Will It Never End? The Narratives of Incest Victims on the Termination of Sexual Abuse

The aim of this study is to investigate how child sexual abuse is terminated. This study attempts to gain insight into how people exposed to incest narrate the termination of the incest relationship. Seven women and one man were recruited from the Incest Support Centre and from snowballing for a 1–2-hour-long in-depth interview using a narrative approach. The subjects' narratives varied according to how they perceived their own role in the termination process, their relationship with the offender, and how well they remembered the stage of termination. A common feature of the narratives was that the feeling of being a victim lasted after the abuse stopped. In this respect, the lack of support from family, friends, and healthcare personnel and the psychological power exercised by the offender were important issues in the narratives. It is suggested that the termination process is affected by the victims' ability to regulate influence and mentalization. Furthermore, a transfer of cultural meanings from the social environment to the individual must have taken place. Future research should focus on the significance of the termination process in terms of psychological functioning and the construction of self and identity.