Sexual violence in families: the perpetrators are often the fathers

A recent study shows how difficult it is to identify sexual violence in the family. Because the perpetrators are mostly the fathers – and they often manage to maintain the appearance of normality.

In cases of abuse in the family environment, according to the victims, their parents are most often the perpetrators. This is the result of a study presented by the Independent Commission on the Coming up with Child Sexual Abuse. According to this, almost every second perpetrator (48 percent) is the biological father, stepfather or foster father. Overall, the study made 87 percent male and 13 percent female perpetrators. Those affected also named uncles, brothers, grandfathers and other male and female relatives – mothers, step-mothers and foster mothers make up ten percent of the perpetrators.

For the study “Sexual violence in the family. Social analysis of sexual violence against children and young people from 1945 to the present”, 870 confidential hearings and written reports were evaluated. It is the result of a five-year research project and was created alongside the work of the processing commission. The research project was carried out by scientists from the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.

Seldom interventions in the family from outside

The majority of the victims were female – only about ten percent were boys and male adolescents. The victims were threatened, beaten or even beaten up by the perpetrators. Other family members, especially mothers, often did not believe or helped them and condoned the abuse.

Many victims experienced the violence by more than one person inside and outside the family. Almost every second child was abused before the age of six and lasted for many years. Their torment was seldom ended by outside interference. The scientists see an explanation in the fact that the reluctance to intervene in family matters is particularly great, not only among private individuals, but also among specialists in the youth welfare office.

Children cannot just leave the family

The perpetrators often manage to maintain the appearance of normality. The children are therefore dependent on an attentive environment and must be able to rely on the fact that the protection of privacy does not mean that they are themselves defenseless, explained the authors of the study.

A major difference to other contexts of crime is that children usually cannot simply leave their family, such as a sports club. Those affected also reported that they had tried again and again to escape the violence. Some spoke of suicidal thoughts, many ran away from home. According to the scientists involved, further processing steps are necessary.

Among other things, it must be clarified on the basis of reports from those affected how youth welfare offices had acted and whether and how help was effective. The Commission recently commissioned a case study on this.