FCoHnItLeDs e Mt aAl.L /T RVEIEAWTMS OENF TC H/ IMLADY S 2E0X0U1 AL ABUSE
Views of Child Sexual Abuse in Two Cultural
Communities: An Exploratory Study Among
African Americans and Latinos
This exploratory study investigates knowledge and ideas
about child sexual abuse among African Americans and Latinos
through focus group discussions. Participants defined
and described child sexual abuse, acknowledged that it occurred
in their communities, and expressed their sense that
family risk factors, risky institutions, and offender propensities
were its root causes. Latino participants identified cultural
transitions as another contributor. Responses and
conversational style differed somewhat by gender and cultural
identity. The authors discuss implications for child sexual
abuse prevention, intervention, and research.
T
he sexual abuse of children is prevalent throughout the United States and affects people from all cultural
groups in roughly similar proportions, although
characteristics of the abuse may vary with the victim’s
ethnic group (e.g., Bolen, 1998; Huston, Parra,
Prihoda, & Foulds, 1995). As many as one in four girls
and one in seven boys will be abused sexually before
reaching the age of 18 (Finkelhor, 1994). Despite the
widespread nature of the problem, and much recent
research aimed at understanding it, little is known
about how people’s cultural background affects their
knowledge of sexual abuse, their experiences of it, or
the strategies they use to prevent its occurrence
(Fontes, 1995; Mennen, 1995). This study used focus
groups to assess views of child sexual abuse among African
Americans and Latinos.
PREVENTION
To be most effective, prevention programs must
target the specific needs of the populations they are
meant to influence (Thomas, 1998). Research and
public health initiatives aimed to curb the spread of
AIDS, for instance, include a myriad of programs targeting
the specific circumstances of gay men (Rosser,
Coleman, & Ohmans, 1993), Latino farm workers
(Magana, 1991), high school students (Centers for
Disease Control, 1990), Black and Hispanic drug
users (Schilling et al., 1989), rural populations
(Rounds, 1986), Asian and Pacific Islander communities
(Yep, 1994), and so on. Similarly, programs aimed
to reduce substance abuse among teenagers target
the specific needs of different age, gender, and cultural
groups separately.
In contrast, child abuse prevention programs
remain remarkably “generic” (Thomas, 1998), meaning
they are usually developed by and for members of
the majority racial group (White). Most child sexual
abuse prevention programs occur in schools, with a
1990 survey of 440 randomly selected elementary
school districts in the United States finding that
85% offered some such instruction, and 64% man-
dated its instruction (Finkelhor, Asdigian, & Dzuba-
Leatherman, 1993). These school-based programs
tend to be addressed to children without regard to
their cultural or linguistic background, or the circumstances
in which they live (Thomas, 1998). Comprehensive
school-based programs have been found to be
effective in improving children’s knowledge of sexual
victimization, increasing children’s likelihood of
employing self-protection strategies when threatened,
and increasing the likelihood that children will
disclose victimizations or attempted victimizations
(Finkelhor et al., 1993). Their effect on actual sexual
victimizations is less clear. However, no information is
available on whether these prevention programs work
equally well across cultural groups.
Apart from the question of effectiveness, there is a
certain sad irony in directing prevention programs
toward children rather than toward the adults who
should be protecting them or who might be at risk of
offending against them. Sexual abuse prevention is
alone among other child maltreatment prevention
initiatives (e.g., physical abuse) in targeting children
rather than adults. Prevention professionals are
beginning to question the wisdom of making children
responsible for their own safety (McMahon & Puette,
1999). Comprehensive sexual abuse prevention initiatives
should involve education for parents, adolescents,
young children, and people who work with children
(Cohn, 1986). General public education
campaigns can achieve the primary prevention goal
of preventing abuse by encouraging caretakers to protect
children better and by encouraging potential
abusers to avoid behaving abusively and seek professional
assistance. General public education campaigns
can also achieve the secondary and tertiary
prevention goals of making it easier for children and
adults to recognize and seek help for child sexual victimization
(Daro, 1994). This study was conducted to
assist in the development of culturally competent sexual
abuse prevention programming.
CULTURAL ISSUES IN SEXUAL ABUSE
As research into child sexual abuse matures, investigators
are developing more specific ways of understanding
child sexual abuse, including distinguishing
between various forms of abuse (e.g., contact and
noncontact, intrafamilial and extrafamilial, chronic
and single incidents), teasing out the factors that lead
to more severe effects, and developing notions of
which interventions best fit which symptoms. Part of
this maturation includes increased attention to cultural
issues. Whereas early studies often “controlled
for ethnicity” by using all-White populations (e.g.,
Herman, 1981) or failed to disclose the cultural or
racial background of the participants (Fontes,
1993a), researchers now frequently include ethnic
identity as a variable in their studies of sexual abuse.
Fontes (1995) has criticized even this more recent
research, however, as being marred by ethnic lumping
(in which diverse peoples are combined into the
category of Asian Americans, for instance) and an
overly narrow focus on documenting comparative levels
of prevalence rather than on understanding the
dynamics of the abuse within groups. When ethnic
identity is used merely as a demographic label in a
prevalence study, it can serve as a proxy variable that
in fact masks rather than illuminates the problem
studied (Fontes, 1997b). The demographic label
(e.g., African American, Italian American) is like a
suitcase into which many diverse experiences are
thrown and remain unexplored.
A number of recent studies unpack that suitcase.
They reach beyond prevalence and seek answers to
the more subtle and substantial questions of how cultural
group membership might influence an experience
of sexual abuse, whether through differences in
cultural beliefs (e.g., Fontes, 1993a; Mennen, 1995),
characteristics of the abusive acts (Huston et al.,
1995), community awareness of sexual abuse symptoms
(Thompson & Smith, 1993), differential rates of
reporting (Ards, Chung, & Myers, 1998), or other
mechanisms. These studies may be seen as “unpacking”
culture.
