The trouble with telling: Children's constructions

of sexual abuse
Hlavka, Heather Ruth . University of Minnesota, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2008. 3328312.

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RESUMEN
While it is commonly acknowledged that child sexual abuse is a pervasive problem, children's interpretations of
abuse are generally ignored in the social sciences. Despite the increase of academic literature on sexual abuse
since the 1980s, knowledge bases have not kept pace. This dissertation fills significant gaps in the literature by
appreciating children's understandings of sexual abuse, focusing on how social and cultural meanings of abuse
affect disclosure processes. The purpose of this dissertation is to give children's experiences of sexual abuse
voice in theoretical and empirical literatures. This objective provides empirical illustrations of how culturally- and
ideologically-based meanings of gender, race, sexuality and so forth affect children's interpretations of and
decisions to disclose abuse to others. The goal is to present children's verbal understandings of abuse as a social
experience; in other words, how do children interpret and make social meaning of sexual abuse? How are their
descriptions patterned by demography and case characteristics?
To answer these questions, I analyze ten years of semi-structured videotaped forensic interviews of children (with
accompanying case files) seen for reported or suspected cases of sexual abuse from 1995 to 2004. The
videotaped interviews are from an urban Midwestern non-profit Children's Advocacy Center and were transcribed
verbatim. Using critical discourse analysis from a sociological perspective, I examine how, and under what
conditions, children are willing to disclose sexual abuse and how their disclosures are socially structured and
elaborated by others. The results indicate that interpretation and disclosure is structured by the social practices
and collectivities in which children participate as social beings. The meaning of sexual abuse is negotiated with
others interactionally and changes overtime. This study shows that social and structural factors (e.g., definitions
of abuse, stigmatization, blame, fear of consequences, and social reactions) act as barriers to children's
disclosures and are predominately patterned by gender, age, and race/ethnicity. I address the significance of these
findings for research and practice and how collectively shared resources (e.g., discursive, structural and symbolic)
affect children's abuse interpretations and ultimately act to reproduce power relations and sustain social
hierarchies.

DETALLES

Materia: Criminology; Child abuse &neglect; Sex crimes; Social psychology

Clasificación: 0627: Criminology

Identificador / palabra Social sciences Child sexual abuse Children Disclosure Sexual abuse Victimization
clave:

Título: The trouble with telling: Children's constructions of sexual abuse

Autor: Hlavka, Heather Ruth

Título de publicación: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

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 Número de páginas: 272

Año de publicación: 2008

Fecha de publicación: 2008

Sección: 0130

Editorial: ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

Lugar de publicación: Ann Arbor

País de publicación: United States

ISBN: 9780549809883

Tutor: Uggen, Christopher

Institución: University of Minnesota

Lugar de la institución: United States -- Minnesota

Título universitario: Ph.D.

Tipo de fuente: Dissertations &Theses

Idioma de la publicación: English; EN

Tipo de documento: Dissertation/Thesis

Número de 3328312
publicación/pedido:

ID del documento de 304533169

ProQuest:

URL del documento: https://search.proquest.com/docview/304533169?accountid=45660

Copyright: Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the
individual underlying works.

Última actualización: 2016-06-23

Base de datos: Criminal Justice Database

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