The factors explaining the etiology and mechanisms of domestic sexual violence towards female and male children were examined in a sample of 60 fathers perpetrators sentenced and jailed for incest. The main aims of the research are to look for the correlation between the sets of factors causing the child sexual abuse and classify domestic perpetrators (on the basis of both the kinds of victims - biological children and adopted children, daughters and sons - and on the method of manipulating them).
The author asks the question whether and how the differences between factors causing abuse interfere with the type of abusers and with the differences in their method of acting.
Using the integrated theory of the etiology of sexual offending, the assumptions were build and sets of instruments (especially questionnaires and semi-structured interview) were constructed.
No significant social and cultural differences are observed between two types of domestic perpetrators: biological fathers and other family members (step-fathers, foster fathers). Only psychological factors differentiate these groups. Biological incest offenders come from more dysfunctional families (the hypothesis about intergenerational cycle of sexual abuse will be confirmed), rarely have non-secure patterns of attachment and less social skills
Conflict of Interest: None Disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: Government project N106 2611 33
Recorded at the 19th WAS World Congress for Sexual Health -Sexual Health & Rights: a Global Challenge, Göteberg (Sweden) - June 21-25, 2009