Incest hurts children and confuses them. This general statement fits most if not all incest cases, but from there each family situation is different. This brief article shows that professionals and family members who want to understand particular families where incest has occurred must be open to a multitude of possibilities and only come to conclusions when they can document them.
It does no one any good for professionals and family members to believe and act as if all families where incest has occurred are the same. The more that individuals know about the variations within families where incest has happened, the more prepared we are to turn beliefs that incest is wrong into actions that foster children's recovery and their chances for fulfilling lives. This article is from her book Child Sexual Abuse: From Harsh Realities to Hope