Facts about Incest • Children will most likely have

• Incest can and does happen but most

ambivalent feelings toward the offender.
They may have enjoyed the extra
Myths and
attention and the offender may have
people do not like to talk about it.
appeared very loving to them. Sometimes
the child has been threatened by the
Facts about
• 75-80% of incest victims are
molested by someone they know, e.g.
family members, relatives or close
offender.

• Some non-offending mothers are

Incest
friends.
aware of the incest but take no action. The
reasons for this are complicated. Most of
• Young boys and girls are equally
them were emotionally, physically, and/or
vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
economically dependent on the offender.
Many of them are as controlled by the
• 95% of all reported offenders are offender as the victim. A majority of those
male. Sexual abuse by female who do not know of the abuse suffer from
perpetrators may be under-reported and shock, disbelief, and sometimes denial.
may include: inappropriate intimacy, They suffer guilt, self-blame and shame.
tickling or touching a child's genitals, For all non-offending mothers disclosure
walking in on children while they are means their life is going to be more
bathing or undressing. difficult...they may lose their means of
support.
• Incest perpetrators are individuals
who are attracted to children and willing • The damage of incest includes: children
to act on that attraction. They are being denied their childhood, children
generally not mentally ill or “different” being denied a loving and nurturing
relationship of trust, children being
• Children are very unlikely to make up exploited and betrayed by a person in a
stories of incest that has not actually position of authority or trust.
happened.
• Incest typically goes on for several
• Children are sensual. Children who are years prior to discovery. It is not confined
abused sexually learn usually at a very to one child but can involve other The Crisis Centre
young age that in order to get their needs children in the household. P.O.Box EE-17910
met they must act provocatively. They
begin to equate love with sex. They begin • Adults often do not talk about incest Nassau Bahamas
behaving in "sexual" ways to get because of they feel uncomfortable.
affection. Their behaviour is labeled
seductive by adults. Incest crosses all social-economic, 24-Hour Hotline: 328-0922
race, and class barriers. Family Violence Unit: 322-4999
It happens in both rural and urban Fax: 328-7824
areas. email: [email protected]
www.bahamascrisiscentre.org
What is Incest? The child's age may range from a baby, Myths about Incest
preschool, school age, teenager and older.
Incest is a form of sexual abuse which is — Children are usually molested by
particularly traumatic because it breaks Some of the effects of incest include strangers.
the trust a child has placed in someone alcoholism, drug addiction, self-injury,
who is normally caring and nurturing. prostitution, promiscuity and sexual — Incest is a rare occurrence.
dysfunction. Eating or sleeping disorders,
Incest includes: headaches, back or stomach pains are just — Incest only happens in lower income
a few of the physical consequences that a group homes
victim of incest may suffer. Alcohol and/or
• sexual touching or non-touching,
drugs, food and sex, deaden painful — Only young girls are victims of incest.
memories of the abuse and help the victim
• verbal seduction or abuse, temporarily forget the abuse. — Women offend as frequently as men, it
just is not reported.
• anal or vaginal intercourse, A number of emotional problems may
emerge from the abuse, including inability — The offending male is either psychotic
to trust, perfectionism, phobias, and fear
• oral sex, or retarded.
of intimacy.
— It is only homosexuals who abuse
• sodomy,
If you are, or anyone you know children of their own sex.
is, being abused, please call the
• manual stimulation, — Children lie about incest.
Crisis Centre on 328-0922.
• direct threats, — Children are seductive and
provocative and cause the incest.
• implied threats,
We offer free counseling for
anyone who is experiencing any — The child will always feel negatively
toward the offender.
or other forms of abuse between people form of family violence
who are related by birth, marriage, or by or abuse — Non-offending mothers in incestuous
living arrangements, i.e., mother, father, families know the incest is going on,
grandfather, grandmother, aunts, uncles, even encourage it and/or condone it.
cousins etc and includes half-brother and
half-sister. — Sexual abuse is nonviolent and
therefore non-damaging.
When any sexual activity takes place
between any of the above and a child or — Incest is a one or two time occurrence
young adult, it is incestuous. involving a single child.

— Incest is a problem of the family only

— It is better not to talk about incest -

the child will forget.