This pioneering volume brings a rarely-studied population—wives and girlfriends of men who molest children—into the clear focus necessary to understand the dynamics of these disturbed families. Details of the study spotlight interview methodology, format, structure, and safety as the subjects provide crucial data—about their partners as well as themselves—typically overlooked by law enforcement and other professionals. Findings clarify or replace popularly held ideas about the psychology of partners of child molesters, and of the abusers themselves, in key areas such as childhood experience of sexual abuse and the construction of elaborate fictions to cover the abuse. In addition, a comparative analysis of findings by American and Dutch researchers provides early possibilities for cross-cultural research.
Included in the coverage:
• The interviewees: developmental and abuse history, relationship with the molester.
• The molesters: abuse, arrest, and mental health histories.
• Practical suggestions for conducting interviews.
• Opportunities for intervention in primary care.
• Common behaviors of molesters.
• The involvement of pornography.
Child molestation cases are among the most difficult in terms of obtaining information. Taking original steps toward capturing the whole story,
Wives of Child
Molesters within the Family
is as significant to law enforcement personnel as it is to mental health professionals dealing with molesters and pedophiles.