NCJ Number
229720
Journal
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention Volume: 10 Issue: 2 Dated: 2009 Pages: 144-160
Date Published
2009
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined how young people expressed their fear of being victimized, specifically fear of sexual abuse.
Abstract
When young persons, aged 16-18, had the possibility to write in their own words about fear, this resulted in a wealth of short accounts concerning just about anything and everything from dog poo to murder. In this article, the focus is on the fears of sexual abuse. This is done because it seems that the ways to write about this kind of fear are quite limited, at least if the accounts focus on fears of sexual abuse in the future. This script is spelled out 'I am afraid that I will be raped by a strange man when I am out on my own, and there will be no one to help me, and I will feel ashamed, although I know I should not'. On the other hand, if the account is about fear originating from something in the past, the script is the opposite. Now the actor is known - it could be a neighbour or a classmate. And the alleged abuse takes place in someone's home, in daylight, in an everyday situation. The borders between these types of accounts and the different contents make it possible to draw the conclusion that they are constructed by and construct different discourses. What it is possible to write about in one's account and 'still be a boy or a girl'? What does this result tell us about what kind of questions are suited to be put to youngsters in surveys that focus on fears of sexual abuse, abstract or concrete ones? My suggested answer is that the more concrete the question, the more possible it is to have accounts that seem to be outside the most narrow discourse on fear of sexual abuse. Maybe it is possible to let this alternative discourse of perpetrators of sexual abuse challenge the main discourse. References (Published Abstract)