This study follows in the second, unpacking tradition
by trying to reach a textured understanding of
how gender and ethnic culture shape views of child
sexual abuse. The study was guided by an ecosystemic
framework, which is the basic notion that human
experience is conditioned by overlapping and interactive
influences, from the individual, family, cultural
community, and society. Effective intervention and
prevention programs may be targeted at one or more
of these levels. To understand a phenomenon, communities
of researchers should examine every level of
experience.
METHOD
Qualitative Research on Sexual Abuse
Qualitative methods allow patterns, themes, and
categories of analysis to emerge from the data and
thus are well-suited to studying complex social phenomena
such as sexual child abuse. Although they
lack the statistical precision of quantitative studies,
qualitative methods are especially well suited to studying
phenomena about which little is known (Patton,
1990). Exploratory qualitative studies generate
hypotheses and suggest themes that can later be confirmed,
disconfirmed, or elaborated through quantitative
methods or additional qualitative studies
(Rossman & Wilson, 1985).
Qualitative investigations have been used to understand
many aspects of sexual abuse, including the process
of victimization (Berliner & Conte, 1990; Conte,
Wolf, & Smith, 1989), parental perceptions of risk
(Collins, 1996), unrecallable memories (Corwin &
Olafson, 1997), barriers to disclosure (Fontes,
1993b), and the functioning of treatment teams
(Gilgun, 1992). As a way to collect qualitative data,
interviews are particularly well suited for exploring
cultural issues because participants have opportunities
to elaborate on the meanings behind their cultural
practices, establish their own categories, express
their own agendas, and place emphases where they
wish (Fontes & Piercy, 2000). The authors chose to
use focus group interviews because they are an efficient
way to gather opinions from groups of people
over a short period of time, and because participants
often find them less threatening than individual interviews
for addressing sensitive topics (Renzetti & Lee,
1993). Focus groups assessing community members’
wishes and views are consistent with the philosophy of
health education and can be key for planning prevention
programs that will be efficacious, accepted, and
successfully implemented and maintained (Basch,
1987).
The authors designed the study to begin to address
the following questions:
1. How do Latino and African American participants
define and describe child sexual abuse?
2. What do Latino and African American participants
see as signs that someone may be abusing a child
sexually?
3. Do African American and Latino participants believe
that sexual child abuse is a problem in their
communities?
4. Do men and women, Latinos and African Americans,
appear to hold differing views of sexual child
abuse that might call for differing prevention interventions?
In each focus group interview, several questions
were asked to help address the above-mentioned
broader issues. These included, How do you define
child sexual abuse? and How could you tell if a child
was being abused sexually? Following standard focus
group procedure, the interviewers loosely followed an
interview guide, which they modified and interspersed
with probes according to the flow of conversation
in each group to help group members express diverse
viewpoints (Krueger, 1994).
Participants and Procedures
STOP IT NOW! is a child sexual abuse prevention
program that uses the tools of public health to
encourage adults—rather than children—to learn
about, confront, and stop sexual child abuse. In preparation
for a pilot program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
STOP IT NOW! worked with local organizations
to develop focus groups within two of the city’s
larger cultural communities. The focus groups were
designed to provide some of the information needed
to develop a public information campaign appropriate
for a city as culturally diverse as Philadelphia.
The participants in this study included 34 men and
24 women (see Table 1) divided into a total of eight
groups. The focus groups were divided by gender into
all-male and all-female groups to facilitate the possible
emergence of distinct men’s and women’s views
and to make it easier to discuss sensitive issues related
to sexuality. Latinos and African Americans were
grouped separately to facilitate discussion of cultural
norms. To ensure adequate sampling of Latinos who
prefer speaking Spanish and English, focus groups
were set up for each gender in each language. Separate
focus groups were held with African American
men and women older than and younger than age 35.
In the end, the participants were divided into eight
separate focus groups for older and younger African
American women, older and younger African American
men, Latino English-speaking men, Latina English-
speaking women, Latino Spanish-speaking men,
and Latina Spanish-speaking women.
Participants ranged in age from 20 to 60 and all
resided in Philadelphia. Information from the interviews
and the recruiters indicate that most of the participants
are working class or poor, and have generally
low levels of academic education. Unfortunately,
more exact demographic data was not obtained. Each
focus group contained from 4 to 11 participants.
Motivational Educational Entertainment (MEE)
Productions is a communications firm that for the
past decade has developed socially responsible
research-based communication strategies targeting
African Americans, urban populations, and lowincome
youth. Experienced male and female facilitators
from MEE staff led the focus groups with African
Americans on their agency premises, recruited the African
American participants by contacting communitybased
agencies, and videotaped all the focus groups.
All who sought to participate and who met the demographic
criteria (men/women older than 18) were
accepted into the focus groups.
The Latino participants were recruited from among
patients and their companions at Philadelphia Health
Services, a multiservice agency addressing the mental
and physical health needs of the Hispanic community.
The Latino focus groups were held in a meeting
room at Philadelphia Health Services. All who volunteered
to participate and who met the demographic
criteria (men/women older than 18, Spanish/English
speaking) were selected. Reflecting the Philadelphia
Latino population, the Latino participants were
mostly Puerto Rican with a few people from other
Caribbean and Central American countries. The second
author, a Puerto Rican who is experienced running
discussion and therapy groups on sexual abuse,
facilitated the Latino focus groups in English and
Spanish.
Each focus group discussion lasted from 45 to 90
minutes and was videotaped in its entirety. Participants
received full information about the nature of
the study, signed informed consent forms, and were
paid $25 for their participation. In a typical group,
the participants sat around a table or in a horseshoe
and responded to questions posed by the group
facilitator.
Data Analysis
The authors independently viewed the videotapes
in their entirety several times (Tabachnick did not
watch the videotapes conducted in Spanish). The first
author transcribed the videotapes. The three authors
took detailed notes on themes, memorable quotes,
and patterns that appeared to emerge. The three
authors then discussed differences and similarities in
their perceptions. When the three did not agree on
their interpretations, the section of videotape in question
was viewed again to check for accuracy and help
the authors clarify their views. Some of the themes
emerged in direct response to specific questions (e.g.,
information about “prevention strategies” often
emerged in response to the question, How could
child sexual abuse be prevented in your community?).
