Through a glass, Darkly: Representation and power in research on organized abuse

Abstract

This paper draws on the author's experience undertaking life history research with adults with histories of organized child sexual abuse. Organized abuse has been a particular fashpoint for controversy in debates over child abuse and memory, but it is also a very harmful and traumatic form of sexual violence. Research participants described how, in childhood, threats and trauma kept them silent about their abuse, but in adulthood this silence was reinforced by the invalidation that accompanied their eforts to draw atention to the harms that have befallen themselves and others. This paper will examine the role of qualitative research in addressing a form of alterity whose defning characteristic is the silencing and dismissal of narrative. © 2013 QSR.