Abuso sexual e sociometria: um estudo dos vínculos afetivos em famílias incestuosas

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to characterize the affectional bonds of families affected by incestuous relationships. The study population consisted of five families, in which children of the female sex had been abused by the father or stepfather, attending a psychosocial care service (Projeto Sentinela) for children and adolescents suffering sexual abuse, affiliated to a state reference center for children and adolescents exposed to violence (Centro de Referência de Atenção à Criança e ao Adolescente Vítimas de Violência, Secretaria de Ação Social do Governo do Estado do Ceará). Victims were seven years old or over. A sociometric test was employed surveying social structures through choices and rejections observed within the social group. The test provided information on sociometric group structure, individual social status as well as negative and positive affectional bonds. Our findings show that victims suffered from lowered self-esteem and perception deficit, that mothers are attributed a high social status within the group, that victims are in good social standing in the group though unaware of the fact, and that aggressors are viewed by the familiy as rejectees and, if left unassisted, a source of tension and threat to the overall group balance. The affectional bonds observed varied according to family characteristics, time and cultural and social context, suggesting that incestuous behavior may be associated with such factors and should not be analyzed from the psychological perspective alone. The dysfunctional relationships observed in incestuous families point to the need for deconstructing the common belief that incest is the fault of mothers and victims and that aggressors are necessarily perverse. Aggressors should be included in interventions in consideration of their psychological distress and affectional relationships within the group. It considers that the deepened knowledge of the affective bonds in the incestuous families can serve of subsidy for the creation of programs and projects in the area of the public politics, a time that makes use of instruments that can make possible a precocious diagnosis of the cases, to provide the means for someone else to qualify the professionals, as much in the aspect how much emotional technician to deal it with the relative questions to the sexual violence, as well as supplying to therapeutical methods the individuals and reached groups.