Sexual Violence in a family

Sexual Violence in a Family

Introduction

Ideally, families provide all members with mutual love, respect, and support. An alternate disturbing reality is that the majority of elder abuse takes place within the context of family. This entry examines elder abuse that occurs within the context of a family, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and abuse perpetrated by adult children and grandchildren against parents and older relatives.

Although many advances have been made regarding the study of abuse over the last three decades, research related to intra-familial violence conducted by social science researchers has largely ignored the experience of sibling abuse (Wakefield, 2006). The lack of attention prohibits any one definition of sibling abuse from being accepted. Sibling abuse is complex, understudied, and not always easily identifiable beyond the confines of what is considered sibling rivalry.

Three facets to consider when defining sibling abuse are perception, intent, and severity. Perception refers to how each sibling frames the interaction. For example, if one sibling involved in a sibling dyad views the behavior as abusive, regardless of his or her role as survivor or perpetrator, a dynamic beyond the scope of “normal” sibling rivalry is likely present. Intent involves what a sibling hoped to accomplish through an action or behavior (Zink & Regan, 2003). When sibling abuse is present, the intent of the perpetrating brother or sister is primarily to cause harm rather than to gain access to limited family resources such as space, time, and/or affection. Severity is related to the duration and intensity of the abusive sibling behavior. As severity increases there is greater probability that the sibling relationship is abusive. Perception, intent, and severity exist within three primary categories of sibling abuse: psychological, physical, and sexual.

Psychological sibling abuse is the category of abuse in the sibling relationship that is the most difficult to define. In large part, the difficulty exists because it is often challenging to identify where sibling rivalry ends and psychological abuse begins, contributing to the phenomenon in which parents and guardians ignore or dismiss abusive actions. Some examples of psychological sibling abuse include words and actions expressing degradation and/or contempt, such as harming pets, excessive mocking, threatening, intimidating, aggravating, and destroying a sibling's belongings. These actions have a negative impact on the sense of well-being (security, self-esteem, hopefulness, interpersonal functioning) of a sibling.

Physical abuse inflicted by a sibling is more easily defined and recognized than psychological sibling abuse. Physical sibling abuse exists when one member of a sibling dyad knowingly and intentionally causes physical harm to the other sibling.

Discussion Body

According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, elder abuse is any knowing, intended, or careless act that causes harm or serious risk of harm to an individual age 60 or above. This broad term encompasses many types of mistreatment (Zink, Jacobson & Regan, 2004):

Physical abuse is the use of force to threaten or physically injure a vulnerable elder.

Emotional abuse encompasses verbal attacks, harassment, threats to evict or institutionalize, rejection, isolation from friends or family, destroying ...