tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/incest-3161/articlesIncest – The Conversation2021-05-18T16:18:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1609372021-05-18T16:18:07Z2021-05-18T16:18:07ZIncest isn’t a taboo in the animal kingdom – new study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401261/original/file-20210518-17-z7s0r5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C2578%2C1624&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/lovemaking-ladybugs-couple-on-dewy-grass-70632820">Kletr/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We humans tend to regard incest as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/jan/09/familyandrelationships.features103">deeply disturbing</a>. It’s a strong <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-greatest-taboo-the-surprising-truth-of-what-the-bible-says-about-incest-57693">social taboo</a>, and it’s underpinned by sound biological reasoning. Mixing genes with a non-relative is beneficial because it increases genetic diversity, while <a href="https://www.bbcearth.com/news/what-are-the-effects-of-inbreeding">genetic defects</a> often occur in the offspring of related parents.</p>
<p>We’d expect to see the same attitude extend to animals, who may lack a social distaste for incest but are, in the end, subject to the same biological pressures to produce the fittest offspring – which we assume means <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0169534796100288">breeding with an unrelated mate</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01453-9">our recent study</a> has called this assumption into question. We reviewed 40 years of scholarship on animal mate selection, and found that animals don’t tend to differentiate between relatives and non-relatives when choosing a mate. </p>
<p>This may seem surprising or unsettling, but evolutionary theorists have pointed out for decades that inbreeding <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2006.tb01128.x">is not always bad</a> – and that in some cases, for instance where mate choice is limited, it might even be beneficial.</p>
<h2>Selecting a mate</h2>
<p>Animals account for a variety of factors when <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0169534796100501">choosing a mate</a>. One of them is their degree of relatedness, but animals are also interested in the resources the partner can provide, and whether they carry desirable genes.</p>
<p>Choosing an unrelated mate is attractive, seeing as it increases the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg.2016.58">genetic diversity</a> of the resultant offspring. Mating with a relative, on the other hand, increases the likelihood that parents will pass <a href="https://www.bbcearth.com/news/what-are-the-effects-of-inbreeding">rare genetic diseases</a> to their offspring. </p>
<p>This happens because <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25608820/">half of the offspring’s genes</a> come from each parent. Usually, if a parent carries a gene for a rare genetic disease, the other parent will carry the healthy version of that gene, which is then expressed in their offspring. But when parents are related, there’s a higher chance that both parents will carry the same unhealthy genes, which the offspring must then inherit.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-animal-genes-go-into-battle-to-dominate-their-offspring-82417">How animal genes go into battle to dominate their offspring</a>
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<p>So there are strong reasons for animals to avoid mating with a relative – but are there any situations where inbreeding might actually be beneficial? </p>
<h2>Mating with a relative</h2>
<p>One obvious scenario in which animals mate with their relatives is when there’s just no other option. If animals are compelled to pass on their genes, you’d expect they’d prefer to produce offspring with a relative than to not reproduce at all.</p>
<p>But there could also be a more counter-intuitive reason behind some animal inbreeding. As Richard Dawkins set out in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/529462a">The Selfish Gene</a>, animals want to pass on as many of their genes as possible. From this perspective, the more genes an animal passes on to the next generation, the better they do. </p>
<p>Mating with a relative can be a great way to do this. Because so many genes are shared between relatives, a higher proportion of both of their genes will be passed on to the next generation if they do mate – a win for their genetic legacy.</p>
<p>Animals who avoid inbreeding also have to expend energy to do so, including when they learn how to distinguish relatives from unrelated individuals. Saving energy is sometimes crucial for an animal’s survival – and by extension the survival of their genes – so learning to avoid inbreeding may not always be <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160928083012.htm">the best strategy</a> for some animals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two monkeys hugging on a tree branch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401263/original/file-20210518-17-7edcxs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401263/original/file-20210518-17-7edcxs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401263/original/file-20210518-17-7edcxs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401263/original/file-20210518-17-7edcxs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401263/original/file-20210518-17-7edcxs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401263/original/file-20210518-17-7edcxs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401263/original/file-20210518-17-7edcxs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In harsh environments, animals may benefit from being less picky in their choice of mate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-monkey-friends-on-tree-110270648">Hung Chung Chih/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Measuring inbreeding</h2>
<p>Theoretical scientists have used <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/modeling-evolution-9780199571147?cc=ro&lang=en&">mathematical modelling</a> to predict how animals should behave in different scenarios, weighing up the costs and benefits of their actions.</p>
<p>When applied to inbreeding, the costs include the risk of passing on rare genetic diseases or defects, while the benefits include passing on genes more efficiently – as well as increasing mating opportunities. Even when accounting for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6435235/">other factors</a> such as habitats and population size, the models have concluded that tolerating inbreeding is the most successful strategy for animals to employ. </p>
<p>This hypothesis has been experimentally tested in a wide variety of animal species, from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921448809000613">mammals</a> down to the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347212003715">fruit fly</a>. In these experiments, animals are given the option to mate with a relative or an unrelated individual, with researchers looking out for a trend or bias.</p>
