LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Incest
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Incest is a form of chronic traumatic stress that can lead to a host of initial and long-term effects. Like child sexual abuse in general, it poses a serious mental health risk for many victims. The chronic nature of the abuse, thenature of the family, including its dynamics and defenses, the child's dependence on and entrapment in the family, and his or her loyalty to that family,necessitate using strong defenses to cope. Denial and dissociation (splitting off of normal thought processes from consciousness) allow the victim to discount, minimize, or otherwise suppress memories of abuse. These defenses often persist into adulthood. As a result, survivors may appear asymptomatic andnot suffering from long-term effects of the abuse, when in reality they are emotionally constricted due to the trauma.
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Incest is sexual intercourse between those who are related by blood or marriage. Its specific malice is contracted by such unlawful commerce between those related within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, as computed by canonists. The guilt is incurred not only by those sinful acts which are, as theologians say, fully consummated, but ... by incomplete acts. The particular deformity of incest comes not merely from the violation of the virtue of chastity, but also from the offence against the mingled affection and reverence with which parents and, proportionately, other relatives should be regarded. It is certain that this crime has its distinctive enormity from the prohibition of the natural law, where there is question of the first degree in the direct line, for instance, between parents and children. For the other degrees it is probable that recourse must be had to the ecclesiastical law which invalidates marriage within those limits.
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Incest can have serious long-term effects on its victims. One study concluded that among the survivors of incest who were victimized by their mothers, 60 percent (60%) of the women had eating disorders as did one-fourth (25%) of the men. Of the 93 women and nine men included in this study, 80 percent (80%) of the women and all of the men reported sexual problems in their adult life. In addition, almost two-thirds of the women stated that they never or rarely went to the doctor or the dentist as the examination was too terrifying for them. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- which includes amnesia, nightmares and flashbacks -- ... remains prevalent among incest survivors (Vanderbilt, 1992). Additionally, there is research which indicates that children who have been sexually abused by a relative suffers from even more intense guilt and shame, low self-esteem, depression and self-destructive behavior (such as substance abuse, sexual promiscuity and prostitution) than children who have been sexually assaulted by a stranger (Matsakis, 1991).
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Incest is to have sex with someone who is in your family - like a sister or a father. Most places in the world, it is against the law and is not allowed. One of the main problems with incest is that children born from these relationships are more likely to be sick or handicapped.
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Incest does not discriminate. It happens in families that are financially-privileged, as well as those of low socio-economic status. It happens to those of all racial and ethnic descent, and to those of all religious traditions. Victims of incest are boys and girls, infants and adolescents. Incest occurs between fathers and daughters, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters and mothers and sons. Perpetrators of incest can be aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, step-parents, step-children, grandparents and grandchildren.
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Incest and child sexual abuse each represent a betrayal of trust by someone who has power over the child. Children cannot give informed consent to sexual activity because they cannot fully understand adult-child sexual contact and because they cannot predict its consequences. For this reason, incest and child sexual abuse represent serious crimes. Nevertheless, these are largely hidden crimes and both adults and children, for any number of reasons, may be reluctant to report sexual abuse. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to estimate the prevalence of child sexual abuse; statistics can only yield figures from reported cases.
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Incest