CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: PERSPECTIVES OF SYSTEMS
THEORISTS AND SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISTS
This research reviews literature relevant to the perceptions of child sexual abuse (CSA) by systems theorists and symbolic interactionists. The initial section of this review covers literature related to the phenomenon of child abuse, while the second section assesses the perspectives of the systems theorists and the symbolic interactionists.
The Phenomenon of Child Sexual Abuse
American society is becoming increasingly sensitized to sex-related criminal behavior. Politicians, social service professionals, criminal justice professionals, and other responsible parties are under increasing pressures to develop and implement policies that will both protect the public, provide assistance to victims, and provide help to the extent possible to the perpetrators of sexual offenses.
There are strong societal tendencies to blame victims for the sexual abuse perpetrated against them. Some perpetrators of sexual abuse continue to hold the view that such behavior is not an act of violence (Melville, 1991, p. 24). The motives for sexual assault on children usually involve power and lust to some degree. Until the combination of these two factors are effectively addressed in the thinking of both society and the individual members of society, one can expect that sexual assault generally and child sexual assault particularly will continue. Most family systems theorists place the origins of CSA in disturbances in family structure and interaction patterns (the two conceptual frameworks addressed in this literature review); however, feminist theorists link child sexual abuse to wider practices of male oppression (Frosh, 1988, pp. 1-10). Both the systems theory perspective and the symbolic interaction perspective in relation to CSA are considered to be orthodox approaches to the analysis and treatment of the phenomenon (MacLeod and Saraga, 1988, pp. 1...