The Culture of Silencing Child Victims of Sexual Abuse

Implications for Child Witnesses in Court

Bibliographic Data

ID9020993
AuthorsSarah Caprioli (Family Services, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA, corresponding author), David A Crenshaw (0000-0001-9191-8535, Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA)
Year2015
Volume57
Issue2
Pages190-209
Publication date2015-09-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Humanistic Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1678 • E-ISSN: 1552-650X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022167815604442
OpenAlexW2157042396
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited25

This article describes the insidious impact of the cultural silencing of child victims of sexual abuse. Children exposed to sexual violence encounter a multitude of factors that force them to experience and respond to their victimization in silence. Those children able to break their silence in the form of disclosure are often thrust into a parallel process of silencing perpetuated in the United States by the current design of our criminal justice and court systems. Child witnesses within these systems are silenced in both subtle and overt ways throughout the judicial process and are expected to function under conditions of extremely high stress and anxiety. This intense and adversarial atmosphere overwhelms children’s resources and shuts down their ability to effectively communicate on the stand, leading to repeated experiences of silencing that can ultimately have devastating long-term consequences. In addition, secondary wounding is often inflicted because of the insensitivity of our institutional practices to both developmentally and trauma-sensitive treatment of these vulnerable children. This article describes an application of humanistic psychology to the court system in the United States as well as an attempt at building a coordinated community response to address the problem of silencing. Recommendations for addressing inequities in the child justice process and mobilizing professionals and agencies are offered in the humanistic tradition

Child abuse · Child sexual abuse · Criminology · Economic Justice · Poison control · Political science · Restorative justice · Sexual abuse · Silence · Suicide prevention · Child Abuse and Trauma · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub