.A Poem from Beth- An incest survivor
Silence is my agony.
I dare not speak.
I close my eyes tightly.
I dare not flinch.
I calm my breathing.
I must not give away that I am awake.
You touch me under my blankets, and groan.
I feel vomit rise my throat.
Now you take away my blanket and spread my legs.
My heart pounds wildly.
I cannot jump and run.
I feel your tongue on me and I feel faint.
I see starts.
I am going to DIE.
You are sucking the life out of me.
When you leave I can breathe again.
I get up and look into the mirror.
I see a monster.
It is me!
I want to DIE!
I cannot live with the silence.
Why did not I scream?
I strain to see the reason that I have caused all of this.
What is it about me that makes you act like this?
I am evil and I need to be destroyed. (Holmes & Holmes, 2009 pp 97)
In today society, the majority of religions, cultures, and laws, agree that incest is prohibited. However, incest occurs in numerous families. In our society incest is consider taboo, discovering this practice is difficult. Is common for families to keep it as secret. Defining what constitute incest has change over the years. The sexual abuse of children influenced scholars to investigate what constitute incest. The word incest is universally defined as the sexual intercourse between blood relatives. These include parents and siblings. According to Flowers in his book “Domestic crimes, family violence and child abuse: a study of contemporary American society” “The sexual abuse and exploitation of children by other family member occurs far more often than the statistics indicate. Much of this is in the form of incestuous relations.”
Definition of Incest
In the United States, Incest is a statutory rather than common law prohibition (Harvard Law Review, 2006 pp2469). In all states, close blood-relatives that fall under the incest statutes include father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew. However,...