<p>These studies also account for another dimension to mate selection. While animals choose who they copulate with, they also have some control over the subsequent fertilisation. Males can <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2004.2843">influence the sperm</a> they allocate to females, while females that mate with more than one partner can influence whether <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jeb.12545">sperm from related or unrelated males</a> fertilises their eggs. This has been observed in a wide range of animals, from <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0578">insects</a> to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18081715/">mammals</a>. </p>
<p>Over the past 40 years, these choices – mate selection both before and after mating – have been observed in 139 individual studies of 88 different species. But we’ve always missed the big picture of whether animals generally tend to avoid mating with their relatives.</p>
<h2>Reviewing the literature</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01453-9">Our study</a> provides that picture, finding no evidence that animals differentiate between related and unrelated individuals when given a choice of mate. Not all species have been studied for inbreeding, but our study did include a broad range of species – from <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mollus/article/82/1/213/2460032">snails</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/98/4/851/2448054">spiders</a> to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/120/4/762/2929386">fish</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1981.tb01922.x">birds</a>, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/97/7/3324">rodents</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921448809000613">other mammals</a>.</p>
<p>This finding was consistent for males and females and across a range of experimental conditions. Inbreeding avoidance occurred in just 17% of the 139 studies we reviewed. It seems the evolutionary theorists were right.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that the experiments we reviewed were conducted in controlled laboratory settings. Animals living in the wild face very different challenges and conditions to those living under laboratory conditions – which could influence how they choose a mate.</p>
<p>Today’s animal conservation efforts aim to boost the population size of endangered species, mating unrelated individuals in order to increase the species’ genetic diversity. A famous example is China’s <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/151215-giant-pandas-animals-science-mating-sex-china">giant panda</a>, which has proven difficult to encourage to mate. </p>
<p>Our study suggests that conservation efforts shouldn’t <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10125">focus solely on mating unrelated individuals</a>. Given a choice, animals may well opt to mate with a relative. And while this would be bad news for genetic diversity, it would at least produce a new generation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raïssa de Boer received funding from the Carl Tryggers Foundation (17:152). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Vega Trejo receives funding from the Swedish Research Council 2017-04957. </span></em></p>Reviewing studies of 88 species, researchers found little evidence that animals avoid inbreeding.Raïssa de Boer, Researcher & Computer Scientist, Rheumatology, Lund UniversityRegina Vega Trejo, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Zoology, Stockholm UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1386722020-05-26T12:18:15Z2020-05-26T12:18:15ZI’ve been following families in open adoptions for 15 years, observing adoptive parents’ struggles to share painful origin stories with kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336591/original/file-20200520-194978-ryxmfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3828%2C2149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knowing the truth about one's origins is crucial to identity formation, according to adoption experts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/parents-talking-with-son-on-bench-in-park-royalty-free-image/1130374456">Motortion/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Adoption has changed dramatically in recent years. <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-adoptions-have-dropped-72-percent-since-2005-heres-why-91809">International adoptions have dropped dramatically</a> since 2005. Today, most adoptions are domestic, with the <a href="http://www.kinshipcenter.org/resources/blog/open-adoptions-are-a-national-trend-study-finds-that-95-of-us-infant-adoptions-have-openness.html">vast majority</a> being open adoptions, meaning there is some type of contact or exchange of information between birth families and adoptive families, before and sometimes after the adoption. </p>
<p>Research has shown that openness benefits all parties involved. <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/bulletins_maintainrelationships.pdf">Birth parents</a> are reassured the child they placed is alive and well, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/NMC.0000000000000370">alleviating anxiety and guilt</a>. Adoptive parents are able to answer their children’s inevitable questions, and also experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407515611494">comfort and reassurance</a> knowing they were chosen by the birth family and can be in touch with them <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDF/bulletins_maintainrelationships.pdf">if genetic questions arise</a>. For children, openness eliminates the need to search for their birth parents. Access to birth parents <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/open-adoption-and-diverse-families-9780190692032">allows children to gain insight</a> and ask questions about their identity and roots. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://www.abbiegoldberg.com">psychologist</a> who studies open adoption. One topic <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/famp.12491">I research</a> is how adoptive parents grapple with the decision of whether and when to share difficult origin stories with their children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Most babies adopted in the United States today were born here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/loving-male-same-sex-couple-cuddling-baby-daughter-royalty-free-image/1177240987">monkeybusinessimages/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>What psychologists recommend</h2>
<p>Adoption experts advise a <a href="https://bpar.org/telling-truth-adopted-foster-child-book/">full, honest disclosure</a> of a child’s origin story. This recommendation is based on years of research documenting the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00014">negative effects of secrecy</a> on adopted individuals. Psychologists emphasize the long-term benefits trust builds between parents and their children, as well as the need adopted individuals have to know the truth about their origins in order to <a href="https://www.nacac.org/resource/seven-core-issues-in-adoption-and-permanency/">fully understand themselves and have healthy and meaningful relationships</a>. This recommendation is firm, even in situations of rape or incest, birth parent substance abuse, incarceration or physical abuse.</p>
<p>Such discussions should be <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/open-adoption-and-diverse-families-9780190692032">developmentally staged</a>, meaning they should vary depending on the child’s age. For example, to a preschooler, parents might explain their birth mother was not healthy enough to care for them; to a teen, they might share their birth mother struggled with alcoholism.</p>