Other themes were generated by group members
(e.g., although no question was asked about statutory
rape, groups discussed this issue spontaneously).
The first author grouped the quotes according
to themes. The authors then organized the quotes
and described the themes. This is an impressionistic
process in which the authors are not attempting to
assert the truth about African American and Latino
views of sexual child abuse but rather are attempting
to convey our perspective on the same, based on our
careful study of the data and knowledge of the field
(Patton, 1990).
Latino and African American social service providers
and social scientists, and specialists in the sexual
abuse of children, received drafts of the manuscript
for their comments and critiques. Several changes
suggested by these individuals were incorporated into
the manuscript.
A Note on Language
Some of the quotes have been changed into standard
English to ease understanding and because we
consider this the most respectful way to document
respondents’ statements. The original statements
were sometimes given in Ebonics (“Black English”),
in nonnative English, or in Spanish (and then translated
by the first author). The accuracy of the translations
from Spanish were confirmed by two native
speakers.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Group Process and
Conversational Styles
Intergroup differences emerged in the processes
of the groups, in addition to the content of their discussions.
For instance, prior to the groups, the African
American facilitators expressed to the authors
their worry that participants would remain tense
throughout a discussion of sexual abuse. In fact,
although there was a period of discomfort in the
beginning of each session, by the end of the first 10
minutes or so, most of the participants looked more
relaxed and seemed to speak more freely about sexual
abuse. The group of Spanish-speaking Latina women
was a notable exception: Most of these participants
appeared guarded in their responses and physically
tense during the entire discussion, clutching their
purses in their laps throughout the hour. There are a
number of possible explanations. First, as recent and
less acculturated immigrant women, these participants
may have been most constrained by cultural
taboos against talking about sexual abuse (Fontes,
1993b). Second, this group was facilitated by a Latino
man. These respondents might have opened up more
readily with a woman facilitator. Third, it is also possible
that—as less acculturated immigrants—these
women were less familiar with the topic of sexual
abuse, which is not discussed frequently in their cultures
of origin. If there were victims in the group, this
discussion may have been the first time they had
broached the subject in public. Fourth and finally,
they may have been least comfortable with both the
idea of research and with the microphone and video
camera (Fontes, 1997a). As a result of this apparent
inhibition, the Spanish-speaking women tended to
answer in shorter utterances and were less forthcoming
with opinions, stories, and information.
Other differences in conversational styles emerged
among the groups. Throughout the women’s groups,
participants rarely contradicted one another. For instance,
in the group of older African American
women, a conversational style quickly developed
wherein women would build on each other’s answers,
usually agreeing and chiming in with an additional
piece, as if to stir an additional ingredient into a common
pot of stew:
Facilitator (Fac): Please tell me explicitly what child sexual
abuse means.
Participant (Par) 1:Himputting his penis in her vagina.
Par 2: Some do it in the rectum. A little kid’s rectum.
They do that kind of stuff.
Par 3: They do.
Par 4: They really sick people. They el sickos. Molest a
child—that’s sick.
In contrast, in the men’s groups it was not at all unusual
for one participant to disagree openly with another.
The disagreements were uniformly respectful
and never angry, as the following excerpt from the
group of older African American men illustrates:
Par 1: Every time you turn around there’s a little kid sitting
on his lap. He says, “I’ll take him to the store”
when—damn! The corner store’s right there, you
know. They be gone for hours.
Par 2: I disagree with that. Taking a little kid to a store
isn’t no sexual abuse.
Par 1: No, the point is, it don’t take no 2 or 3 hours to go
to no store with a little child. You know exactly what
I’m talking about, man. Clean your ears out, brother
[offers handkerchief and everyone laughs].
After the group sessions, members of all the groups
expressed a desire to continue learning more about
sexual abuse and to participate in further discussions
on the topic.
In the Latino men’s and women’s groups, participants
occasionally spoke about sexual abuse within
their own families and community, including stories
where the victim or offender was in the participant’s
immediate family. The other participants usually
acknowledged that a personal story had been shared
through verbal and nonverbal expressions of empathy
for the storyteller. In addition, these personal disclosures
caused a shift in the general tone of the
group to greater warmth and solidarity. The more
passionate the storytelling, the more acknowledgment
was given by the group.
In contrast, within the various African American
groups, almost no stories of abuse within the family
were shared. The African American participants
appeared most comfortable talking about child sexual
abuse happening to strangers whom they heard
about in the media. In the rare instances where African
American men and women revealed their own
abuse or abuse in their family, these disclosures were
virtually ignored by the group. In passing, several African
American men and women mentioned that they
would not say anything to family members of a victim
or offender because they would not want to upset the
person by raising such a painful and sensitive topic.
Perhaps this explains their propensity for ignoring
personal disclosures.
In every group, the participants indicated that they
were familiar with the term child sexual abuse and had
heard about it through the mass media and—less frequently—
through stories told in their families and
among people they knew. Members of each group
agreed that child sexual abuse was a problem in their
community but did not believe it was more widespread
than among other ethnic groups. In describing
the cases they knew about, participants tended to
first describe stories from the media—often involving
victims and offenders from other ethnic groups—
before referring to cases in their communities and,
finally, their families.
In the following sections, quotes from the participants
will be identified by their group participation by
ethnic culture (A for African American, L for Latino/
a), gender (M for man, W for woman) and—in the
case of Latinos—language dominance (S for Spanish,
E for English).
Defining and Describing
Child Sexual Abuse
When first asked to define child sexual abuse, the
participants spoke in general, euphemistic terms,
such as
Your mom’s boyfriend touches you in a way you’re
not supposed to be touched. (AM)
Taking away a child’s innocence (AW & LM).
Tricking a child (LEW).
Touching their parts (LSM).
Frequently, participants would season their definitions
with comments about their rejection of the abusive
behaviors:
Touching a kid in an inappropriate manner. Groping
him. You got a lot of predators out here. That’s a really
ill situation. (AM)
Often, one person’s definition would build on
another’s, such as the following exchange that
occurred in the group of older African American
women:
Par 1: Invading a child’s privacy parts. Invade a little kid’s
innocence. Taking their life away from him without
asking. The kid’s totally helpless.
