Attribution of Blame for Child Sexual Abuse

384 Pages·2015·3.61 MB·English

by  Corry Azzopardi

The Discursive Construction of Gendered Attributions of Blame for Child Sexual Abuse:
A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of Maternal Failure to Protect in
Child Welfare Policy and Practice

by

Corry Azzopardi

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
University of Toronto

© Copyright by Corry Azzopardi 2015
The Discursive Construction of Gendered Attributions of Blame for Child Sexual Abuse:
A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of Maternal Failure to Protect in
Child Welfare Policy and Practice
Corry Azzopardi
Doctor of Philosophy
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
University of Toronto
2015
Abstract
Nonoffending mothers of children who have been sexually victimized have historically borne
the burden of blame in professional and public discourse. Notwithstanding strong empirical
evidence to the contrary, attributions of maternal culpability for the inception and maintenance
of abuse dynamics have been socially manufactured through hegemonic paradigms of deficient
mothering. While insinuations of conscious or unconscious maternal collusion may have
dissipated since early psychoanalytic and family systems eras, the legacy of mother-blame lives
on in present day child welfare policies and practices through the ideologically- and
institutionally-entrenched doctrine of failure to protect.
With the intent of unearthing gender-based power asymmetries in contemporary child welfare
system responses to child sexual abuse, this doctoral study applied feminist critical discourse
analysis to investigate discursive constructions of blame and failure to protect, as enacted,
reinforced, and resisted through the powerful language of child welfare policy and practice
texts. In this multimodal, problem-oriented, social advocatory approach to critical social science
research, descriptive, interpretive, and explanatory analyses of semiotic data were conducted
to expose transparent and opaque orders of discourse that legitimize particular relations of
power and authority in child welfare operating to the detriment of women and children.
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Anchored in neoliberal modes of governing, child-centric notions of best interests, and
hierarchical structures of power, this study uncovered dominant ideologies of gender and
motherhood that function to construct women as the embodiment of sexual abuse risk, target
of scrutiny and blame, and primary agent of change. Judged against naturalized schemas of
good mothering in isolation of subjective lived experiences, social locations, and material
conditions, failure to protect standards have an inherently disproportionate and troubling
effect on women, particularly marginalized women who endure intersecting sources of
oppression and adversity. Consequent formulations of child sexual abuse as a corollary of
maternal inadequacies and defective instincts wrongly, albeit effectually, deflect the gaze away
from sexual abuse perpetrators, nonoffending fathers, unresponsive institutions, and profound
social injustices. Mothers are fundamental to the collective goal of promoting children’s safety
and recovery in the aftermath of sexual abuse. Prevailing child welfare narratives that blame
and shame paradoxically impede maternal capacities for support and protection and, thus,
compromise children’s best interests.
Gendered child welfare discourse has proven itself to be remarkably impervious to change. This
study effectively problematized and destabilized its stronghold on child welfare policy and
practice by unmasking and denaturalizing the ideological content of textually mediated
discourses, building a persuasive case for social and institutional reform grounded in a solid
epistemic and evidentiary foundation, and proposing progressive avenues for discursive
resistance, negotiation, and transformation.

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Dedicated to my mom
a kind, compassionate, beautiful woman
who I lost as this doctoral journey was coming to an end
I love you and miss you deeply

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Acknowledgments
Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my doctoral supervisor, Dr. Ramona
Alaggia, for her invaluable mentorship and endless encouragement; to my dissertation
committee, Drs. Barbara Fallon, Ann Fudge Schormans, and Delphine Collin-Vézina, for their
wisdom, thoughtfulness, and inspiration; and to my internal/external examiners, Drs. Tara Black
and Simon Lapierre, who gave generously of their time and insights during the final stretch. A
heartfelt thanks are also extended to all of my dedicated colleagues and friends at the
University of Toronto, Hospital for Sick Children, and Ontario Network of Sexual
Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centres.
I was privileged to have been awarded a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate
Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, as well as funding
support from the University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Children, for which I am very
thankful and without which this opportunity may not have been possible.
It goes without saying that I am deeply grateful for, and forever indebted to, my dear family
and friends – too many to name without inevitably leaving someone out – for their boundless
love and support along a doctoral path marked by profound loss and personal growth.
Finally, a special thanks to the Children’s Aid Society for opening its doors and databases for
this critical research. I especially want to acknowledge and express my appreciation of frontline
child protection workers for their incredibly important, yet often thankless, efforts to protect
our most vulnerable children under the most challenging of circumstances. And most
significantly, to child sexual abuse survivors and their resilient mothers who do what they can in
the face of adversity, I extend my compassion and hope for change.