<p>All information should be shared with the child by the time they reach adolescence. Identity development begins in childhood but takes center stage in adolescence, when youth begin to ask key questions like “Who am I?” and “Who am I in relation to others?” For adopted teens, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J145v01n01_02">identity development can be more complete</a> if it involves coming to terms with their conception. If adopted youth are lied to about their origins, the discovery of such lies can prompt feelings of betrayal and <a href="https://www.nacac.org/resource/seven-core-issues-in-adoption-and-permanency/">amplify the shame and guilt</a> that often result from secrecy about adoption in the first place. </p>
<h2>Easier said than done</h2>
<p>While the theory of how and when to tell difficult origin stories to adopted children is clear, my research has found the practice more murky. </p>
<p>Since 2005, I’ve been conducting a long-term study of adoptive families. I first interviewed the parents prior to adoptive placement and have interviewed them every few years since – most recently, when their children were between the ages of eight and 12. Eleven couples in my study adopted children who were reportedly conceived via rape or incest.</p>
<p>From the time they agreed to the adoptive placement, all of these 22 parents carefully considered how their children’s conception circumstances would affect their children and what, if anything, they would need to tell them. Parents worried about the stigmatizing aspects of their child’s origin story, with several emphasizing they would keep the circumstances of their children’s conception private, within their immediate family.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Honesty leads to trust.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/perfect-family-holding-hands-adopted-child-being-royalty-free-image/1004735032">Motortion/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>When I last interviewed them, none of the parents had shared explicit information about their children’s conception details. A few had tentatively raised the topic, by saying things like, “I don’t think that your birth parents were in love.” Two-thirds said they had not shared because they had incomplete or questionable information. </p>
<p>For example, they said they had been told by the adoption agency their child was conceived through rape, but not by the birth mother herself – so how did they know? Some wondered if the birth mother had said it was stranger rape to protect an older boyfriend from being accused of statutory rape. While parents said they wanted to believe birth mothers, the possibility of an alternative narrative gave them pause to consider the potential risks of telling a story to their children that might not be true. It’s possible, also, some were questioning birth mothers’ stories because they wish to believe a less stigmatizing version, enabling them to not have to tell it. </p>
<p>The desire to preserve children’s innocence, combined with uncertainty about birth mothers’ accounts, were described as key reasons for ongoing silence around their children’s origins. All study parents said they were uncertain about how they would share this information down the road. One-third had consulted or intended to consult with adoption therapists to plan the telling. Parents with ongoing birth mother contact described their intention to verify the story and plan its telling with her. </p>
<p>Adoptive parents in my study describe a commitment to openness, while also struggling with a lack of guidance around how and when to disclose difficult conception details. Indeed, adoptive parents generally get a lot of information and guidance before they adopt, but do not get a lot of post-adoption counseling <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.06.017">unless they seek it out</a>. </p>
<p>The parents in my study are hesitating to disclose, but are also worried about waiting too long and risking feelings of betrayal, such as, “Why did you lie to me?” Adoptive parents in this situation should consult with therapists <a href="https://adoptionsupport.org/member-types/adoption-competent-professionals/">who have training in adoption issues</a> as they navigate these uncertain waters, with the knowledge that children deserve the truth about their own stories – even when that truth is difficult.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abbie E. Goldberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Experts recommend adopted children be told about their origins, no matter how difficult the circumstances, but doing so is tricky for adoptive parents.Abbie E. Goldberg, Professor of Psychology, Clark UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/938102018-03-29T10:25:11Z2018-03-29T10:25:11ZThe Victorians portrayed paedophiles as strangers – and the myth persists today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212426/original/file-20180328-109179-qdgiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/514093894?src=1ex8_Xx2QvZH5KV0li4wJQ-1-0&size=medium_jpg">Dm_Cherry/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Victorians portrayed paedophiles as scary strangers and social outsiders. By portraying them in this way, it was possible to avoid the unthinkable reality that children could be abused in respectable middle-class homes. </p>
<p>This myth of the stranger paedophile is still persistent today. And even though the evidence shows that most child sexual abuse is <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673604167718/abstract">perpetrated by close family members</a>, the stranger myth continues to distract our attention from the most common type of abuse.</p>
<p>The way we understand child sexual abuse today has its roots in social and medical theories developed in the late-19th century. The stranger myth originated partly in these theories and also in sensational journalism and popular fiction. Because it was a taboo subject, it was impossible to represent child sexual abuse directly in cultural works like novels. It was even difficult to discuss it in textbooks or newspaper articles, and the focus was kept firmly on stranger perpetrators. </p>
<p>An important event that helped make the discussion of child sexual abuse public was the publication of a series of newspaper exposés of child prostitution in 1885 by the investigative journalist, WT Stead. With the sensational title, <a href="https://attackingthedevil.co.uk/pmg/tribute/mt1.php">The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon</a>, the reports described a booming London trade in providing young girls for violent sexual exploitation. </p>
<p>Another event that opened up the discussion was the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595948/">creation in 1896 of the medical concept of paedophilia</a>. It was publicised in a <a href="https://archive.org/details/psychopathiasexu00krafuoft">very successful textbook</a> on deviant sexuality, which focused on violent sexual crimes committed by strangers and almost entirely overlooked the act of incest. These treatments of the issue helped keep the focus off domestic problems. They allowed child sexual abuse to be <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Child-Sexual-Abuse-in-Victorian-England/Jackson/p/book/9780415226509">portrayed as a lower-class problem of public morality</a>, associated with stereotypes of poverty, slums, substance abuse and poor hygiene.</p>
