Incest Abuse in Rural Communities
Decrease stigma, increase resources.
Watch, listen, or read the captions in the video above. The audio button at the top of this page will read the content below as well. This post mentions incest abuse. If you’re seeking resources, head over to Incest AWARE or Sibling Sexual Trauma.
Recently, LaShae Lopez — the Rural Technical Assistance Coordinator of the Resources Sharing Project and the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault — reached out to me to discuss incest abuse in rural communities. Specifically, this brilliant anti-sexual violence advocate invited me to participate in a three-part series:
Part I: Understanding Incest in Rural Communities
LaShae developed this presentation by gathering research and content through Incest AWARE and other organizations. It covered incest definitions, laws, statistics, and the specific challenges that rural communities may face in methods of incest prevention, intervention, recovery, and justice. LaShae’s labor to teach the attendees anti-incest basics allowed me to go deeper during Part II. Feel free to watch, listen , or read the captions to the Part I presentation in the link above.
Part II: An Interview with an Expert
LaShae chose me as an Incest AWAREness Expert to interview in a one hour webinar about the impacts of incest abuse in rural communities. Attendees asked questions in the Zoom Q&A chatbox, so together LaShae and I could answer prompts and topics not yet addressed. Feel free to watch, listen, or read LaShae and I’s conversation in the link above.
Part III: Is Still TBD!
I will update this post when the last part has been completed.
How Incest Abuse Occurs in Rural Communities.
Raised in a two-story, single-family home near the beach between San Diego and Los Angeles, I was not raised in a rural setting. However, my deceased maternal grandfather shared a one room home with his parents and 11 siblings in a coal mining community nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. So, when preparing for this discussion, I called him in.
I reflected on the constraints and challenges unique to his upbringing, while also studying the impact that incest abuse has had on diverse rural communities across the country. No rural community is the same. All rural communities experience and manage incest abuse differently. However, commonalities have been found. This is what I learned:
Rural communities experience more stigma about the prevalence of incest abuse even though there is no or little data that confirms this.
Incest abuse occurs in rural communities for the same reasons it does in all contexts: social silence on the subject, power dynamics within families, lack of consent, bodies, boundaries, and sexuality education, as well as the isolation and legal protections of the nuclear family system.
Often service support centers and other community or institutionally based resources aren’t available or accessible in rural communities.
Incest victims, survivors, and upstanders (or those who choose to do something about it) confront the challenge of proximity in their persuits of intervention, recovery, and justice support. Due to the tight-knit bonds of communities where everyone knows everyone else, disclosure to local service centers or even national hotlines that often direct back to local service centers, may not be utilized.
How Rural Communities Can Begin to Prevent and End Incest Abuse.
Like in all communities, to prevent and end incest abuse in rural contexts, we must talk about the issue culturally appropriate ways, educate everyone in the community about consent and bodies, and offer affordable and accessible services that remain confidential and anonymous.
In order to begin, I offered one main idea: find your allies and your access point.
Who is already talking about incest abuse within your community?
Who is willing to talk about incest abuse in your community?
How can you mobilize those interested in the issue and dream together about how to engage the local community in contextually-specific prevention, intervention, recovery, and justice support programs?
I recommend building anti-incest programs slowly to confront and change the culture of incest in communities at a sustainable pace. The anti-incest movement in the past has taught us that backlash and stigma can quickly distract from the development of long-term, incest awareness efforts. In our work, prioritizing longevity over reactive responses may be the more effective strategy to invite a culture of consent within and between families.
Resources for Rural Communities Managing Incest Abuse:
In the meantime, two trusted resources that people who live in rural contexts can reach out to for questions and concerns about safe and harmful sexual thoughts, acts, and behaviors by themselves or others are:
Stop It Now! An adult helpline out of Massachusetts that offers complimentary, confidential, and anonymous chat, email, and phone support to all users with questions about sexual behavior — including those at-risk to harm.
What’s OK? A youth helpline, run by Stop It Now!, that provides the same resources for young people.
To learn more, watch, listen, or read the conversation between LaShae and me in the video! Thanks, as always, for your interest in becoming Incest AWARE.