Par 2: Without asking. The kid says, “No,” they do it
anyway.
Par 3: Explain to me, how can you possibly get satisfaction
from a 6 or 7 year-old child?
The male participants tended to be more detailed
in their descriptions of child sexual abuse, whereas
the female participants were more hesitant to name
specific sexual acts. Through their willingness to be
specific, the men’s groups tended to describe a wider
range of acts. For instance, in the Latino Englishspeaking
men’s group the examples included talking
dirty, intercourse, touching intimate body parts,
kissing, spying on someone in the shower, playing
with a child’s genitals in the bathtub, drying a child
who is old enough to dry him or herself, showing a
child pornography, encouraging a child to masturbate
in front of the offender, and “looking at someone
funny.”
In contrast, the women’s reliance on euphemisms
meant that their answers tended to remain incomplete
and vague. For instance, in the older African
American women’s group the acts described included
having sex with a child, fondling a child, abusing a
child’s innocence, touching a child’s body parts, sexualizing
a child’s body parts, “having him touch you,”
and showing the child adult films improperly. It is not
clear whether women’s apparent hesitancy to speak
explicitly about sexual acts in this context reflects a
reluctance that manifests in other contexts. If so, this
might affect women’s ability to speak with professionals
and their own children about sexual abuse. One
Spanish-speaking Latina explained the hesitancy in
her group by commenting that “good girls don’t talk
dirty.” Similarly, when asked by the facilitator to be
more explicit in their definition and description of
sexual abuse, one older African American woman
replied, “It’s sensitive.”
In three of the Latino groups, but in none of the African
American groups, the participants described exposure
to adult’s sexual activities as a form of abuse.
Here is an exchange from the English-speaking
Latina group:
Par 1: My mother died when I was 13 yrs. old and I stayed
in the home with the family. . . . I remember when my
brother was in the house and he got a wife. His bed
was next to mine. I remember we had a little bit of
space when they started to make love. I heard all that
noise you know and I was 13 years old. I remember
that.
Fac: Do you think that that is abuse, exposing someone
that young to such a scene?
Par 2: Without a doubt.
Par 1: Because that stimulated me, you know.
Literature on recent Latino immigrants describes a
tendency toward great physical and psychological intimacy
in families, including the common practice of
extended families living under one roof, sometimes
sharing their rooms and even their beds, especially
during periods of transition. Certainly, it would be incorrect
to view all instances of such intimacy as abusive.
However, these responses indicate that although
the intentions of the sleeping arrangements may be
innocent, they can still feel problematic to some children.
Dynamics of Sexual Abuse
In the definitions of sexual abuse, all the participants
seemed well aware of the power differential inherent
in a sexual encounter between an adult or
adolescent and a younger child. Most groups referred
to a child’s inability to give consent:
[Sexual abuse is] an act that isn’t in the form or the
time or the way it should be, by an adult with a child
when the child isn’t able to give consent. It is something
forced, that the child is being obligated to do at
the wrong age. (LEW)
It’s similar to taking advantage of a handicapped
person because the child doesn’t know what’s going
on. (AM).
It involves power: one person forcing himself on another
who doesn’t have control because he’s small.
(LEW)
In several groups, the participants emphasized that
sexual activities between a child and an adult or older
adolescent is abuse even if the child agrees to it because
the child may be threatened or brainwashed or
simply may not understand what is going on.
All the groups referred to the coerced nature of the
child’s participation. They commonly referred to situations
where neighbors, friends of the family, and extended
family members coerced children into
engaging in sexual acts and keeping silent about them
through bribes and small gifts of candy, money,
makeup, clothes, and toys. The following comments
are typical:
They lure a kid. Bait him into doing whatever he
wants to do to him. (AM)
There are people who call adult friends “uncle” and
the child comes to love the adult like an uncle. He
takes him out, gives him money, and the parents are
used to it and don’t ask what happened. (LSM)
It can start with kind of a game. And the child doesn’t
know what’s going on. That’s a kind of harm. The
abuser says, “It’s a game that you can’t tell your
mother about.” And when the kid realizes what’s going
on, it’s too late. (LSM)
In the English-speaking Latino group, participants
suggested that some offenders gain access to children
by buying small presents for their victims’ mothers. In
this same group, participants mentioned that some
men would take advantage of their position as teachers,
bosses, coaches, guards, and stepfathers to gain
access to children.
Although some of the groups mentioned in passing
the possibility that women could have a sexual
encounter with young adolescent boys, this was usually
described as a seduction rather than a molestation,
and this arrangement was not explored in depth
by any group. The possibility of a woman sexually
abusing a girl was never mentioned by any group.
Cases of men and boys abusing boys and girls were discussed
more commonly and in greater depth.
In only one group, the Spanish-speaking group of
Latino men, did the participants refer to specific instances
of a woman abusing a boy. They referred to
two situations, the first involving an older female with
her younger male cousin and the second involving a
female babysitter and her charge:
The babysitter (niñera) can do it with a boy, too. The
parents can have a babysitter who abuses a child physically
and sexually. Even rapes him. And he’s not going
to tell because he doesn’t want a spanking. And if
he dares to tell his parents and his parents confront
the babysitter who denies it—“But how can you say
something like that!”—and they say that it’s a lie.
Statutory Rape
Although they were not queried directly about statutory
rape, in a number of groups, the participants
referred to cases of adult men being sexually active
with underage teenage girls as a form of sexual abuse.
Although they generally condemned such activity,
they described it as having a different dynamic than
the sexual abuse of younger children. They described
adult men as winning sexual favors from adolescent
girls through their “sweet talk” in addition to manipulating
them through gifts, money, and rides in their
car. However, they also appeared to attribute more
volition and responsibility to the adolescents than
they did to the young children. In the English-speaking
Latina group, participants suggested that girls go
along with men’s sexual overtures, accept bribes, and
“get carried away” and that “guys take advantage of
the situation.”
In the men’s groups, the participants tried to
define an exact age at which sex with a willing adolescent
can be considered consensual rather than
exploitative. One man said, “When an adolescent girl
is 19 or 20, and agrees to do it, it’s not considered an
attack” (LSM).