<h2>Gothic conventions</h2>
<p>In the realm of fiction, some writers got around the taboo by using the metaphors of gothic writing to sneak sexual content past the censor. In this way, child sexual abuse could be represented using the figure of the monster who preys on children. </p>
<p>For example, in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), there is a bizarre incident where Mr Hyde cruelly tramples a little girl underfoot on a nighttime London street. This has been <a href="https://books.google.ie/books?id=sK3SeTvmm7QC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">interpreted</a> as a covert reference to the problem of child prostitution, coming just after the maiden tribute scandal the year before.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The monstrous Mr Hyde, who ‘tramples’ a young girl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10048960">National Printing & Engraving Company/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The vampirism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, probably the best-known Victorian gothic tale, has <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2928560">long been interpreted as violently sexual</a>. But the fact that most of the vampires’ victims in the book are children, means it too can be read as covertly representing child sexual abuse. By showing highly sexualised monsters preying on children, Dracula and many similar popular tales may have helped to circulate the stranger myth to a wide audience. </p>
<p>Gothic writing also gave credence to the stranger myth in another important way. Because it was difficult to describe child sexual abuse directly, even the non-fiction accounts often used gothic conventions to hint at unmentionable acts. The child prostitution articles used the sensational metaphor of the “sacrifice” of girls to the “insatiable” “maw” of “the London minotaur”. And the medical textbook, which featured a number of cases that involved cannibalism, even referred to the perpetrators of sexual murder as “modern vampires”.</p>
<h2>Victorian attitudes die hard</h2>
<p>Although it is no longer taboo to discuss child sexual abuse or to describe it explicitly, it is still not an experience or issue that is easily raised, especially when it occurs in a domestic setting. The <a href="https://arrow.dit.ie/icr/vol10/iss1/1/">focus is still on extreme cases</a> committed by strangers and treated in a sensational way by the media, such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Madeleine_McCann">disappearance of Madeleine McCann</a>. </p>
<p>And the modern horror genre still seems to be used often to engage with child sexual abuse, with a continuing tendency to distance the perpetrators by making them monstrous. For example, in the classic 1984 horror movie, Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger was <a href="http://www.overlookpress.com/categories/screams-and-nightmares-1.html">originally conceived of as a child molester</a>, and this is made <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/nightmare-film-casts-freddy-child-molester-70239">explicit in the 2010 remake</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Freddy Krueger, originally conceived as a child molester.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23238422">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although we like to think we live in more enlightened times, we seem to be reproducing the unhelpful disavowal of domestic child sexual abuse that was so prevalent in Victorian times, and over-focusing on “stranger danger” and extreme cases. We are now willing to point the finger at institutional abuse, for example, but we are still unwilling to admit that child sexual abuse happens behind the closed doors of ordinary-seeming families. And this makes it even more difficult for the survivors of abuse to deal with their experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ailise Bulfin receives funding from the Trinity College Dublin Wellcome Trust-SFI-HRB co-funded Institutional Strategic Support Fund. </span></em></p>Most child sex abuse happens within families, but we still cling on to the Victorian idea of paedophiles as outsiders.Ailise Bulfin, Research Fellow, ‘Catalysing Neurohumanities research into Child Sexual Abuse’, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/856842017-10-18T19:19:03Z2017-10-18T19:19:03ZIs Victoria’s sentencing regime really more lenient?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190339/original/file-20171016-21977-19uk8ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For all offences in the higher courts, the proportion of Victorians sent to prison is actually higher than the national average.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/2017/41.html">recent High Court decision</a> surrounding the adequacy of a sentence handed down in an incest case <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-12/victorias-sentencing-for-serious-crimes-far-too-lenient/9040488">has sparked debate</a> over whether Victoria’s sentencing regime is too lenient.</p>
<p>The state’s Victims of Crime Commissioner, Greg Davies, argued the decision confirmed sentencing in Victoria had “lost its way”. Shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto promised the opposition would, if elected next year, introduce mandatory minimum sentences for certain serious offences – a call Sentencing Advisory Council chair Arie Freiberg rejected.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/top-judge-dpp-in-row-over-crime-sentencing/news-story/2767b02ec0755316550c085b4e3f78e6">media reporting</a> that followed claimed Victorian prosecutors had for years despaired at the lax sentences handed to some of the state’s worst criminals. <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/criminals-face-softer-prison-sentences-in-victoria/news-story/560a948dccfd944611c09e7ff1d3f8f2">One article</a> asserted that Victoria “is the joint lowest incarcerator of serious criminals”.</p>
<h2>The case</h2>
<p>The case on which the High Court recently handed down its decision involved two charges of incest, one act of sexual penetration of a child under 16, and one act of indecent assault.</p>
<p>At the time of the offending, the victims were aged nine to 13 and 15 to 16. They are sisters, and their mother was in a relationship with the offender at the time of offending. As a result of the offences one of the victims fell pregnant, and the pregnancy was later terminated. </p>
<p>In relation to this charge, the sentencing judge sentenced the man to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment. The total sentence imposed by Victoria’s County Court was five-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of three years. </p>
<p>The state’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed to the Court of Appeal, arguing the sentence was inadequate. The Court of Appeal <a href="http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSCA/2016/148.html">agreed that</a> current sentencing practices for incest are “demonstrably inadequate” and “devalue the objective gravity of the offence”.</p>
<p>The Court of Appeal went on to say that judges should adjust sentences upwards, but said it was constrained in the case by current sentencing practice. Accordingly, it dismissed the DPP’s appeal.</p>
