ABSTRACT
The periods of follow-up for which data was available about the victim was in most cases six to 12 months or one to three years, but some were followed for less than six months or over three years (Table 7.1). During these follow-up periods many victims experienced a change in the person(s) with whom they were living. 1 This occurred for twice the number of English victims as Canadian victims (68 versus 31). Some were living with only one parent-figure (with whom they had been living at disclosure) while others lived away from home with new people (in placement or with another relative or parent). The highly negative effects of placement and the separation of children from their parents has been extensively documented 2 and in cases of incest the child feels she/he is being punished (Cormier & Cooper, 1982; Maisch, 1972). Fifteen of the 19 Canadian and 20 of the 29 English victims living away from their home were in placement. In a third of the Canadian and over half of the English cases, the principal reason for placement was the social worker’s perception that the victim was still at risk of further abuse from a perpetrator who had not been charged and was living in the home. Hostility of the mother towards the victim was another. Negative parental responses to disclosure have been cited as aggravating trauma in sexually abused children (Anderson, Bach & Griffiths, 1981; Tufts, 1984).