Although clearly disapproving of men who are involved
with adolescent girls, a younger African American
man distinguished between sexual activities with
an adolescent and with a child:
People that age [in high school] are more evolved,
like someone our age. . . . Not saying it’s right. Some
people prey on young people because they not secure
with themself. They don’t have the conversation, they
don’t have the poise to deal with a woman their own
age. (AM)
A number of groups identified girls’ precocious
sexual development or physical maturity as a factor
contributing to their exploitation. “Some of them
grow up too fast,” one younger African American
woman said. An English-speaking Latina said, “When
men see girls who are developed, they assume they are
old enough to be sexual, which may not be true.”
In the English-speaking group of Latino men, one
participant broke the group consensus that sex with
an underage girl was wrong, saying, “A lot of us don’t
think it’s bad, to tell you the truth. We see a girl who’s
14 and she looks like she’s 22. We start grabbing her
and kissing her and stuff.”
Attitudes toward statutory rape may be particularly
important due to evidence that Latina and African
American girls may be particularly vulnerable to sexual
abuse in their teens, whereas White non-Latinas
may be more vulnerable in their early childhood
(Bolen, 1998).
Explanations for Sexual Abuse
Participants explained the occurrence of sexual
abuse in a variety of ways. Generally, they referred to
family risk factors; risky institutions; changes in cultures,
families, and society; and offender propensities
that expose children to risk. In some cases, respondents
from the various groups emphasized different
factors. The only child-based factor mentioned is that
of girls’ precocious development, noted above.
Family Risk Factors
Much more than the African Americans, Latino
participants emphasized family factors as increasing
children’s risk of sexual abuse. In several groups, participants
identified stepfathers, mother’s boyfriends,
and other unrelated men who have access to young
children as posing a greater risk than biological fathers:
It comes from couples that separate. You got to watch
out for those stepfathers! They do bad things. (LSM)
You just don’t just have someone move in and leave
your children with a stranger. (LEW)
It’s from too many men in the house. (LEW)
One Spanish-speaking Latino man suggested that
sexual abuse emerges naturally when men and women
are not getting their needs met in their marriage:
Everything starts in the home. The masculine side
looks for support from the feminine side, from his
wife. And if he doesn’t find it, he’s going to look for it
in the first person who appears—his son or his daughter,
his niece. On the feminine side, there are times
that women say that men don’t give them enough attention,
and they look for a game with their son.
Sometimes it’s not out of malice, rather out of necessity.
Latin people don’t have information about what
sexual abuse is. (LSM)
A number of Latino and African American men
identified poor family communication, authoritarian
parenting, and corporal punishment as making children
vulnerable to sexual abuse. They recognized
that offenders could gain children’s compliance and
silence by evoking fear:
A lot of times we as parents holler at our kids for the
least little thing. “Shut up, sit down, you don’t know
what you’re talking about.” (AM)
It’s a problem in this country because as Latinos we’re
poorly educated. Many children are afraid of their
parents because, “I’m going to get it!” Children are
ashamed of what others might say. It’s a family cycle.
(LSM)
In the English-speaking Latina group, the participants
described social and economic pressure to keep
a man around the house as exposing children to risky
situations. There was widespread agreement and
laughter when one participant suggested mockingly
that a mother would not want to believe a daughter’s
report of sexual abuse by a father or stepfather because
the mother is “in love.” They also described how
economic dependence on a husband can make it
hard for a mother to leave her abusive partner.
In the African American groups, participants
referred to drug use and abuse as contributing to both
parents’ abuse of their own children and parents’ lack
of vigilance over their children, which might make
them more vulnerable to abuse by others.
Families and Society in Transition
Only Latinos, both men and women, described
changes in the family, culture, and community as factors
contributing to sexual child abuse. One Englishspeaking
Latino man suggested that people who dress
their daughters in overly sexy clothes are setting them
up for sexual abuse. Several Latinos and Latinas referred
with a certain nostalgia to a past time when they
believed children were better cared for, people knew
their boundaries, and sexual abuse was less likely to
occur. A Spanish-speaking man spoke longingly of a
time when girls could not go to dances without a
chaperone:
Before, there wasn’t that kind of freedom. Nowadays
girls go to dances alone, without anyone knowing
what could happen or where they’re going.
Some Latinos and Latinas suggested that immigration
caused a breakdown in cultural taboos, as in the following
example given by a Puerto Rican man:
It used to be that you don’t touch no one in your family.
That’s my cousin, that’s my second cousin—you
don’t touch no one in your family. Now, “She looks
good and I want a piece of the action.” We’re not a
knit family anymore. We’re just broken up since we
came from the island.
In the same vein, another Spanish-speaking Latino
participant spoke of the current lack of shame
(verguenza) as a problem. He described couples having
sex in front of their children, or getting their children
high so they would fall asleep and the parents
could have wild parties.
Several Latino men described the loss of family
connections as a contributing factor. One Latino
man (Spanish) blamed sexual abuse on “the family
and society”:
Family values have gotten lost. Before, parents took
the time in the family to speak with their children—
not directly about sex, but they explained it in
different ways. These days, it’s very serious because
people are focusing so much on material things that
they are forgetting their children. They forget about
their job as parents. They are turning over that part of
their children’s education to the government.
Several immigrant male Latino participants expressed
feelings of vulnerability in their new environment,
asserting that sexual abuse was more of a problem in
the United States than in their countries of origin:
Here you have to keep a closer eye on your children.
It’s a big problem here. (LSM)
Risky Institutions
Latinos and African Americans expressed their
concern that children were especially vulnerable in
institutional settings where strangers might have access
to them. For instance, one Spanish-speaking Latino
described with pride how he warns his girlfriend
not to leave their child in a day care center with strangers.
Similarly, an older African American woman
mentioned that she cares for all five of her grandchildren
and tells her children not to allow anyone else to
take care of them. One African American man described
the lack of security in recreation facilities as a
risk factor for children:
You got people walking in and out all day. He [an
abuser] just walks into a recreation facility and picks
him right out of the clack, which one he wants. Ain’t
no security or nothing. Day care, another situation
like that, no security. (AM)
One English-speaking Latino participant described
knowing of a boy in a correctional institution where
he was detained as a teenager who was sexually assaulted
by a guard. With his voice cracking with emotion,
he described how vulnerable the young boys
were to the whims of both the guards and the older detainees.