<p>The DPP then appealed to the High Court, which unanimously allowed the appeal and ordered that the matter be returned to the Victorian Court of Appeal for resentencing. The High Court <a href="http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/2017/41.html">said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… sexual abuse of children by those in authority over them has been revealed as a most serious blight on society. The courts have developed … an awareness of the violence necessarily involved in the sexual penetration of a child, and of the devastating consequences of this kind of crime for its victims.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The High Court argued that the Court of Appeal had placed too much weight on current sentencing practices, and should instead have corrected the injustice it identified.</p>
<h2>Is Victoria really so lenient?</h2>
<p>Victoria <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4512.0June%20Quarter%202017?OpenDocument">does have</a> one of the lowest imprisonment rates in Australia, together with Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. The reasons for this are complex and <a href="http://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/files/9978875/P_S_Australia_VERSION2.pdf">stretch back to the 1880s</a>.</p>
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<p>However, the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats%5Cabs@.nsf/0/62E9BAFF94DAD459CA2568A9001393FE?Opendocument">court data for 2015-16</a> indicates that 64% of defendants convicted of sex offences in the Victorian higher courts (the County and Supreme Court) were sent to prison, compared with 68% nationally. </p>
<p>For <em>all</em> offences in the higher courts, the proportion of Victorians sent to prison is actually higher than the national average (70% versus 68%). </p>
<p>Consideration of the length of sentences imposed shows that the mean (average) and median (typical) sentence imposed for sex offences in the higher courts in Victoria in 2015-16 was 42 months. The national average was 44 months, with a national median sentence of 36 months. So, serious sex offenders in Victoria typically received a <em>longer</em> sentence than the national average.</p>
<p>For all offences in the higher courts (that is, all serious offences), the story is different: the average and typical sentences for Victoria were 38 and 24 months respectively, while the national figures were 38 and 30 months. This means that, while the typical sentence is shorter, the average sentence is the same for Victoria as the rest of Australia. </p>
<p>The same is true for sentences for sex offences imposed in all courts (including less serious sentences imposed in the magistrates’ courts).</p>
<h2>‘Getting tough’ and political choices</h2>
<p>Sentencing has many purposes. <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/sa1991121/s5.html">These include</a> just punishment for the offender, rehabilitation and deterrence. </p>
<p>Increasing the length of prison sentences <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/Does%20Imprisonment%20Deter%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Evidence.pdf">does not increase</a> their deterrent effect. Short prison sentences also have <a href="http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Documents/CJB/Report-2015-Does-the-first-prison-sentence-reduce-the-risk-of-further-offending-cjb187.pdf">no greater deterrent effect</a> than comparable community orders. Overall, imprisonment rates are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">more related to</a> political choices than to crime rates.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">The evidence is in: you can’t link imprisonment to crime rates</a></strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Governments across Australia have passed a range of reforms designed to “get tough” on sex offenders. However, national research <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/vic/num_act/sasa201734o2017438/">has shown</a> only minor differences in the key measures of public attitudes to sentencing across the country, despite the extensive differences in relation to sentencing. </p>
<p>This suggests that public (dis)satisfaction with the justice system is independent of actual sentencing policy and practice.</p>
<p>The consequences of sexual offences can be devastating for victims and society more generally. The High Court and parliaments have made it clear that sentencing practices for many of these offences have previously been inadequate. But an overriding focus on increasing sentences may not necessarily be the best means of redressing the harm caused.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85684/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorana Bartels receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She has previously received funding from the ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate and Tasmanian Sentencing Advisory Council. She is affiliated with Prisoners' Aid ACT. </span></em></p>An overriding focus on increasing sentences may not necessarily be the best means of redressing the harm caused by sex offences.Lorana Bartels, Associate Professor and Head, School of Law and Justice, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/633132016-08-10T20:04:09Z2016-08-10T20:04:09ZIncest: why is ‘worst of the worst’ abuse so often ignored?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132704/original/image-20160802-17165-12svj0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A number of egregious incest cases have been reported in Australia in recent years. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was the sexual abuse case labelled the “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/worst-of-the-worst-fathers-years-of-abuse-against-athlete-daughter-revealed-20160729-gqh28x.html">worst of the worst</a>”. Late last month, an Australian father and mother were found guilty of dozens of child sex offences against their daughter over a 14-year period.</p>
<p>The abuse began when the victim was five years old and continued into her late teens. Her father often forced her to sleep in an old shed where she was raped, tortured and denied food, with the knowledge and complicity of her mother. While competing at a national level in athletics, her abuse went unnoticed outside her family.</p>
<p>After leaving home at 18, she was able to disclose her lifelong abuse to detectives despite her parents’ ongoing efforts to stalk and assault her. The subsequent investigation uncovered the indecent assault of her sister. A sentencing hearing for their parents will be held in September. </p>
<p>The sheer scope of the abuse visited upon this woman is shocking. It is tempting to view her case as an aberration. However, it is just one of a number of egregious incest cases reported in Australia in recent years. </p>
<h2>On the rise?</h2>
<p>In 2008, a Victorian teenager <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/sex-slave-teen-murder-charge-dropped-20090327-9d3g.html">killed her stepfather</a> to bring years of sadistic sexual abuse to an end. This included the mass production of child abuse images. </p>
<p>A school friend said she told a school counsellor that she suspected the girl was being abused. Another friend said a teacher raised concerns about the stepfather with her. No report was made to the state government under mandatory reporting laws.</p>
