Elsevier

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 55, May 2016, Pages 10-21
Child Abuse & Neglect

Research article
Co-occurrence of intimate partner violence and child sexual abuse: Prevalence, risk factors and related issues

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2016.03.007Get rights and content

Abstract

This article proposes a review of the scientific literature on the cooccurrence of intimate partner violence and intrafamilial child sexual abuse. The review of these two types of violence has evolved in distinct research fields and their cooccurrence has rarely been examined. The objective of this article is to examine the existing knowledge about this cooccurrence. A systematic examination of the scientific literature in several relevant databases was conducted using combinations of 20 keywords so as to identify scientific articles, published between 2003 and 2013, that investigated this cooccurrence. The final sample comprised 10 studies. These studies revealed the presence of much heterogeneity regarding the prevalence of the cooccurrence for intimate partner violence with sexual abuse and other maltreatment (from 12% to 70%). The review also highlighted a greater risk for children to be victims of sexual abuse or other maltreatment when exposed to intimate partner violence. The implications of these results and the ensuing recommendations for practice and future research are considered in the discussion section.

Introduction

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and child sexual abuse (CSA) are two distinct social problems that, up to now, have been examined rather independently by the scientific community (Alaggia and Turton, 2005, Dong et al., 2004, Finkelhor et al., 2007b, Hamby et al., 2010, Ramirez et al., 2011, Zolotor et al., 2007). Research conducted since the end of the 20th century shows that these types of violence and abuse are neither rare nor isolated from other social problems. On the contrary, they seem to be widespread, especially in families characterized by certain risk factors such as difficult living conditions, addictions, disabilities, mental health difficulties, distress, and others (Bowen, 2000, Dietz and Craft, 1980, Finkelhor et al., 2005b, Goddard and Hiller, 1993; Lessard et al., 2010; Ray et al., 1991, Shipman et al., 1999). Growing concerns and awareness regarding these forms of violence and abuse are due in part to women movements and the work of humanitarian organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the United Nations (UN). In the 1970s, these organizations began to emphasize the importance and prevalence of such social problems, the relations between interpersonal violence and structural violence, and their impact on women and children due to unequal social relations. Scientific research soon followed, confirming the aforementioned concerns by demonstrating the prevalence and some of the social, legal and policy challenges that they represent (Appel and Holden, 1998, Finkelhor, 1994, Finkelhor et al., 2005a, Finkelhor et al., 2007b, Zolotor et al., 2007).

As the number of studies on the incidence, prevalence, characteristics, and associated risk factors increased, specialized fields of research emerged: (a) family violence (Dietz and Craft, 1980, Finkelhor, 1998, Gelles and Jon, 1990, Ray et al., 1991); (b) intimate partner violence (Cox et al., 2003, Johnson, 2008, Lessard et al., 2015, Lussier et al., 2009, McCloskey et al., 1995); (c) violence against women by men (Heise, 1998, Hiebert-Murphy, 2001, Ward and Beech, 2004); (d) child maltreatment (Finkelhor and Asdigian, 1996, Finkelhor et al., 2005b, Hamby et al., 2010, Tajima, 2004); and (e) child sexual abuse (Finkelhor, 1984, Finkelhor, 2008, Finkelhor and Browne, 1985, Kennedy et al., 2012, Lussier, 2015, Lussier et al., 2005a, Lussier et al., 2005b, Ramirez et al., 2011). Each of these fields developed rather in isolation, therefore creating its own knowledge base with few or no interactions with the other fields (Edleson et al., 2007, Gelles and Jon, 1990). Such compartmentalization of the fields of research is usually based on the underlying assumptions that these various phenomena are theoretically distinct and caused by rather specific and distinct risk factors.

Researchers have not always been specific about the type of violence and abuse being investigated and the definitions used have significantly evolved over the years. For example, the use of the generic term “domestic violence” was widespread up till the end of the 1980s. Nowadays, more researchers distinguish between the different types of family violence, using a more precise terminology that makes it possible to grasp the various particularities of each form of violence and abuse. This also explains the slow decrease over time in the use of the term domestic violence. These changes have contributed to improve the theoretical and methodological frameworks as well as the instruments to measure each type of violence, in specific social settings, whether it be for married couples, partners, dating relationships, etc. Nonetheless, the lack of more standardized definitions and measures of various forms of violence remains a significant issue. Even though the definitions of the WHO, UN, and UNICEF are readily available, they are rarely used as conceptual and operational definitions of violence and abuse.

