scholarly journals Who is worthy of help? Constructing the stereotype of the “ideal victim” of child sexual abuse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Eelmaa ◽  
Maria Murumaa-Mengel
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Social Scripts ◽  
Victim Status ◽  
Qualitative Thematic Analysis ◽  
Sexual Abuse Victims ◽  
The Ideal

The stereotype of the “ideal victim” often determines who is considered deserving of victim status, especially in sexual violence cases. In this Chapter, we explore how is the so-called “ideal victim” stereotype constructed and what are the elements necessary for the perception of “ideal victimhood.” We use empirical data from an unmoderated anonymous Estonian online forum that hosts various topic threads from children and young people, including posts about personally experienced sexual violence (N=28) and replies to these posts (N=361). The data was analyzed by combining a discursive psychological approach with qualitative thematic analysis. Results reveal and illustrate how the stereotype is constructed from various elements and characteristics of social scripts, perceived gender roles, and misconceptions about sexuality. We unveil how these social constructions affect responses and attitudes towards sexual abuse victims to provide input for designing prevention efforts that support disclosure and help-seeking.

scholarly journals Who is worthy of help? Constructing the stereotype of the “ideal victim” of child sexual abuse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Eelmaa ◽  
Maria Murumaa-Mengel
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Social Scripts ◽  
Qualitative Thematic Analysis ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sexual Abuse Victims ◽  
The Ideal

<div><div><div><p>The stereotype of the “ideal victim” often determines who is considered deserving of victim status, especially in sexual violence cases. In this Chapter, we explore how is the so-called “ideal victim” stereotype constructed and what are the elements necessary for the perception of “ideal victimhood.” We use empirical data from an unmoderated anonymous Estonian online forum that hosts various topic threads from children and young people, including posts about personally experienced sexual violence (N=28) and replies to these posts (N=361). The data was analyzed by combining a discursive psychological approach with qualitative thematic analysis. Results reveal and illustrate how the stereotype is constructed from various elements and characteristics of social scripts, perceived gender roles, and misconceptions about sexuality. We unveil how these social constructions affect responses and attitudes towards sexual abuse victims to provide input for designing prevention efforts that support disclosure and help-seeking.</p><p><br></p><div><div><div><p>This Chapter will soon appear in the book Child Sexual Abuse and the Media (publisher: NOMOS).</p></div></div></div></div></div></div>

scholarly journals Who is worthy of help? Constructing the stereotype of the “ideal victim” of child sexual abuse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Eelmaa ◽  
Maria Murumaa-Mengel
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Social Scripts ◽  
Qualitative Thematic Analysis ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sexual Abuse Victims ◽  
The Ideal

<div><div><div><p>The stereotype of the “ideal victim” often determines who is considered deserving of victim status, especially in sexual violence cases. In this Chapter, we explore how is the so-called “ideal victim” stereotype constructed and what are the elements necessary for the perception of “ideal victimhood.” We use empirical data from an unmoderated anonymous Estonian online forum that hosts various topic threads from children and young people, including posts about personally experienced sexual violence (N=28) and replies to these posts (N=361). The data was analyzed by combining a discursive psychological approach with qualitative thematic analysis. Results reveal and illustrate how the stereotype is constructed from various elements and characteristics of social scripts, perceived gender roles, and misconceptions about sexuality. We unveil how these social constructions affect responses and attitudes towards sexual abuse victims to provide input for designing prevention efforts that support disclosure and help-seeking.</p><p><br></p><div><div><div><p>This Chapter will soon appear in the book Child Sexual Abuse and the Media (publisher: NOMOS).</p></div></div></div></div></div></div>

Predictors of PTSD Among Child Sexual Abuse Victims

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A. Wolfe ◽  
◽  
L. Sas ◽  
C. Wekerle
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Abuse Victims

A dissociative subtype of PTSD among help-seeking childhood sexual abuse survivors

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karni Ginzburg ◽  
Cheryl Koopman ◽  
Oxana Palesh ◽  
Lisa D. Butler ◽  
Helena C. Kraemer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Abuse Survivors ◽  
Sexual Abuse Survivors ◽  
Dissociative Subtype

Which sexual abuse victims receive a forensic medical examination?

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1053-1068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy A. Walsh ◽  
Theodore P. Cross ◽  
Lisa M. Jones ◽  
Monique Simone ◽  
David J. Kolko
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Medical Examination ◽  
Sexual Abuse Victims

scholarly journals Cultures of Abuse: ‘Sex Grooming’, Organised Abuse and Race in Rochdale, UK

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Salter ◽  
Selda Dagistanli
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Children At Risk ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
International Media ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Racial Issues

Revelations of organised abuse by men of Asian heritage in the United Kingdom have become a recurrent feature of international media coverage of sexual abuse in recent years. This paper reflects on the similarities between the highly publicised ‘sex grooming’ prosecutions in Rochdale in 2012 and the allegations of organised abuse in Rochdale that emerged in 1990, when twenty children were taken into care after describing sadistic abuse by their parents and others. While these two cases differ in important aspects, this paper highlights the prominence of colonial ideologies of civilisation and barbarism in the investigation and media coverage of the two cases and the sublimation of the issue of child welfare. There are important cultural and normative antecedents to sexual violence but these have been misrepresented in debates over organised abuse as racial issues and attributed to ethnic minority communities. In contrast, the colonialist trope promulgating the fictional figure of the rational European has resulted in the denial of the cultural and normative dimensions of organised abuse in ethnic majority communities by attributing sexual violence to aberrant and sexually deviant individuals whose behaviours transgress the boundaries of accepted cultural norms. This paper emphasises how the implicit or explicit focus on race has served to obscure the power dynamics underlying both cases and the continuity of vulnerability that places children at risk of sexual and organised abuse.

scholarly journals We Still Have Mutual Friends

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sierra Burrier
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Qualitative Interview ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Qualitative Interview Study ◽  
The World

The project We Still Have Mutual Friends is a qualitative interview study into women’s experiences with sexualviolence. Through the interview process, mostly face-to-face recorded interviews, I have evaluated multiplefacets of sexual abuse/marginalization and their consequences on survivors. In total, I interviewed thirty-twowomen about their familial background, their adolescence, and depending on their age, their life experienceswith their sexuality. Some of the facets I have focused on are the disparity between a subject’s definition andtheir experience of sexual assault. I have also evaluated their self-awareness of this disparity, and why they thinkit occurs. I tried as much as I could, to ask questions in an order/way that did not create preferential answering.Because these interviews followed a standard oral history format of open-ended questions with follow-ups basedon the interviewee’s answers, instances of leading answers were possible. Seventeen out of thirty-two womenwere white, with the next largest group being Hispanic, and then Black. With ages ranging from eighteen upto fifty-eight, several generational voices are accounted for. While there were certain trends found within typesof assault, and who it was (trends not entirely new to us), one thing I discovered is a similar background everyperson shared with their family. All the women had at some point experienced some sort of “body policing.” Ihope this project has provided a more holistic view into the world of sexual violence that women face.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document