Transcript To tell or not to tell? Child sexual abuse disclosures: An Irish perspective

Child sexual abuse disclosures:
An Irish perspective
Rosaleen McElvaney
Dublin City University
The Irish story
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1978 – Child Abuse Guidelines
1979 – establishment of Rape
Crisis Centre
1988 – Child sexual abuse
assessment centres
The ‘X’ case
1994 – ‘Suffer Little Children’ TV
documentary. Fr. Brendan
Smyth
1996 – Dear Daughter TV
documentary
1998 The Roderick Murphy
Inquiry – investigation into
swimming authorities
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1999 – States of Fear TV
documentary
2000 - Commission to Inquire
into Child Abuse Act
2002 Suing the Pope &
Cardinal Secrets TV
documentaries
2002 – Residential Institutions
Redress Act
2005, 2006 – Ferns Report,
Archdiocese of Dublin Report,
Cloyne Report
2009 Report of the commission
to inquire into child abuse in
Ireland, 2009
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Ireland
 Population
c4.5 million
 10% immigrants
 “The most catholic country in the world”
(Blanchard, 1954, p.17)
 93% of Irish respondents who were raised
as catholics still claim this affiliation.
Although mass attendance has declined
(90% once a week in 1973, 62% in 1988,
43% in 2008, Nic Ghiolla Phadraig, 2009)
Prevalence csa worldwide
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Prevalence rates for penetrative child sexual
abuse are higher for girls ranging from 2.9% to
10.5% (Sweden); 3% (UK); 4.9% (Turkey); 5.6%
(Ireland); 7.8% (Greenland); and for boys,
ranging from 0.6% and 5.5% (Sweden); 1% (UK);
2.7% (Ireland); and 3.2% (Greenland).
Broader definitions of contact sexual abuse
range from 10% (UK); 11.3% (Turkey); 13.9%
(Sweden); 15.8% (Denmark); 19% (Spain); 20.4%
(Ireland); 39.8% (Switzerland) for girls; and for
boys ranging 6% (UK); 6.7% (Denmark); 15.2%
(Sweden); 15.5% (Spain); 16.2% (Ireland).
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(Lalor & McElvaney, 2010)
Prevalence in Ireland
 SAVI
(McGee et al., 2002)
 1 in 5 women (20.4%) contact
 1 in 10 (10%) non-contact
 1 in 6 men (16.2%) contact
 1 in 14 (7.4%) non contact
 Overall, almost one third of women
(30.3%) and a quarter of Irish men (23.6%)
reported some level of sexual abuse in
childhood in Ireland.
Disclosure
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Priebe and Svedin
(2008)
N= 4,339 adolescents
n=1962 some form of
sexual abuse(65% of
girls and 23% of boys).
59.5 told no-one
‘friend of my own age’
6.8% reported to
authorities
 McGee et al.
(2002)
 N=3,118 adults
 Unwanted sexual
experiences under age
of 17 years
 47% told no one
before the survey
Delay in First Disclosure (n=162)
29%
33%
Immediately
< 6 Months
> 6 Months
33%
Missing
5%
McElvaney, R. & Lloyd, A. (2014). Informal disclosures of
child sexual abuse: A retrospective analysis. ISPCAN
European Congress, Dublin.
n=162
129 female
33 male
Age 10-17
41%
intrafamilial
25%
penetrative
abuse
Conceptual Model - Disclosure
 Containing
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the secret
Active withholding
Pressure cooker effect
Confiding
 McElvaney,
R., Greene, S. & Hogan (2011).
Containing the secret of child sexual abuse.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, doi:
10.11/770886260511424503
Active withholding
C: I tried so many times to tell me Mam to tell me
dad like to tell me brother. Like I used to just
come in and say ‘Mam I’ve something to tell
you’ and then she’d say ‘what?’ an I’d say
‘No it doesn’t matter I’m only messing with
you’ …and then I used to even think about telling
me old primary school teacher … an then I tried to
tell me brother. I remember one day he was coming
out of his bedroom an I was like ‘(brother)’ he
said ‘what?’ an eh I said ‘ah nothing it doesn’t
matter’. He said ‘what’s wrong with you?’ an
eh I says ‘Nothing it doesn’t matter’ an like I
remember that night like and just crying and crying
like and not knowing what to do like ringing
(boyfriend) and saying ‘oh I can’t tell anybody I
don’t know what to do’.
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R: it sounds like you were really trying so hard
C: aw it was unreal
R: how long was that going on for that you were
actually trying to tell somebody?
C: about 2 years (C09).
Pressure cooker effect
“I didn’t tell anyone for a
good few months and it
was killing me” (C20),
“I kinda just tried to bury
it and it didn’t work cos
it kept coming up to the
surface every now and
again and I’d get angry
and cry and I’d run up to
my room” (C08).
Confiding
 “we
were talking about our problems… and
em we were trying to help her with that.
And then like out of nowhere like I just
felt like saying it. Cos it was like built up
and all of a sudden I just said it” (C08)
Containing the secret
 Sample
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of 29 young people
Only family members (n=6)
Schools unaware (n=11)
Siblings unaware (n=2)
Extended family unaware (n=2)
 Emotional
response to abuse is ‘unmodulated
and uncontained’ (Bentovim, 2002)
 Self containment as means of self-regulating
emotional impact of abuse; containment within
relationships
To tell or not to tell?
 being
believed
 being asked
 shame/self-blame
 fears and concerns for self and others
 peer influence
McElvaney, R. Greene,, & Hogan, D. (2014). To tell or not to tell?
Factors influencing young people’s
infomal disclosures of child sexual abuse,
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29, 5, 928–947
DOI: 10.1177/0886260513506281
Current study
 Retrospective
analysis of children’s files
 Potential sample of 1,000
 Pilot study (n=39 files)
 Gender: 32 females, 7 males
 Age: 2-15 at beginning of abuse, 3-17 at
time of assessment
 40% (n=15) intrafamilial abuse
 40% (n=15) penile penetration
Content analysis (n=39)
Theme
no
%
Feeling distressed
26
66%
Opportunity to tell
23
59%
Fears for self
21
54%
Peer influence
14
36%
Concerns for
others
12
31%
Being believed
11
28%
Shame/guilt
11
28%
Books to read – Irish context
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McKay, S. (1998). Sophia’s Story. Dublin:Liffey Press
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Travers, O.,(1999). Behind the silhouettes: Exploring the myths of child
sexual abuse.
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McGee H. et al., 200The SAVI Report: Sexual Abuse and Violence in
Ireland. Fublin: The Liffey Press
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The end of innocence: Child sexual abuse in Ireland (Ed., Lalor, K.,
2001) http://arrow.dit.ie/aaschsslbk/1/
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Raftery, M. & O’Sullivan (1996). Suffer the little children. Dublin: New
Island
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Goode,H. McGee, H. & O’Boyle,C., (2003). Time to listen: Confronting
child sexual abuse by catholic clergy in Ireland. Dublin: The Liffey
Press.
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Kavanagh, J.,J & P & Quinn, M., (2011)Click, click click.
Dublin:Hatchette Books
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Keenan, M., (2011). Child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church.
New York: Oxford University Press