Offender Propensities
Some participants from both ethnic groups conveyed
their sense that there were at least two categories
of offenders: one consisting of men who are truly
perverted and are aware of what they are doing and
the other consisting of adolescent boys and men who
have acquired a bad habit or who have a treatable
CHILD MALTREATMENT / MAY 2001
Fontes et al. / VIEWS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 111
mental health problem but for whom sexual offending
was not part of their “nature.” The older African American
women made this distinction in response to the
question of what should happen to a sexual offender:
Par 1: Give him a taste of his own medicine
Par 2: Dig it.
Par 3: Get him locked up.
Par 4: Or get him help. If it’s a mental problem, get him
help. But if the person is fully aware of what they’re
doing, then he should be locked up.
Fac: How can you tell the difference between someone
who’s doing it because he’s mentally ill or another
kind of abuser?
Par 4: Hard.
Par 3: If a person’s mentally ill, you see signs of it.
Par 4: A lot of people don’t appear to be mentally ill but
there’s something wrong with them. They don’t show
it, really. Sometimes. But for someone to do something
like that, they’re crazy or sick or mentally ill.
Par 2: I would rather them be locked up.
The following statement by a younger African American
man illustrates a similar struggle with questions of
responsibility, mental health, and intention:
Where people doing those things, you got to check
their background or their pedigree. They might have
been sexually molested and they picked up a habit
and they don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s a habit
that’s not really in their nature. . . . A lot of times people
do things out of reaction, not because they’re
thinking that’s what they want to do.
In every group some participants said that—as a
rule—sexual offenders deserve to be attacked, raped,
and/or murdered. However, they generally advocated
for mental health treatment coupled with criminal
punishment for adolescents who had abused a
child, and for adults whose offending stemmed from
their own history of abuse. They seemed to believe
there is a group of boys or men who have picked up
the habit or vicio of sexual offending, but who do not
intend to abuse children, and these abusers deserve
greater empathy.
Participants in all groups asserted that experiences
of sexual abuse could lead someone to abuse children
sexually. They spoke frequently of abused children
turning into abusers. For example, a Spanish-speaking
Latino man said, “They grow up with this sickness.
They are touched and then they start touching others.
The same that was done to them—to get rid of it they
do it with others.”
In the women’s groups, some participants
described a general distrust of men. One English-
speaking Latina said that sexual abuse occurs
because “men are sick.” An African American woman
described keeping all men away from her daughters,
including their father. She said she never let anyone
else change their diapers.Oneyounger African American
woman suggested that men come in two types:
“the ones you got to watch and the ones you trust.”
Perhaps these blanket categorizations ofmencontribute
to the women participants’ tendencies to overlook
the possibility of sexually abusive women.
Indicators of Sexual Abuse
When asked to describe signs that an adult might
be sexually abusing a child, the women in both ethnic
groups tended to limit themselves to describing
changes in the child after abuse had occurred. The
women appeared to be more tuned in to children’s
symptomatic behavior and more confident that they
would be able to detect a child’s signs of sexual abuse:
“One way or another, the kid would let you know,” an
African American women said. In contrast, the men
described characteristics of the possible abuser, or
suspicious activity in the relationship between the possible
abuser and a child.
Offender Indicators
The men in all the groups expressed particular suspicion
of men—especially strangers and neighbors—
who gave children gifts and spent time with them
without any clear motive:
Someone who wants to take your kids or all the kids
on the block to the movies or the zoo. They look alright,
like everybody in there, but you don’t know
what’s going on in his mind. (AM)
I got a kid who’s 6 and I’m going to be around a lot of
other kids who’s 6. Everyone knows if I be going to the
store and my son got two or three ponies with him,
I’m gonna take them all. It’s because he’s playing with
them, not because, you know. If a person don’t have a
child, he don’t have no kind of reason to be around
kids that age. (AM)
In the Latino and African American groups, the
men discussed whether an abuser would reveal himself
through his general behavior. One English-speaking
Latino suggested that you could detect a sexual
abuser because he’d always be drooling and want to
hang around the boys not the girls. A younger African
American man recommended the following procedure
for determining if someone is an abuser:
See how he interacts with the children at a park or
Chucky Cheese. You really observe a person just by sitting
back and watching to see if he’s that pedophile
thing.
In a similar vein, a younger African American man
asserted his ability to detect sexual offenders from
highly visible external signs:
When I was 14, there was this Indian guy living up the
street. He was weird. . . . I used to have a little sister.
He’d go up to my sister, “Can I have a kiss?” I couldn’t
beat this guy cause I was a little skinny guy . . . I never
really trusted that man. . . . The way he walked, his
body language. You can tell, like, homosexuals, their
body language, they feminine. I can tell, you know,
the way they walk, the way they talk. . . . If I was to walk
up the street with my son, I tell him, “Don’t talk to any
strangers.” But if I saw that man, I’d tell him, “You stay
away from that man. Don’t take anything from that
man. If he tries to talk to you, you tell me.” (AM)
A participant in the same group disagreed:
You can’t judge nobody from the way they look, the
way they walk, that they may be a child molester. You
got to build suspicion.
An English-speaking Latino described the factors that
would raise his level of suspicion:
Why would the adult want to spend so much time
around children? Why would the adult always be buying
presents for the child and seeking time alone with
the child? Why would the person be fondling the
child’s arms and knees and bottom so much? Why
would the adult be kissing the child so much, or kissing
the child on the lips?
An African American man remembered that when he
was in jail, his religious teacher (Muslim) pointed out
a fellow inmate and said he was a child molester. The
participant said he looked normal and “didn’t look
like a child molester.” The assumption seemed to be
that some child molesters looked the part, whereas
others looked like everyone else.