It was toward the middle of the 1990s that researchers began to report the co-occurrence between IPV and child maltreatment (Fantuzzo et al., 1997, Goddard and Hiller, 1993, Shipman et al., 1999). In that regard, Appel and Holden (1998) conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of 31 studies that investigated the co-occurrence of IPV and physical abuse of children in families. The results indicated that the median rate of co-occurrence is 40% in clinical populations and identified a typology of five possible family dynamics in co-occurrent situations. In the first, the only aggressor is the father. He is responsible for both the IPV and child abuse. The second dynamic is rather sequential: the father assaults the mother, who in turn reacts to her victimization by mistreating the child. Thirdly, it is possible to have situations where the IPV is directed by the man against the woman, but where both parents are responsible for the child abuse. In the fourth and fifth dynamics, the IPV is bidirectional, with both parents responsible for the child abuse. However, the fifth is characterized especially by violence on the part of the child against both parents. Their research, however, did not contain data for CSA. Conversely, Edleson (Edleson, 1999) carried out a literature review of scientific articles published from 1975 till the end of the 1990s in which different types of maltreatment were included. None of the studies however looked exclusively at the relation between IPV and CSA. One of the main results that the above-mentioned authors noted was the separation of IPV and maltreatment in the studies. They also demonstrated their co-occurrence, emphasizing that the variations in the results of the reviewed studies could be explained by the methodologies, sampling criteria, and diverse measurement tools. These two articles are still relevant and still cited by numerous other scientific articles on this subject.

Since the early 2000s, the co-occurrence between IPV and child maltreatment has come to the forefront in international research as a key research topic. In general terms, this type of co-occurrence can be caused by any individual behavior and happens while individuals of the same family interact. Researchers now have access to more valid and reliable data on the subject in part because newly conducted investigations with clinical sample populations (Alaggia and Turton, 2005, Bowen, 2000, Cox et al., 2003, Damant et al., 2010, Hiebert-Murphy, 2001, Kellogg and Menard, 2003, Lapierre and Côté, 2011, Lavergne et al., 2008, Martin et al., 2007, Tajima, 2004). Some studies have examined co-occurrence between the presence of IPV and the presence of physical abuse of children within the same families (Appel and Holden, 1998, Chan, 2011), whereas others have looked at the co-occurrence between IPV and psychological abuse (McCloskey et al., 1995) and neglect (Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Turner, 2007a). Such clinical investigations significantly contributed to the emergence of the concept of polyvictimization (Finkelhor et al., 2009, Turner et al., 2010) Finkelhor and colleagues set out to determine how these forms of victimization develop and weave together in the lives of victims. All of that being said, very few authors have examined co-occurrence between IPV and CSA (Edleson et al., 2007, Goddard and Bedi, 2010) at the same time in the same family. There now exists a good deal of knowledge and expertise about IPV and CSA, and yet we do not have many studies that have demonstrated a relation between these two issues.

This scoping review aims to demonstrate contemporary knowledge about co-occurrence of IPV and intrafamilial CSA. According to the WHO, IPV refers to any controlling behaviors within an intimate relationship, and physical, emotional, psychological or sexual abuse causing harm to any of the partners who are in the relationship. According to UNICEF and Finkelhor et al. (2007b), CSA refers to a wide range of acts between a child and parent, stepfather, caretaker, grandparent or older sibling. These acts include sexual coercion, rape, sexual harassment, looking at or touching a child's genitalia, and other violent acts against the will of a child. In this specific case, the child is used and treated as a sexual object. Co-occurrence refers to the simultaneous presence of two different issues in the study period, often in the last year. Given the rarity of studies specifically examining this type of co-occurrence (Alaggia and Turton, 2005, Kellogg and Menard, 2003), the scientific articles reviewed here have a broader scope and provide us with avenues that might help us to better understand what can foster it. This scoping review provides a map of literature that highlights the importance of this specific topic. The objective is to highlight the current state of knowledge and to identify what remains to be studied in future research. A critical analysis of the reviewed studies also points to avenues likely to help practitioners more easily recognize this co-occurrence. Contemporary criminological theories (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990, Laub and Sampson, 2003) are generally based on the following assumptions: (a) specific crime types have a shared and common etiological mechanism; (b) a single etiological model of crime and delinquency can sufficiently account and explain various crime types; (c) parsimonious models are desirable over multiple theories of crime and delinquency. In other words, if IPV and CSA have the same etiological factors, co-occurrence of the two phenomenons should be expected.

Section snippets

Method

A scoping review of scientific literature was conducted to examine the co-occurrence of IPV and intrafamilial CSA, by making use of articles that were available in electronic databases. The sample was comprised of articles published from 2003 to 2013 that reported on the results of co-occurrence between IPV and intrafamilial CSA. The articles were found in 15 relevant databases: Social Service Abstracts (ProQuest), Social Work Abstracts – Ovid, SocINDEX (EBSCO), Psychology & Behavioral Sciences

Results

The selected articles described studies that were for the most part quantitative (7) except for one qualitative study and two that used a mixed methodology approach. Only five studies provide information about their theoretical approach with few details or explanations provided on each approach: integrated (3), intersectional (1) and ecological (1). There were sizable differences in the sample sizes across studies. The five general-population based studies have sample sizes varying from 324 to

Discussion

This scoping review focuses on the co-occurrence of IPV and intrafamilial CSA. Because the results have implications for both research and prevention/intervention, the discussion is divided in two parts. First of all, only a few studies were devoted specifically to this co-occurrence (Alaggia and Turton, 2005, Kellogg and Menard, 2003), and since these studies used clinical convenience samples, results cannot be generalized to other kinds of population. The most developed aspects relating to

Conclusion

The literature review was conducted with a limited number of studies, given the fact that there is little specific knowledge on IPV and CSA co-occurrence in the same families and in the same period. It was difficult to isolate data on co-occurrence between these types of violence in studies that had a different objective than our own, thereby making it more difficult to defend certain arguments. In addition, unpublished reports or clinical data that is available in agencies may provide other

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by grants from the CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, and the Araucária Foundation (Paraná), as well as by the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la violence familiale et la violence faite aux femmes (CRI VIFF) Québec/Canada. The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The authors wish to thank Patrick Lussier, professor at Laval

References (75)

  • S.L. Hamby et al.

