Who's to Blame?: Child Sexual Abuse and Non-offending Mothers - Tapa dura

Anyone Familiar With Current Literature On Child Sexual Abuse Knows That non-offending mothers are routinely blamed for allowing their children to be victimized. This book analyzes and challenges this orthodoxy. It explores why mothers are held responsive when they are not themselves offenders, and presents clear documentation of the institutionalized sexism they encounter in intervening agencies.Central to the study are the cases of twenty-four mothers whose children disclosed incidents of sexual abuse. Betty Carter follows the experiences of these women in detail, documenting the treatment they received from police, child-protection workers, counsellors, schools, courts, physicians, co-workers, and family members. She traces mother-blame to the specific wording of legislation, to the implementation of agency, policies, and to front-line practices.Using a feminist analysis, Carter argues that the practices and policies of various institutions reproduce and maintain familistic ideology and sexist practices. She has drawn on her years of experience as a child-protection worker and child-abuse specialist to formulate this challenging study.

Betty Joyce Carter is Professor Emerita, School of Social Work, University of British Columbia.