The picture of me: Narratives about childhood and early adolescence by boys who have sexually abused peers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how teenage boys who had offended against peers in a rape-like way talked about their childhood experiences and about themselves as teenagers. Through the narratives, troubled families in which the boys had experienced neglect, abuse, and lack of monitoring and care become visible. However, on a semantic level, the boys stated that all was good and nothing was bad and recurrent was that these boys seldom found a storyline or a prominent chronology. The boys seemed to want to present an image of not being preoccupied with sex and they seemed to have no discussion partner concerning sexuality. The boys were reluctant to talk about the sexual abuse committed by them, and it was common to describe these assaults as something taking place out of one's control. Many stated a wish to forget the offences they had done due to the pain and distress connected to remembering. For a majority, the role of a rowdy boy and a young troublemaker almost seemed to function as an identity. A part of these boys' “tough attitudes” to life was to state that they did not need anybody and few told of friendships or emotional closeness to others. The boys' experiences of interpersonal rejection, together with a “tough-guy” attitude as young troublemakers, could be interpreted as a foundation for hostile masculinity, described, for example, by Malamuth et al. [Malamuth, N. M., Linz, D., Heavy, C. L., Barens, G., & Acker, M. (1995). Using the confluence model of sexual aggression to predict men's conflict with women: A 10-year follow-up-study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 353–369].

Keywords::

• adolescents offending against peers
• attachment theory
• interview study
• consensual and non-consensual sexuality
• social exposure
• transmigrations