How Adults Tell: Using a Biographical Narrative Interviewing Methodology to Explore Adults’ Experiences of Sexual Abuse in Childhood

Disclosure of sexual abuse can be a process rife with barriers, setbacks and trauma. Those who have experienced sexual abuse in childhood tend to delay disclosure, possibly until adulthood, and can be silenced by structural, societal and personal barriers. Those who do disclose are often referred to as the ‘tip of the iceberg’, highlighting the potentially large hidden population who never come forward. This paper is drawn from a wider study which presented narratives of adults who have disclosed their experiences of childhood sexual abuse to social work services in the Republic of Ireland. In Irish child protection policy such disclosures are called ‘retrospective disclosures’. Recent reports by Irish State bodies have shown that those who have reported their childhood experiences to child protection authorities have not always received the response they would have hoped for (Office of the Ombudsman, 2017; Health Information and Quality Authority, 2016). Since the ‘narrative turn’ in social work research a rich body of work has been produced which explores the use of narrative approaches to address pertinent issues affecting social work practice. Biographical Narrative Interviewing Methodology (BNIM) is one such approach to narrative research and focuses on the presentation of voice and life experience. This paper presents the BNIM data collection process as it was used in the wider study and justifies the rationale for using such a methodology as a means of conducting research on a sensitive topic with a population that are too often silenced. This paper presents how an awareness of the socially constructed environment, the dynamics of abuse and the use of appropriate methodologies can bring such silenced and marginalised voices to the fore.

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Malpractice & Negligence: State Supreme Courts Limit Therapists’ Duties to Third Parties

The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics ◽

10.1017/s1073110500012985 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 204-205

Author(s):

Megan Cleary

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Child Sexual Abuse ◽

Supreme Court ◽

New Hampshire ◽

Third Parties ◽

State Supreme Courts ◽

Recovered Memories ◽

Supreme Courts ◽

Repressed Memory ◽

University Of Colorado

In recent years, the law in the area of recovered memories in child sexual abuse cases has developed rapidly. See J.K. Murray, “Repression, Memory & Suggestibility: A Call for Limitations on the Admissibility of Repressed Memory Testimony in Abuse Trials,” University of Colorado Law Review, 66 (1995): 477-522, at 479. Three cases have defined the scope of liability to third parties. The cases, decided within six months of each other, all involved lawsuits by third parties against therapists, based on treatment in which the patients recovered memories of sexual abuse. The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in Hungerford v. Jones, 722 A.2d 478 (N.H. 1998), allowed such a claim to survive, while the supreme courts in Iowa, in J.A.H. v. Wadle & Associates, 589 N.W.2d 256 (Iowa 1999), and California, in Eear v. Sills, 82 Cal. Rptr. 281 (1991), rejected lawsuits brought by nonpatients for professional liability.

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Childhood Sexual Abuse: An Evidence Based Perspective

Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing ◽

10.1046/j.1365-2850.2000.287to289.4.x ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 376-377

Author(s):

Jim Richardson

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽

Evidence Based

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Childhood sexual abuse and dissociation in Japan: A clinical overview from an outpatient clinic standpoint

Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences ◽

10.1046/j.1440-1819.1998.0520s5s151.x ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 52 (S1) ◽

pp. S111-S115 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

SATORU SAITO

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽

Outpatient Clinic ◽

Clinical Overview

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Survey Says Encopresis in Boys Can Be a Sign of Sexual Abuse

Pediatric News ◽

10.1016/s0031-398x(07)70173-x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 31

Author(s):

TIMOTHY F. KIRN

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse

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Effectiveness of Programs for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000379 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 1-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Amaia Del Campo ◽

Marisalva Fávero

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Sexual Abuse ◽

New Zealand ◽

Critical Analysis ◽

Prevention Programs ◽

The United States ◽

Sexual Abuse Prevention ◽

Negative Effects ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Methodological Considerations

Abstract. During the last decades, several studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of sexual abuse prevention programs implemented in different countries. In this article, we present a review of 70 studies (1981–2017) evaluating prevention programs, conducted mostly in the United States and Canada, although with a considerable presence also in other countries, such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The results of these studies, in general, are very promising and encourage us to continue this type of intervention, almost unanimously confirming its effectiveness. Prevention programs encourage children and adolescents to report the abuse experienced and they may help to reduce the trauma of sexual abuse if there are victims among the participants. We also found that some evaluations have not considered the possible negative effects of this type of programs in the event that they are applied inappropriately. Finally, we present some methodological considerations as critical analysis to this type of evaluations.

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