CSA Inside the Home: A Study on a School's Approach Filipino Child Psychology (Psych 279) Bernard M. Bragas, 2009-78285 PhD in Philippine Studies May 31, 2020
Abstract In this paper, the PSA definition of child sexual abuse (CSA) is employed and applied in domestic settings (DCSA). However, it does not deal with DCSA per se but about what counts as a good execution for the restoration and well-being of child victims in handling DCSA cases. It laid down the threefold chord motivating principle of the execution. Actual procedures are reported to exhaust a common practice synthesized in the data provided by key informants. As a preliminary research, it ends inconclusively with further recommendations. I. Introduction Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a taboo in terms of behavior and action. But it seems also the case in academic discourses and research. Nevertheless, Christiane Sanderson argues that awareness of CSA enables parents and teachers to inform their children about its dangers so as to keep them safe. Talking about CSA removes the secrecy wherein it is just ignored and swept under the carpet. "Adults need to find a way of talking about CSA," Sanderson espouses, "so that they can provide a language for children to talk about their experiences, without scaring them so much that they become afraid to go out into the community." 1 Karolin Eva Kappler writes that in maintaining the taboo, children are prevented from acquiring a shared understanding of their past that could breach the gap between them that hinders them to live life as its moves forward. 2 But what if the children are more comfortable in just going out to the community because their exposure to the CSA danger is really not outside their homes? Rather, it is inside. It is then deemed safer for some children to mingle with the community outside because CSA atrociously happens domestically. In the first ever national study on violence against children in the Philippines conducted by the Council for the Welfare of Children in partnership with UNICEF, it is reported that sexual violence is one of the prevalent abuses against children in the country. Among the children respondents aged 13 -< 18 years, it turns out that 17.1 percent experienced any form of sexual 1 Christiane Sanderson, The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse (London, United Kingdom: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2004), pp.11-12. 2 Karolin Eva Kappler, Living with Paradoxes: Victims of Sexual Violence and Their Conduct of Everyday Life (Germany: VS Verlag, 2012), p.211. 2
violence while growing up. This happened in different settings such as during dating, in the workplace, in the community, in the school, and inside their homes. 3 The analysis in this study is not simply the taboo of the dangers that may happen to a child outside the home. It zooms into CSA cases wherein the usual perpetrators are fathers, brothers, or just anybody inside the home. It is actually more gruesome due to the incestual tendencies