siblingsexualabuse.html

With like, definitions and everything!

"Sibling child sexual abuse is defined as "sexual behavior between siblings that is not age appropriate, not transitory, and not motivated by developmentally, mutually appropriate curiosity" (Caffaro & Conn-Caffaro, 1998)."

Yeah, that sounds about right.

"More specifically, studies have shown that between 2% (Leder, 1991) and 4% (Finkelhor, 1999) of people have been sexually victimized by a sibling as the sexual contact involved some degree of forced or coercive activity."

Low percentages. I feel ... special?

"However, the line is crossed from sexual exploration to sexual abuse when sexual activity occurs between siblings where there is a significant difference in developmental age (more than 3 years), or where there is any use of force, tricks or coercion by one of the siblings."

Love those rules! Yeah, that one applies.

I guess the good news is, people are finally talking about this. Yay? And people wonder why I am such a firm believer in adult supervision.

Comments

Re: I'm trying to figure out what happened

[walkitout]

If anyone feels ambitious, this book appears to be an expose about the guru in question and another guy.

http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Lies-Hindu-Gurus-Cult--ebook/dp/B009BDS3PG/

And it really needs to be said . . .

[walkitout]

It's important to remember to be compassionate to people with an abuse background and/or serious mental health issues. Well, we should try to remember to be compassionate to everyone, but _especially_ people who have been maltreated and who suffer mental health problems that were triggered or exacerbated by that abuse.

It would seem to me that the online breadcrumbs of Allison Conn-Caffaro's life are unfortunate, but indicative of serious issues that no one could successfully deal with without significant support and assistance throughout the life process. It's tragic that her journey took such a terrible turn.