<p>In 2009, it was revealed that a Victorian woman had been <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/dad-controlled-freed-incest-victim/story-e6frg6nf-1225776317767">sexually assaulted and controlled</a> by her father for 30 years. She gave birth to four children by him. </p>
<p>The abuse continued despite the active involvement of social services in the family. The woman said she had contact with <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/victorian-incest-victim-who-bore-four-children-to-her-father-speaks-out/news-story/4f1cd21c53eef371b1d9db47d3944896">22 social workers</a> and disclosed her abuse to authorities, but no action was taken.</p>
<p>In 2012, New South Wales authorities raided the rural compound of an extended family where <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/special-features/in-depth/colt-clan-incest-case-like-nothing-ive-ever-seen-says-top-cop/news-story/98206792d63497c6647301584e782d3d">incest had been endemic</a> for generations. The family had eluded detection by child protection services for decades. </p>
<p>It took seven “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/12/australia-incest-case-shocks-country">risk of significant harm</a>” reports before the 12 children on the property were taken into care. </p>
<h2>How the abuse can be missed</h2>
<p>In each of these cases, there were systemic failures to detect incest or protect victims. The unresponsiveness of relevant institutions and services enabled the abuse to continue for years or decades under the noses of authorities. </p>
<p>Without intervention, incest can escalate to the point where some children live in states of sexual captivity that <a href="http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/19/2/146.full.pdf">persist well into adulthood</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15299732.2012.736932#.V56cYfl96Hs">A study</a> published in 2012 of ten Australian women reporting prolonged incest by their father into adulthood found the mean duration of incestuous abuse was 31 years. The estimated average number of sexual abuse episodes was more than 3,300 in the lifetime of each woman. </p>
<p>It was common for the women to describe abuse by other relatives and the father’s “friends” as well. Sexual abuse was interwoven with extreme violence and the women reported being locked in rooms and kennels as children.</p>
<p>This research is corroborated by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Organised-Sexual-Abuse/Salter/p/book/9780415689779">my study of Australian adults</a> reporting organised abuse in childhood. For most of my interviewees, incestuous fathers orchestrated their abuse. It continued into adulthood for some. </p>
<p>I continue to hear from women who describe incestuous abuse that is virtually identical to the “worst of the worst” cases. These women remain overwhelmingly afraid of their violent fathers and the consequences of approaching authorities. They struggle to find mental health care for their trauma-related and dissociative psychological symptoms. This leaves them economically and socially marginalised, and vulnerable to victimisation.</p>
<p>Their fragile mental health is a major obstacle to providing a statement to police or withstanding an adversarial court process. </p>
<p>Those incest perpetrators who integrate the internet and digital technology into their offending are potentially more vulnerable to prosecution. </p>
<p>For instance, this year, a Perth father was <a href="http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/evil-8-father-who-organised-pedophile-ring-sexually-abused-daughter-faces-jail/news-story/f562928fdb38698b3ba7b8d6320d797a">jailed for 22 years</a> for sexually abusing his daughter and for making contact with other men online who he enabled to abuse her as well. His online advertisements offering his “young daughter” for “modelling” jobs, and the child abuse material that he manufactured, provided strong evidence of guilt.</p>
<p>Most incest perpetrators are not so visible, or so sloppy. They are usually obsessed with power and control and strictly regulate family life to minimise the likelihood of detection.</p>
<p>Some incest offenders retain strong community and business ties that effectively inoculate them from suspicion. A family that is not showing overt signs of dysfunction is unlikely to attract the attention of child protection authorities. Under these conditions, the family becomes the perfect staging ground for sexual exploitation.</p>
<p>The once-taboo topics of domestic violence and institutional abuse are now front-page news, but repeated reports of incest have not registered in public awareness as evidence of a serious problem. The last broad-based public inquiry to consider incest <a href="https://www.academia.edu/14699303/The_privatisation_of_incest_The_neglect_of_familial_sexual_abuse_in_Australian_public_inquiries">finished in the late 1980s</a>, well before the full extent of incest in Australia had become apparent. </p>
<p>Since then, the underlying factors that make incest possible have gone largely unexamined. Even the “worst” cases attract only a flurry of attention before fading from view.</p>
<p>Until the invisibility of incest is tackled, the “worst of the worst” is not just a possibility in Australia. For some children and women, it is their inescapable reality.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If this article has raised any issues for you, please contact 1800 RESPECT through their toll-free national counselling hotline or <a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au/">online</a>. You can also find support through <a href="https://www.lifeline.org.au/">Lifeline</a> on 13 11 14. The <a href="http://www.blueknot.org.au/">Blue Knot Foundation</a> provides telephone counselling for survivors of childhood trauma on 1300 657 380.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Salter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The once-taboo topics of domestic violence and institutional abuse are now front-page news, but repeated reports of incest have not registered in public awareness as evidence of a serious problem.Michael Salter, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/576932016-05-09T09:27:45Z2016-05-09T09:27:45ZThe greatest taboo? The surprising truth of what The Bible says about incest<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121639/original/image-20160508-2544-1gjntu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lot and his daughters, by Hendrick Goltzius, 1616.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/11715507005/in/photolist-fBhP1-iRg356">Dennis Jarvis/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Incest sparks strong emotions – and today, in many cultures at least, they are largely negative. But has it always been thus? Or is the taboo peculiar to certain times and places?</p>
<p>Incest taboos are often said to be universal – and sex with a close relative (one’s parent, child, or sibling) is widely considered particularly <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/america-has-an-incest-problem/272459/">depraved</a>, as well as detrimental and stigmatising for any offspring who might result from such a union. </p>