In the men’s groups, participants expressed suspicion
of gay men and of men who do not spend time
with women. One Spanish-speaking Latino male suggested
that you have to talk to boys and men who give
each other kisses and find out what’s going on. A
younger African American male said he would be suspicious
of a guy who was “never seen with a girl. Always
around little kids. Never with the opposite sex.” One
African American man suggested that you could tell a
child molester by the way he walks, “Just like a
homosexual.”
One Spanish-speaking Latino man suggested that
he would suspect sexual abuse if a man was frequently
seen holding a child in his lap, buying the
child presents, and rubbing the child’s knees and
arms. A member of the same group urged caution in
overgeneralizing affectionate behavior:
There’s affection. You have to be careful, too, because
it’s not necessarily a factor to be affectionate
with a child, to bring presents. These people—satyrs,
do lewd things (cosas impúdicas). It’s how they touch
not necessarily the touching. It’s without respect.
In a number of groups, the participants admitted
to confusion about the true indicators of sexual
abuse: “We adults don’t know what to look for. . . .
Something looks innocent but you don’t really know
what’s going on in someone’s mind.” (AM)
Child Indicators
In the Spanish-speaking Latina group, participants
asserted that as a result of sexual abuse, children
would become fearful, timid, spacey, ashamed,
exaggeratedly shy, lack confidence, be humiliated,
and “feel like nothing.” They said that a victim of sexual
abuse would be affected physically and mentally
and might suffer from nightmares. One English-
speaking Latina suggested that a girl who is being
abused sexually might carry herself differently, shifting
from leg to leg when she is standing. Another suggested
that the child might act like she was keeping a
secret and “act too quiet.” The Latinas spoke most frequently
of girl victims, exclusively described internalizing
symptoms, and failed to mention the possibility
of externalizing symptoms (e.g., aggression, delinquency,
acting out sexually). These externalizing
symptoms, would be seen as cultural anomalies in a
young Latina and might be more likely to be viewed as
signs that a girl is “bad” than as signs of victimization
(Zimmerman, 1991).
A younger African American woman suggested
that a child would show signs of being withdrawn and
would not play with others, acting differently from
other children of the same age. More than the
Latinas, the African American women seemed aware
of the possibility of externalizing symptoms in a child,
such as “sleeping with every boy who came in her
face,” initiating sexual play at an early age, and “getting
extremely violent and angry.” A younger African
American woman also mentioned that a person who
has been abused sexually might become suicidal.
Another suggested that bruises and marks, “in personal
areas of their bodies,” could indicate sexual
abuse. Finally, an older African American woman participant
suggested that when a child knows too much
about sex—more than he could learn on the street—
that would be “a clue that someone is trying something
on them, experimenting on them.”
The primary child indicator of sexual abuse, mentioned
by all the groups, is that a child would show fear
of the abuser and move away from him. The following
comment is typical: “A child is afraid to go around
with a person. Could be a cousin, uncle John, or whatever.
That would make you wonder” (AW). Only one
participant mentioned the possibility that a child
could be closely bonded to someone who had abused
the child sexually. This African American woman
described a child victim she had seen: “She didn’t
want to be around nobody but him [the abuser], even
though what he was doing was wrong.”
Limitations
The findings reported here are the results of only
eight focus groups conducted in one Northeastern
city. The participants were selected purposively to
represent a certain diversity of Latinos and African
Americans, in terms of gender, age, and acculturation
as indicated by language preference (for Latinos).
However, the sample was not random and should not
be seen as representing all Latinos and African Americans.
Interviews with people from these ethnic groups
who live in different geographic areas or who have
higher levels of income and academic education
might yield different results. The lack of concrete
demographic information about the group participants
(e.g., ages, socioeconomic status, and country
of origin) and the lack of knowledge of participants’
own experiences in regard to sexual abuse (e.g., victims,
offenders) makes it impossible to render any
absolute conclusions about these diverse groups of
people. This research is entirely based on self-reports
and concerns participants’ views of sexual abuse, not
factors related to the actual occurrence of sexual abuse
among Latinos and African Americans. Additionally,
as in most qualitative studies, the researchers can
report on the range of opinions presented but have
no data on whether these opinions are typical or
unusual for the groups of people who expressed
them.
Another limitation concerns the length of the
sessions. With each session lasting only 45 to 90 minutes,
depending on the number of participants and
their volubility, there was limited time to collect data
after establishing mutual trust and comfort with this
sensitive subject.Weexpect that holding repeated sessions
with the same individuals would have yielded
more stories and greater understanding of the participants’
perspectives.
CONCLUSIONS
Summary of Findings
The participants were indeed knowledgeable
about child sexual abuse and knew of its existence in
the larger world and within their communities. They
considered it a significant problem deserving attention.
They demonstrated awareness of the power differential
between an adult or adolescent offender and
a child and described a variety of ways an offender
could gain a child’s compliance. They included references
to sex between an adult man and a young adolescent
girl (statutory rape) as a problem with a
unique dynamic, but one that still falls into the category
of sexual abuse. They expressed less concern
about situations involving women abusers and male
victims, and no group mentioned the possibility of
women abusing girls. Men named many more explicit
behaviors as constituting sexual abuse, whereas
women tended to speak more through euphemisms.
When asked to describe the warning signs or indicators
of sexual abuse, men participants tended to
offer examples referring to an abuser’s behavior with
a single child or with children in general. In answer to
the same question, women participants tended to
focus on how a single child might look after abuse has
occurred. All groups referred to similar factors as
placing children at risk, including unrelated men having
access to children, risky institutions, and the
offender’s tendencies. Latino respondents were more
likely to refer to family risk factors, including changes
in the culture and family resulting from immigration.
Additionally, some women referred generally to all
men as potentially dangerous. Latino participants
appeared more comfortable than African American
participants in telling personal stories of abuse.
Group differences in conversational style emerged.
The findings of this study lend support to the
ecosystemic notion that identity groups defined by
culture and gender influence people’s views of sexual
child abuse (Fontes, 1993a; Fontes, 1995). Rather
than being a unitary phenomenon defined solely by
the behaviors that take place, it would appear that
experiences of child abuse in general, and child sexual
abuse in particular, are colored by the perceptions
and values of the victim, the offender, and the cultural
communities in which they are nestled. This would
seem to have clear implications for sexual abuse prevention,
intervention, and research.
