Child Sexual Abuse - Multiple Abuse And Polyincest

M. Sue Crowley and Brenda L. Seery sought to address what they believed to be a gap in studies on childhood sexual abuse—the study of multiple abuse and polyincest. In "Exploring the Multiplicity of Childhood Sexual Abuse with a Focus on Polyincestuous Contexts of Abuse" (Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, vol. 10, no. 4, 2001), the authors found that, in a sample of eighty-eight adult women undergoing treatment for childhood sexual abuse, 43% reported having been sexually molested by multiple (three or more) abusers and 23% reported having experienced polyincest. The authors described a polyincestuous situation as one in which more than one family member related by blood, adoption, or marriage is involved in the sexual abuse of other family members.

Of the eighty-eight women, thirty agreed to extensive interviews. Among this group, fourteen women reported polyincestuous abuse, including six who were molested by female relatives in addition to experiencing sexual abuse by male perpetrators. Upon disclosure of abuse, all single-abuse, multiple-abuse, and polyincest victims suffered different forms of silencing, including minimizing and denial of the abuse. Compared to single-abuse and multiple-abuse victims, victims of polyincest received very little or no support from friends and authorities. They also suffered threats from family members for revealing their abuse, therefore allowing the perpetrator to victimize the child again over time.