<p>Such figures as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/19/josef-fritzl-austria">Josef Fritzl</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/1999/nov/21/featuresreview.review4">Frederick West</a> have scaled the heights of notoriety in part because of violent, exploitative incest committed against their own children. </p>
<p>And yet incest also seems to be everywhere: in high and low-brow <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Family_Likeness.html?id=P5XMnntdpRUC&redir_esc=y">literature</a> – from Virginia Andrews’ <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Flowers_in_the_Attic.html?id=atDGvrHpFJAC&redir_esc=y">Flowers in the Attic</a> to Arundhati Roy’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_God_of_Small_Things.html?id=4LZ2guxa1EIC&redir_esc=y">The God of Small Things</a> – as well as in film and especially popular television – think <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-recap-jaime-takes-697731">Game of Thrones</a>, <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/video/tv-biz/5394505/Brookside-incest-storyline.html">Brookside</a>, <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/947927/Hollyoaks-soap-preview-Rhys-and-Beths-incestuous-affair-rumbled-by-Michaela.html">Hollyoaks</a> and<a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/alice-coulthards-forbidden-fruit-197450"> Emmerdale</a>. It is also a trope in <a href="http://www.bustle.com/articles/117424-the-crimson-peak-incest-plot-pushes-the-envelope-when-it-comes-to-on-screen-love">gothic horror</a>. </p>
<p>Curiously, too, in popular culture, incest is not infrequently depicted as consensual and – especially when it is between a good-looking <a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/sibling-incest-tale-old-timeand-its-not-going-away-221229">brother and sister</a> – even as romantic.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, judging from the press over the last few weeks, anyone would think that familial sexual relationships were a completely new phenomenon and that until recently, incest was kept at bay by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/family/disgusted-by-incest-genetic-sexual-attraction-is-real-and-on-the/">strong social taboos</a>. However, whether familial sexual relationships are indeed considered to be incestuous (that is, illegal, even criminal) or not depends on the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/incests-history/">social and cultural context</a>. Moreover, attitudes to incest tend to be gendered and <a href="http://www.genderandeducation.com/issues/what-is-heteronormativity/">heteronormative</a>. </p>
<p>With relatives who were once separated increasingly able to trace each other (through DNA testing, social media, and reunion services), <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3557738/Half-siblings-admit-relationship-Spanish-TV-show.html">stories of siblings</a>, or of a <a href="http://jezebel.com/on-falling-in-and-out-of-love-with-my-dad-1686108276">parent and child</a><a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/13243/aimee-sword-hate-turned-incestuous-love">reunited</a> are more common. And not infrequently, such reunions transpire in mutual attraction and love – which has been hitting the headlines recently. </p>
<h2>A taboo too far?</h2>
<p>This phenomenon is known as GSA – <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/may/17/weekend7.weekend2">Genetic Sexual Attraction Syndrome</a> – and not infrequently affects relatives who did not spend the formative years together and who <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/01/what-its-like-to-date-your-dad.html#5wJKfa:Kw4">meet as adults</a>. When people do spend early life together, a different psycho-social mechanism, called the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/026151003322277748/abstract">Westermarck effect</a>, functions to suppress erotic bonding. It is almost never the case that romantic, consensual erotic bonding happens between family members who do spend early life together. </p>
<p>Some of the public conversations now turn to whether incestuous unions – where they are consensual and between adults – should be <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/incest-is-no-longer-a-taboo-says-australian-judge-garry-neilson-9599552.html">tolerated</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/german-ethics-council-calls-for-incest-between-siblings-to-be-legalised-by-government-9753506.html">decriminalised</a>. Indeed, in Sweden half-sibling marriage is already <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6424337.stm">legal</a> and the jurisdictions of some other countries, too, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/romania-weighs-decriminalizing-incest/">do not penalise</a> such acts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121640/original/image-20160508-2548-zi0hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121640/original/image-20160508-2548-zi0hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121640/original/image-20160508-2548-zi0hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121640/original/image-20160508-2548-zi0hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121640/original/image-20160508-2548-zi0hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121640/original/image-20160508-2548-zi0hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121640/original/image-20160508-2548-zi0hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Love: but is it legal?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/dl2_lim.mhtml?src=3_CV5lAqH5ShluhHBe0HUQ-1-8&clicksrc=download_btn_inline&id=339357839&size=medium_jpg&submit_jpg=">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Media stories only portray heterosexual familial partnerships, however, so there’s precious little coverage on brothers or male close family relations who’ve experienced GSA after a period of separation. That’s not to say it hasn’t happened, of course, but the coverage says a great deal about such being a cultural “<a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/first-degree-incest-and-the-hebrew-bible-9780567600332/">taboo too far</a>” for us. By contrast, popular cultural representations of heterosexual sibling incest is often eroticised, with the woman frequently portrayed as a feminine ideal: beautiful and sexy. In such story lines, incestuous relationships function to add an extra thrill of the illicit. The most recent public examples of GSA, however, reveal the mundanity of many of the cases, despite the scandalous tenor of the journalists. </p>
<p>The media coverage provoked by biological mother and son Kim West and Ben Ford, the latest couple <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mother-in-love-with-her-son-and-wants-to-have-his-baby-a6974471.html">to go public</a> with their experience of GSA, has been queasy, voyeuristic and sensationalist, with assertions that familial sexual relationships “are <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/family/disgusted-by-incest-genetic-sexual-attraction-is-real-and-on-the">on the rise</a>”. Suggestions that familial sexual relationships are increasingly common suggests that they’ve been very rare in the past; however, even a text as ancient as the Bible outlines prohibitions for incest, suggesting that <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Fathers_and_Daughters_in_the_Hebrew_Bibl.html?id=lMNoAgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">familial sexual relationships</a> occurred frequently enough to warrant the introduction of behavioural guidelines.</p>