    The overlap of witnessing partner violence with child maltreatment and other victimizations in a nationally representative survey of youth

    Child Abuse & Neglect

    (2010)
  • N.D. Kellogg et al.

    Violence among family members of children and adolescents evaluated for sexual abuse

    Child Abuse & Neglect

    (2003)
  • M.-C. Larrivée et al.

    Knowledge translation in the field of violence against women and children: An assessment of the state of knowledge

    Children and Youth Services Review

    (2012)
  • C. Ramirez et al.

    Contextual predictive factors of child sexual abuse: The role of parent–child interaction

    Child Abuse & Neglect

    (2011)
  • M.A. Straus et al.

    Identification of child maltreatment with the parent-child conflict tactics scales: Development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents

    Child Abuse and Neglect

    (1998)
  • H.A. Turner et al.

    Poly-victimization in a national sample of children and youth

    American Journal of Preventive Medicine

    (2010)
  • R.R. Abidin

    Parenting stress index: Manual

    (1995)
  • R. Alaggia et al.

    Against the odds: The impact of woman abuse on maternal response to disclosure of child sexual abuse

    Journal of Child Sexual Abuse

    (2005)
  • F. Anthias

    Intersectional what? Social divisions, intersectionality and levels of analysis

    Ethnicities

    (2013)
  • A.E. Appel et al.

    The co-occurrence of spouse and physical child abuse: A review and appraisal

    Journal of Family Psychology

    (1998)
  • D.P. Bernstein et al.

    Initial reliability and validity of a new retrospective measure of child abuse and neglect

    American Journal of Psychiatry

    (1994)
  • K. Bowen

    Child abuse and domestic violence in families of children seen for suspected sexual abuse

    Clinical Pediatrics

    (2000)
  • K.D. Browne

    The naturalistic context of family violence and child abuse

  • K.D. Browne

    The health visitors role in screening for child abuse

    Health Visitor

    (1989)
  • K.D. Browne

    Preventing child maltreatment through community nursing

    Journal of Advanced Nursing

    (1995)
  • K. Browne et al.

    Approaches to screening for child abuse and neglect

  • C. Cox et al.

    A longitudinal study of modifying influences in the relationship between domestic violence and child maltreatment

    Journal of Family Violence

    (2003)
  • D. Damant et al.

    Ça se sépare-tu ça, la femme pis la mère?

    Nouvelles pratiques sociales

    (2010)
  • C.A. Dietz et al.

    Family dinamics of incest: A new perspective

    Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work

    (1980)
  • L. Dixon et al.

    The co-occurrence of child and intimate partner maltreatment in the family: Characteristics of the violent perpetrators

    Journal of Family Violence

    (2007)
  • M.-E. Drouin et al.

    Guide d’implantation pour une pratique concertée en violence conjugale et maltraitance: agir ensemble pour le mieux-être des enfants

    (2014)
  • L.F. Duque et al.

    Estudio Epidemiológico de la violencia en Bogotá

    (1997)
  • J.L. Edleson

    The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering

    Violence Against Women

    (1999)
  • D. Finkelhor

    Child sexual abuse: New theory and research

    (1984)
  • D. Finkelhor

    Improving research, policy, and practice to understand child sexual abuse

    Journal of the American Medical Association

    (1998)
  • D. Finkelhor

    Childhood victimization violence, crime and abuse in the lives of young people

    (2008)
  • D. Finkelhor

    Prevalence of child victimization, abuse, crime, and violence exposure

  • Cited by (67)

    • Understanding the interconnected relationships between intimate partner violence and child maltreatment: The role of maternal material hardship

      2022, Child Abuse and Neglect
      Citation Excerpt :

      Across the four reviews the estimated rates of co-occurrence of IPV and CM within community-based samples were lower than clinical samples, but all of the studies reviewed indicated that co-occurrence affects a significant number of families. Scholars have debated whether IPV and CM occur independently or IPV leads to CM or vice versa (Bidarra, Lessard, & Dumont, 2016). Widom's (1989) established a strong belief in cycles of violence, such that childhood exposure to violence increases adults' likelihood of experiencing IPV, on the logic that authority figures modeled violent behavior as a reasonable way to deal with conflicts in relationships.

    • Gender wage gap and male perpetrated child abuse

      2024, Review of Economics of the Household
    • Children's exposure to domestic violence: Theory, practice, and implications for policy

      2023, Children's Exposure to Domestic Violence: Theory, Practice, and Implications for Policy
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text