Intra-familial Female Child Sexual Abuse within England’s South Asian Communities

Objectives Prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) is commonly known to be higher than that reflected in official statistics (Children’s Commissioner, 2015) and there is a general consensus on barriers to disclosure and the impact of this type of abuse (Lemaigre, Taylor & Gittoes, 2017). This research focuses upon the South Asian communities in England and investigates cultural imperatives which make disclosure even more unlikely. Concepts of ‘shame’ and ‘honour’ are deeply rooted in these communities (Cowburn, Gill & Harrison, 2014; Gill & Brah, 2014; Gilligan & Akhtar, 2006) and are possibly impeding victims from coming forward. Structured upon patriarchal models of family life (Abraham, 1999), the research seeks to better understand the role of females in these families and the burden placed upon them to uphold family honour (Aplin, 2017) at whatever cost - even if it means non-exposure of CSA.

Methods Through sandboxing and guided conversation methodologies, the experience of survivors of abuse will be sought within the paradigm of Interpretative Phenomenological Methodology. The sandboxing method is likely to allow important freedom to service users in ‘constructing’ their experiences of the abuse (Doyle & Magor-Blatch, 2017) as well as being a more sensitive way into what is likely to be an emotionally charged researcher-participant interaction. The overall research objective is to determine whether the concepts of ‘shame’ and ‘honour’ need to be better integrated into child abuse policy and practice discourses and to assess the extent to which they pose a specific challenges for practitioners. It may be time to make concerted attempts to review practice. The perspectives of relevant professionals and third sector workers will also be researched to assess competency in cultural sensitivities.

Key Words: Female Child Sexual Abuse, South Asian, Shame and Honour.