<h2>The Bible’s verdict</h2>
<p>Despite the seemingly clear rules around incestuous relationships – just as popular culture toys with the titillation and taboo of the topic – <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/first-degree-incest-and-the-hebrew-bible-9780567600332/">biblical depiction is ambiguous</a>. Yes, there are the Levitical <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+18-20&version=NRSV">laws that prohibit sex with a string of family members</a> (one’s sibling, parent, certain in-laws … but not one’s son or daughter!), but then there is also <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+19&version=NRSV">the story of Lot’s daughters</a> in Genesis 19, seducing their father and bearing sons, which offers no (certainly no explicit) reproof. The daughters even draw attention to incest by calling their sons “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+19%3A37&version=NRSV">Moab</a>” (Hebrew for “from the father”) and “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+19%3A38&version=NRSV">Ben-Ammi</a>” (“son of my people”)! </p>
<p>The revered patriarch Abraham mentions rather casually that his wife, Sarah, is also <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+20%3A12&version=NRSV">his half-sister</a>. David’s son Amnon becomes obsessed with and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+samuel+13&version=NRSV">rapes his sister</a> Tamar. This event is certainly depicted as villainous and cruel on Amnon’s part but Tamar’s words, as she tries to prevent the rape, suggest <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+samuel+13%3A13&version=NRSV">sibling marriage</a> is an option. </p>
<p>Close-kin marriages – between fathers and daughters and between siblings – were certainly known in Egypt, right up to and including Cleopatra, who <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25605309?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">married two of her brothers</a> consecutively. </p>
<p>The Bible, as usual, however, offers no clear advice going forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Has it really always been an absolute no no?Katie Edwards, Director SIIBS , University of SheffieldJohanna Stiebert, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/75032012-06-07T04:46:35Z2012-06-07T04:46:35ZWhy not marry your cousin? Millions do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11496/original/fyx35vgv-1339033060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">American singer Jerry Lee Lewis famously married his cousin.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">flickr/dunechaser</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The topic of consanguineous marriage raises both interest and unease in Western societies. For those who are wondering, that big word means “marrying your cousin”. </p>
<p>But why would anyone want to marry a cousin when there are so many other potential partners out there? </p>
<p>In generational terms this mode of thought is actually quite recent, and until the middle of the 19th century first cousin marriage was common in most Western countries, in part due to the shortage of available unrelated spouses in many outlying areas.</p>
<h2>The times they are a'changin</h2>
<p>The public mood in Europe and North America gradually changed, with a growing belief that marriages between couples who were close kin would result in unfavourable health outcomes for their offspring. </p>
<p>In the USA this reversal in attitude resulted in the introduction of state-based legislation to restrict or even ban marriages between first cousins. </p>
<p>Apart from 31 of the 50 US states, only China, Taiwan, the Koreas and The Philippines have introduced similar civil restrictions on first cousin unions, although regulations that curtail cousin marriage apply to members of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.</p>
<h2>Good law or prejudice?</h2>
<p>Are these proscriptions justified, and if so why do they not apply to the rest of the world’s population, where a conservatively estimated 1100+ million people are married to a spouse who is a second cousin or closer, or are the offspring of such a marriage? </p>
<p>And what is the actual basis for our suspicion of consanguinity – is it primarily founded on religious, social or genetic grounds, and why has there been a recent upsurge in calls for a ban on first cousin marriage by politicians in many European countries? </p>
<p>These topics form the basis of my recent book <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521781862">Consanguinity in Context</a>. As a geneticist I have been researching the health aspects of consanguineous marriage for over 30 years in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, among migrant communities in Australia and the UK, and as adviser to the World Health Organization.</p>
<h2>You won’t have children with webbed toes … really</h2>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly to many, the genetic risks which have been associated with cousin marriage have been substantially overstated. </p>
<p>While some families and communities are indeed more likely to be affected by otherwise rare inherited diseases, a large majority of first cousin offspring show no disadvantage in health terms. </p>
<p>Further, many of the ill-effects on health that have been ascribed to “inbreeding” are more probably due to a wide range of adverse non-genetic factors, including young maternal age, very short birth intervals, trans-placental infection of the developing fetus with organisms such as rubella and cytomegalovirus, and inadequate nutrition both during pregnancy and early childhood. </p>
<p>In assessing whether or not consanguinity is “good” or “bad” there has been a notable failure to take into account the social and economic benefits of close kin marriage, which is a particularly important consideration in the poorer sections of societies where consanguinity is more common. Or to acknowledge that wives in consanguineous unions generally seem to enjoy more equal status.</p>
<h2>Inevitable challenge</h2>
<p>Given the entrenched opinions that the topic of cousin marriage often attracts, it is probable that these opinions will be challenged. But that is the nature of science, and I have undertaken extensive research to support the conclusions drawn. </p>
<p>The reality is that cousin marriage is something health planners and the general public will need to come to terms with in Australia’s multi-ethnic society. </p>
<p>It is not an issue we are accustomed to dealing with as a society, but once we remove historical prejudice, we find that consanguineous marriage is not the backwoods horror story we have been led to believe.</p>
<p>Which may perhaps provide some solace for those who have long harboured a secret crush on a cousin.</p>
<p>It also could add some spice to those dreary family get togethers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/7503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Bittles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The topic of consanguineous marriage raises both interest and unease in Western societies. For those who are wondering, that big word means “marrying your cousin”. But why would anyone want to marry a…Alan Bittles, Adjunct Professor and Research Leader , Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.