Through a Glass, Darkly: Representation and Power in Research on Organized Abuse

Michael Salter

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.9.3.08

Authors

Michael Salter University of Western Sydney, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.9.3.08

Keywords:

Sexual Abuse, Crime Victims, Life History, Sensitive Research, Coherence, Representation, Power

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 flashpoint 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 efforts to draw attention 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 defining characteristic is the silencing and dismissal of narrative.

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Author Biography

Michael Salter, University of Western Sydney, Australia

Michael Salter is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Western Sydney. His research focuses on the intersections of gendered violence, health, and culture, and in particular on the ways in which violence and its impacts are represented and made meaningful by victims, perpetrators, and others.

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