Retrospective Accounts of Brother to Sister Sexual Violence and its Consequences

• In Event: Insights for Prevention and Intervention of Gendered Physical and Sexual Violence

Abstract

Parent incest dominates the literature on family violence with very little focus towards sibling incest and violence. An anonymous, online survey distributed to family and LGBTQ violence agencies throughout the U.S. resulted in 33 retrospective sibling sexual abuse survivor narratives. Within these narratives participants reveal the types of abuse they endured by the hands of their siblings, the frequencies and durations of this abuse, abuse effects, and reporting behaviors. Ultimately, abuse survivors describe a gendered violence by which brothers victimize their sisters, revealing the need for further discourses about power and control within the family.

Authors

• Katherine Martinez, Metropolitan State University of Denver

• Courtney McDonald, Georgia Southwestern State University