Incest occurs when children are inappropriately touched and molested by a member of their family. The perpetrator can be their father, mother, grandparent, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, or cousin. This is perhaps one of the worst cases of child abuse, since the victim is then scared to tell anyone. They might question whether or not they will be believed by another family member, if they tell. They might believe that they will be told it is their fault. Lastly, they might worry about telling anyone because someone might think they are lying or making it all up.

An example of this would be father and daughter. Sadly, it does happen a lot. Some young women are unfortunately exposed to intercourse by their own father. They most likely will wonder if their mother will blame them or believe them. There is a fear that is intense for the victim. How does a child go to mommy and tell her that daddy touched her in her private parts? How does a child go to mommy and daddy and tell them that their brother or sister touched them in their private parts? It is a very delicate situation. The child might feel that if they don’t complain or tell anyone, their perpetrator will just stop what they have been doing. They wonder if anyone else goes through this in their family. There are so many questions to answer for the victim. Yet, the questions normally are played out in the victims mind only. It is a battle that they fight every day of their life, once incest has occurred.

When incest occurs, the only ones aware of it are the victim and the perpetrator. The child that is molested can start to feel as though they are very dirty. They have such an enormous secret, with no one to tell and get help from. Each time the perpetrator molests the child, there is a greater chance that the secrets will be buried and never spoken out. In our country, there are fathers that turn to their daughters for their pleasure, brothers that turn to their sisters, mothers that turn to their sons etc. Although the statistics show that the perpetrators are usually male, females can also be a perpetrator. There are women that do not tell anyone of the incest that occurred with their father or brother. There are men that do not tell of the incest they endured with either parent. It does happen in the United States. It happens more than our society wants to acknowledge. It is so crucial that people become educated on this topic. Our society doesn’t always prosecute the perpetrators in these cases. Not too long ago, one man was sentenced to needlepoint. That is not a joke, it really happened. Our society can no longer continue to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to incest. There needs to be a zero tolerance with incest.