Implications
The authors have made every attempt to provide a
fair, balanced, and accurate report of this study,
including a frank discussion of its limitations. We
present this section on implications tentatively and
humbly, in the hope that it will prove useful as part of
the incremental process of obtaining information for
future prevention, intervention, and research.
Implications for Prevention
This study implies universal and group-specific
suggestions for prevention programs aimed at educat-
ing adults in Latino and African American communities.
For instance, all groups recognized the existence
of sexual abuse in general and in their communities.
However, the participants uniformly emphasized the
occurrence of sexual abuse by unrelated men and
deemphasized the possibility of sexual abuse occurring
in a family relationship other than through stepfathers.
Also, the participants rarely spontaneously
mentioned the possibility of adolescent abusers.
These findings would suggest that education programs
should not limit themselves to trying to convince
the public that sexual abuse is a problem but
may need to redirect some concern from the adult
stranger drooling at the corner to adolescents and
family members.
Similarly, all groups recognized that some sexual
abuse victims become offenders. However, no group
mentioned that not all (indeed not most!) sexual
abuse victims become offenders. An education campaign
that describes the many ways victims learn to
cope (e.g., through seeking counseling, through
becoming professional helpers and protecting other
children) might help to ease some of the stigma associated
with victimization, thereby encouraging victims,
potential offenders, families, and communities
to discuss sexual abuse more openly.
This research also points to the need for group-specific
prevention programs. These programs should be
tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of the groups
they are meant to reach. For instance, a program
aimed at helping adult women recognize and report
sexual abuse might focus on the ways children may
manifest their victimization because women appear
to concentrate on child symptoms resulting from
abuse. At the same time, Latina women may need to
learn more about externalizing behaviors as a potential
sign of sexual abuse. Programs directed at adult
women should also alert them to signs of grooming
behavior and other irregularities in the abuser/victim
relationship.
Prevention programs for male caretakers should
teach men how to focus in on child indicators of
abuse. Additionally, to avoid endangering people
who discover abuse and suspected abusers, prevention
programs should probably alert men in general
and Latinos in particular to the efficacy of using official
channels to address issues of child abuse. One
Latino mentioned that a friend had been sentenced
to 50 years in jail for killing a man who he suspected
had molested his daughter. Many of the other Latino
men and some African American men indicated that
they, too, would assault a known sexual abuser, and
particularly, one who had abused a member of the
respondent’s family. It would be sad, indeed, if a public
information campaign alerting people to signs of
sexual abuse inadvertently influenced loving caretakers
to assault suspected child molesters.
Sex with minor girls (statutory rape) concerned
the participants, but there was a great deal of confusion
about the age of consent and the relationship
between a girl’s physical maturity and her ability to
consent to sexual activity. Disseminating clear information
about legal and community standards might
be helpful here.
Participants in several groups seemed to confound
homosexuality and sexual abuse. A prevention campaign
that raises awareness of sexual abuse in these
communities might have the unwarranted side effect
of stimulating homophobic fear, discrimination, and
attacks. It would seem to be important, then, to break
the perceived but erroneous link between homosexuality
and child sexual abuse for members of these
communities and alert them to the fact that the male
partners of female relatives pose a greater risk to children
than homosexuals (Jenny, Roesler, & Poyer,
1994).
The groups (and particularly the Latino men and
women) frequently defined terms and expressed
their opinions through stories about people. An effective
prevention campaign might include radio, television,
and newspaper advertisements that use personal
vignettes to alert people to categories of abuse that
they may not otherwise consider (e.g., abuse by relatives,
adolescents, or women) and clear up misinformation
(e.g., that offenders look different from other
people).
Implications for
Intervention and Training
This study suggests that effective interventions for
sexual child abuse will be tailored to the beliefs and
circumstances of the clients to whom they are
directed. A one-size-fits-all approach to therapeutic,
criminal justice, legal, medical, and child protection
intervention in sexual abuse may fail if the services
provided run counter to the cultural beliefs and practices
of the clients. To design and implement interventions
that take into account the culture and circumstances
of the clients, professionals in a variety of
contexts and at a variety of levels—from senior administrators
to frontline outreach workers—will need to
be trained in cultural competency (Abney, 1996). To
gain greater trust within Latino and African American
communities, professionals who intervene in cases of
sexual abuse will need to demonstrate that they are
effective and nondiscriminatory (Gould, 1991). Only
then will word spread in African American and Latino
communities that benefit can be derived from detecting
and reporting sexual child abuse.
Implications for Research
This exploratory investigation suggests many avenues
for further research. In finding that ethnic culture
and gender seem to affect opinions about and
knowledge of child sexual abuse, it suggests that further
research with the groups discussed here, as well
as other groups, may also yield fruitful results. It
also implies that current child sexual abuse prevention
programs (e.g., in the schools) may have differential
impact on different cultural groups, an idea
that is inadequately explored in extant literature
(Finkelhor et al., 1993). If culture-specific child sexual
abuse prevention programs are instituted, as suggested
above, it would be wise to investigate their
impact and effectiveness. This study adds to extant
research on views of sexual abuse obtained through
survey data (e.g., Thompson & Smith, 1993). Further
research is indicated using these and other methods,
such as individual interviews, structured observations,
and role plays.
Finally, the differences in conversational style
found among the groups seems to be an area worthy
of further exploration. For instance, it may be that
focus group instructions or facilitator behaviors need
to vary for different groups. For example, perhaps
women should be encouraged to disagree with each
other, or facilitators working with women need to ask
individual participants for their opinions to more adequately
assess the range of opinions in the room. Or it
may be that less acculturated immigrants need a more
thorough introduction to the purposes and mechanics
of focus groups to help them gain comfort in the
setting so they can speak freely.
The information presented in this article indicates
that Latinos and African Americans view sexual child
abuse as a significant problem. It also documents variations
in perceptions of sexual child abuse by gender
and ethnicity for Latinos and African Americans.
Additional studies with larger samples are recommended
to obtain a wider range of responses.
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