Accounts of innocence : sexual abuse, trauma, and the self

Select an Action

Title:

Accounts of innocence : sexual abuse, trauma, and the self

Author:

Davis, Joseph E.

ISBN:

9780226137803

9780226137810

Personal Author:

Davis, Joseph E.

Publication Information:

Chicago, Ill. ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Physical Description:

x, 340 p. ; 24 cm.

General Note:

Formerly CIP.

Contents:

Incest and sexual offenses before the social discovery of sexual abuse -- Constructing sexual abuse 1 : family therapy and the child protection movement -- Constructing sexual abuse 2 : the antirape movement and victim activists -- Interpreting abuse : from collective story to psychological trauma model -- Therapeutic rationale and therapeutic persuasion -- The victimization account -- From victim to survivor and beyond -- Memory wars -- Accounts of innocence.

Subject Term:

Sexual abuse victims.

Victims of crimes.

Electronic Access:

Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/uchi051/2004009714.html
Table of contents http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/uchi051/2004009714.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015757079	362.76 D261A 2005	1	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Since a new sensitivity and orientation to victims of injustice arose in the 1960s, categories of victimization have proliferated. Large numbers of people are now characterized and characterize themselves as sufferers of psychological injury caused by the actions of others. In contrast with the familiar critiques of victim culture, Accounts of Innocence offers a new and empirically rich perspective on the question of why we now place such psychological significance on victimization in people's lives.

Focusing on the case of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, Joseph E. Davis shows how the idea of innocence shaped the emergence of trauma psychology and continues to inform accounts of the past (and hopes for the future) in therapy with survivor clients. His findings shed new light on the ongoing debate over recovered memories of abuse. They challenge the notion that victim accounts are an evasion of personal responsibility. And they suggest important ways in which trauma psychology has had unintended and negative consequences for how victims see themselves and for how others relate to them.

An important intervention in the study of victimization in our culture, Accounts of Innocence will interest scholars of clinical psychology, social work, and sociology, as well as therapists and victim activists.