Word: incest
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Incest with a child is among the most horrible crimes an adult can commit. But it is also one of the easiest to hide. Children are pressured not to tell. No one wants to believe parents or other relatives ever sexually abuse their young charges. But this conspiracy of silence, which only helps perpetuate the tragedy, is beginning to crumble...
Just 15 years ago, many psychiatrists believed incest was rare and perpetrated only by fathers or stepfathers on their daughters. Those myths have since been shattered. Researchers estimate that between 200,000 and 360,000 cases of child sexual abuse occur each year in the U.S. Perhaps 80% of these involve incest. Surveys in California and Massachusetts in the 1980s found that as many as 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 7 boys under the age of 18 had been sexually abused by a relative -- anyone from a father to a mother...
Another myth holds that incest occurs only if there is anal, oral or vaginal penetration. "That's like saying only people who drink three liters of alcohol a day are alcoholics," says a Chicago psychiatrist who was a victim of incest. During the past decade, the definition of incest has been broadened to include fondling, rubbing one's genitals against a child, and excessive or suggestive washing of a youngster's pubic area, among other sexual behaviors...
Information about how incest thwarts normal development is being used to help people overcome its lifelong devastating effects. During the first two years of life, children must learn how to view themselves as being distinct from their surroundings and the people around them; they are not born with the knowledge. Incest plays havoc with this healthy process by violating a child before a sense of personal integrity can fully take hold. Survivors of incest fall victim to extremes. They grow up unable to trust others or, alternatively, tending to trust too easily. They shut down sexually or become wildly promiscuous...
...looming face-offs between the White House and Congress, the Senate last week defied George Bush's threatened veto and passed a measure that would allow abortion counseling at federally funded clinics. It would also permit use of Medicaid funds for abortions for poor women who become rape or incest victims...