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Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………..…… ii
Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. iv
Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…....... v
Contents………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………… vi
Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…… xii
Tables……………………………………………………………………………………………..….………………………….…..... xii
Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……… xii
Acronyms and Symbols……………………………………….…………………………………………………………......... xiii
Chapter 1: Introduction and Study Focus………………..……………………………………….……….1
1.0. Maternal blame and failure to protect in child sexual abuse: An introduction to the
problem………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………….…1
1.1. Child sexual abuse: An overview of its significance and scope……………………………..…..……... 3
1.2. Motherhood and mother-blame: Understanding ideologically-laden constructs………........ 8
1.3. Maternal failure to protect and paternal absence in gendered child welfare discourse.... 11
1.4. Summary of study rationale, intent, and structure……………………….……………...………………... 14
Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives and Conceptual Framework……………………………. 19
2.0. From Freud to feminism: The social construction of blame across theories of child
sexual abuse………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..… 19
2.1. Constructing the sexual abuse of children as a social problem……………………………………..… 20
2.2. Classical Freudian psychoanalytic and family systems narratives: Setting the foundation
for maternal blame and agency for protection…………………..……………..………………………………….. 24
2.3. Attachment theory: Primacy of the maternal attachment figure in child sexual abuse
dynamics…………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………… 27
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2.3.1. Key tenets of attachment theory………………………………………………………….……..…… 28
2.3.2. Attachment perspectives on child sexual abuse and maternal influences………… 31
2.3.2.1. Maternal attachment and intergenerational transmission of risk…….… 33
2.3.2.2. Maternal attachment and responsiveness postabuse……………………..… 35
2.3.2.3. Maternal attachment and trauma sequelae…………………………….………… 36
2.3.3. A critique of maternal deprivation hypotheses in attachment theory………………. 37
2.3.4. Infusing attachment principles in child welfare interventions……………..……..……. 38
2.4. Ecological theory: An integrated understanding of child sexual abuse etiology………….…... 39
2.4.1. Ecological and transactional frameworks for child maltreatment……………….……. 40
2.4.2. Ecological-transactional-developmental model of child sexual abuse………….…… 41
2.4.3. Contributions and limitations of ecological applications to the maternal role
in child sexual abuse and child welfare responses…………………………………………..…………. 46
2.5. Feminist theory: Reframing maternal responsibility for child sexual abuse……...………....... 47
2.5.1. Feminist perspectives on motherhood: Empowerment or oppression?.............. 48
2.5.2. Understanding child sexual abuse through a gendered lens………………………….…. 50
2.5.3. Feminism’s problematization of maternalistic notions of blame and failure to
protect………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 52
2.5.4. Poststructural feminist-oriented child welfare discourse…………………………………. 54
2.6. Summary of theoretical analyses and conceptual framework for the study…….……………... 55
Chapter 3: Critical Analysis of Research Literature……………..………………………………..…. 59
3.0. Three decades of empirical grounding: A critical review of literature examining the
implications of child sexual abuse for nonoffending mothers…….............................................. 59
3.1. Research literature search strategies and general shortcomings………………………….……..…. 60
3.2. Etiology of child sexual abuse: A constellation of biopsychosocial influences.................... 62
3.2.1. Sociodemographic risk factors…………………………………….…………………….………..…… 62
3.2.2. Perpetrator risk factors…………………………………………………………………..…………..…… 63
3.2.3. Family and maternal risk factors……………………………………………………….……………… 64
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3.2.4. Child risk factors………………………………………………………………………………………………. 66
3.3. Sequelae of sexual abuse for child victims and their mothers: A shameful legacy..............67
3.3.1. Impact of sexual abuse on children across the lifespan………………………..….………. 67
3.3.1.1. Resilient functioning and mitigating influences…………………………………. 69
3.3.2. Mothers as secondary victims of trauma………………………………….………………..……. 70
3.3.2.1. Factors predicting symptom variability……………………………………………… 71
3.4. Continuum of maternal responsiveness to allegations of child sexual abuse………………….. 72
3.4.1. The discovery process………………………………………………………………………………….….. 73
3.4.2. Maternal belief, support, protection…. and ambivalence………………………..………. 74
3.4.2.1. Correlates of abuse-specific maternal response……….……………..………… 76
3.5. Maternal response and functioning: Intersection with child adjustment postabuse.………. 80
3.5.1. Maternal support as a key predictor of child recovery……………………………………… 81
3.5.2. Impact of maternal distress on child outcomes………………………………………………… 83
3.6. Nonoffending fathers in the aftermath of child sexual abuse: Neglected territory…………. 85
3.6.1. Effects of child sexual abuse on fathers………………………………………………………...…. 86
3.6.2. Paternal responses to child sexual abuse allegations……………………………………..… 86
3.6.3. Influence of paternal support on child outcomes…………………………………………..… 86
3.7. Gendered blame attributions and child welfare responses to child sexual abuse………….… 87
3.7.1. Professional and public perceptions of responsibility for child sexual abuse……. 88
