ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns child abuse—both physical and sexual—and spouse abuse. In one respect, these acts are similar because they involve at least the implicit threat of violence, as in the case of child molestation, which usually is not blatantly forceful. The theme of violence makes the acts similar to the assaults discussed in the last chapter. But they are also different because these acts are particularly private and secret; they are typically insulated from outsiders’ knowledge and interference. This isolation is understandable when we consider the contexts of many of these assaults: They are not “street crimes”; rather, they occur in the home or in other situations in which the victims could assume that they are among friends. The participants usually are not strangers but people who have special bonds to one another. And the victims do not readily seek the help of outsiders because the victims are indifferent or ignorant, feel powerless, fear retaliation, or are reluctant to do anything that jeopardizes their relationship with the assaulters. Adding further to the isolation surrounding these assaults is most outsiders’ reluctance to meddle in other people’s “personal” matters.
