I've been studying prolonged incest for many years - some sexually abusive fathers abuse their daughters into adulthood. I'm a co-author on this new paper led by Kate McMaugh, based on interviews with 10 therapists working with this population. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
This group of women experience lifelong coercive control from their fathers, rather than intimate/ex partners, and so fall outside domestic and family violence frameworks, although they also live in fear of sadistic, controlling and threatening men.
The paper explores how incestuous abuse presents in clinical settings and therapists' conceptualisations of these cases, including the role of attachment, dissociation, family collusion and social isolation in reinforcing paternal coercive control over their adult daughters.
This pattern of perpetration challenges the assumption that child sexual abuse ends in childhood, or that CSA victims and survivors do not face ongoing threats to their safety in adulthood. We can't protect victims from abuse that we refuse to name or recognise.
I first wrote about prolonged incest over 10 years ago. Victims are still struggling to access effective care and intervention. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
@mike_salter Absolutely chilling. I’m glad you’re doing the research and I’m sure it’s not easy.