3.7.2. Voices of the blamed: Maternal experiences with child sexual abuse
interventions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 90
3.7.3. Judgments of maternal failure to protect in the child welfare system……………….92
3.7.4. Allegations in the context of parental separation: The troubling paradox of
blaming mothers for trying to protect…………………………………………………………………..…… 95
3.7.5. Linking maternal blame with low paternal engagement…………………………..…….… 97
3.8. Summary of empirical research analyses: Key themes and future directions……………..…… 98
Chapter 4: Research Design and Methodology……………………..……….………….…………… 101
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4.0. A feminist critical discourse analysis of gendered attributions of blame and failure to
protect in child welfare responses to child sexual abuse………………………….……………………….…. 101
4.1. Research objective and questions………………………………………………………………..………….….… 102
4.1.1. Analytic scope………………………………………………………………………………………………… 103
4.2. Review of study concepts……………………………….................................................................. 104
4.3. Method of inquiry………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..….. 105
4.3.1. Discourse analysis: The study of language-in-use………………………………………….... 105
4.3.2. Critical discourse analysis: A multimodal approach to social research……………..107
4.3.3. Notions of discourse, ideology, and power………………………………………………….…. 108
4.3.4. The critical agenda……………………………………………………………………………………..……111
4.3.5. Feminist critical discourse analysis: Critique through a gendered lens………..….. 112
4.4. Positionality and reflexivity: Locating myself as the researcher………………………………..…… 115
4.5. Data collection and sampling procedures…………….………..……………………….………………..…… 117
4.5.1. Texts as discourse fragments: A window into relations of power……………….…… 117
4.5.2. Semiotic points of entry: Principled approaches to sampling intertextual
data………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 119
4.5.2.1. Child welfare policies and practice standards…….…..………………………… 120
4.5.2.2. Child protection case files and family court documents…………………... 123
4.5.2.3. Disconfirming/negative child protection case file…………………………….. 127
4.5.3. Interplay among textual sources in child welfare…………………………..…………..…… 128
4.6. Data analysis strategies…………….……….…………………........................................................... 129
4.6.1. Three-dimensional dialectical-relational analytic framework………………………..… 130
4.6.1.1. Discourse-as-text……………………………………………………………………………… 131
4.6.1.2. Discourse-as-discursive-practice……………….……………………………………… 132
4.6.1.3. Discourse-as-social-practice……………………………………………………………… 132
4.6.2. Analyzing text in context: A multilayered process………………………………..…….…… 133
4.7. Ethical considerations……………………………….…..……………………………………………..…………...…. 137
4.8. Strategies for assessing research quality……………………….…………………………………………….… 139
4.9. General criticisms of critical discourse analysis and study limitations………………….………… 140
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Chapter 5: Study Findings and Interpretive Analysis……………..………………………….…… 143
5.0. Discursive constructions of maternal blame and failure to protect in child welfare
policy and practice texts…………………………………………………………………………………..…………..……… 143
5.1. A systematically linked network of child welfare texts……………………………………………….…. 143
5.2. Child protection case file synopses: Introducing the mothers……………………………...…….…. 150
5.3. Contextualizing child welfare policy and practice discourse……………………….……………….... 155
5.3.1. A brief historical review of child welfare governance and legal discourse…...…. 155
5.3.2. From social welfare to child protection: Infiltration of neoliberal philosophy.… 158
5.3.3. ‘Profiling’ child protection workers and clients: By women for women............. 163
5.4. In the best interests of the child? Child-centred discourse in child welfare...................... 166
5.4.1. Codifying the paramountcy of the child……………………………………………..…………… 167
5.4.2. Determining children’s best interests…. via maternal capacities……………..……… 170
5.4.3. To protect and support? Tensions in the dual child welfare mandate………..…… 174
5.5. Obliged mothers, discretionary fathers, and invisible perpetrators: Gendered discourse
in child welfare.......................................................................................................................... 176
5.5.1. Masking mother-centrism: The façade of gender-neutral language................... 177
5.5.2. Gender-biased child protection practices: Deflecting the gaze........................... 182
5.6. Risk intolerant: Permeation of hegemonic risk discourse in child welfare……………….….... 188
5.6.1. Institutionalizing risk in child protection processes: A preoccupation with
probabilities?................................................................................................................. 189
5.6.2. Governmentality, rational science, and value imposition: The social and
political relations of risk…………………………………………………………………………….…………….. 199
5.6.3. Mothers as the embodiment of risk, target of blame, and agent of change...... 202
5.7. Manufacturing mother-blame: Failure to protect discourse in child welfare……………...... 207
5.7.1. Entrenching failure to protect standards in policy and practice………………………. 210
5.7.2. Failure to protect: An ideological doctrine of motherhood…………………............. 223
5.7.3. Mixed signals: Expectations of unwavering maternal belief in the shadow of
doubt…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…… 231
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