Cultural Issues in Disclosures of Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

Cultural norms affect the likelihood that child sexual abuse will be discovered by an adult or disclosed by a child. Cultural norms also affect whether abused children's families will report child sexual abuse to authorities. This article explores the ways ethnic and religious culture affect child sexual abuse disclosure and reporting, both in the United States and internationally. Guidelines for culturally sensitive child abuse interviewing are provided to facilitate disclosures of abuse from culturally diverse children in formal settings.

Keywords:

• child sexual abuse
• disclosure
• culture
• cultural competence
• interviewing
• forensic interviewing
• multicultural
• international

Notes

1. Discussions of culture can contribute to a failure to examine the great variety of people and experiences that exist within any particular ethnic group. In this article, we try mightily to avoid contributing to overgeneralizations and stereotyping while still illuminating general cultural issues. It is not always easy.

2. We are aware of the inadequacy of current terminology to describe various demographic groups. In this article, we use the term Latino to describe people of Latin American or Spanish descent who live in the United States and Canada. We use White to describe people of European descent. We use African American to describe people of African descent who grew up in the United States. Where authors of particular studies use the terms Hispanic or Black, we use the terms employed by the authors when we discuss their study. We realize that many diverse peoples are collapsed into these broad, overly general headings, in a process called “ethnic lumping,” and we regret this (Fontes, 1995b).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Aronson Fontes

Lisa Aronson Fontes, PhD, University Without Walls, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Hadley, MA.

Carol Plummer

Carol Plummer, PhD, Associate Professor, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, and Research Affiliate Consuelo Foundation, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI.