Endogamic incest and the victim-perpetrator model

A. A. Rosenfeld

Traditionally incest has been seen as the aggressive act of a deranged adult perpetrator against a child victim. While this conceptualization is true for some cases of incest, it ignores the family dynamics and the underlying affectional neglect and deprivation that the child has experienced in the home environment. It can lead to interventions such as immediate incarceration of the perpetrator in all cases, which may cause more harm than good; furthermore, it may permit the state to provide no therapeutic services to the child. By using a more realistic conceptualization of prolonged endogamic incest, useful interventions and therapeutic plans can be designed.