Social representations about the social image of the child abuse perpetrator

• Main Author: Julia Moreno Moreno
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Asociación Nacional de Psicología Evolutiva y Educativa de la Infancia Adolescencia Mayores y Discapacidad 2014-09-01
• Series: INFAD
• Subjects: abuso infantil; imagen social; representaciones sociales
• Online Access: http://www.infad.eu/RevistaINFAD/OJS/index.php/IJODAEP/article/view/454

This study aims to analyze the social representations that the general population and the professionals who work with the childhood have about the social image of the child abuse perpetrators. The objectives are: To identify and describe the participants’ ideas about the social image of the perpetrator and to establish the differences of these social representations between diverse sample groups. The sample consists of 223 subjects of both sexes: 68.2 % are women and 31.8 % are men, all of them older than 18 years, the 40.8 % have children and the 48% have not, the 19.3 % do not work and 79.4 % do. Divided into three groups: general population consisting of 89 subjects, the specific group composed of 76 professionals with functions relating to child protection and the third group composed by 58 people who are in contact with the child population by their profession. The participants responded to a questionnaire consisting in 14 characteristics attributed to perpetrators (they were abused in their childhood, they consume drugs and/or alcohol...), to the perception about the characteristics of abused children (they are rebels or they are difficult) or to the family situation that they are affected by (family problems...). The results show that the general population has social representations of perpetrators which are characterized to be immature, aggressive and violent people, besides to be considered as mentally ills, who consume drugs and alcohol and with an abuse history in their childhood, and that are involved into conflictive and problematic familiar environment. The difference between the groups is concluded as a consequence of the fact that the perpetrators were abused in their childhood. However, there are differences between the general population and the specific group respect to the idea that parents who abuse of their children are bad people.