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Martijn, FM, 2024. What about the family? Exploring the role of familial dysfunction in intrafamilial child sexual abuse offending. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.
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Abstract
Intrafamilial child sexual abuse offending is a serious and prevalent form of sexual offending, but it is poorly understood. Evolutionary psychology explanations theorise that intrafamilial child sexual abuse happens when kinship recognition mechanisms fail – however, research findings so far are inconsistent. Individual disposition explanations theorise that intrafamilial child sexual abuse happens when motivating (i.e., atypical sexuality) and facilitating (i.e., antisociality) dispositions are sufficiently high to overcome barriers to offending – however, research finds that men who commit intrafamilial child sexual abuse offences are relatively low on these dispositions. Familial dysfunction explanations of intrafamilial child sexual abuse seem logical and intuitive. For example, intrafamilial child sexual abuse offending might happen when abuse is continued through generations, when children are used as a sexual surrogate, or within a wider pattern of familial transgression and abuse. However, research on these family dysfunction explanations has been markedly lacking. Thus, the aim of this dissertation is to multi-methodologically explore what the role of familial dysfunction is in intrafamilial child sexual abuse offending.
The first study meta-analysed risk (k = 18) and prevalence (k = 39) of familial dysfunction across several domains (i.a., socio-economic stressors, dysfunctional relationships, and nonsexual abuse), and found that familial dysfunction was significantly higher in families in which intrafamilial child sexual abuse had occurred, than in families with extrafamilial or no (intrafamilial) child sexual abuse. The second study (N = 118) explored three theoretical explanations of father-child incest, comparing 34 (biological and sociolegal) fathers convicted of incest offences with 37 fathers and 25 non-fathers convicted of extrafamilial child sexual offences, and 22 fathers convicted of nonsexual offences. The findings indicated little support for kinship recognition mechanisms, some nuanced findings for individual dispositions (particularly sexuality), and most support for familial dysfunction. The last study qualitatively explored the intimate relationships of six fathers convicted of incestuously abusing their children, and identified intergenerational dysfunction, utilitarian fathering, entitlement to intimacy, and rejection and humiliation as central experiences.
The findings of this dissertation emphasise that familial dysfunction is pathognomonic to intrafamilial child sexual abuse offending, and that familial dysfunction might have an important precipitating and perpetuating role. Contextualising intrafamilial child sexual abuse offending as situated in familial dysfunction could therefore greatly advance our understanding of intrafamilial child sexual abuse offending and sexual offending in general, and could subsequently aid the further development of prevention and intervention efforts in child sexual abuse victimisation.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Creators: | Martijn, F.M. |
| Contributors: | Name Role NTU ID ORCID |
| Date: | December 2024 |
| Rights: | This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights. |
| Divisions: | Schools > School of Social Sciences |
| Record created by: | Laura Borcherds |
| Date Added: | 10 Jun 2025 15:28 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Jun 2025 15:28 |
| URI: | https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53725 |
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0477-2492Actions (login required)
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