Accounts of Innocence

Sexual Abuse, Trauma, and the Self

Cloth $80.00 ISBN: 9780226137803 Published January 2005

Paper $32.50 ISBN: 9780226137810 Published January 2005

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.

Soc for the Study of Symbolic Interactio: Charles H. Cooley Award
Won

View Recent Awards page for more award winning books.

"This book offers a powerful illustration of how therapeutic knowledge empowers certain narratives that enlighten society and invite conflcts over those discourses. Clinicians, scholars, policy makers, and historians will find this useful and fascinating. Essential."

"A particularly useful book for the reader interested in an overview of the historical, political, and theoretical perspectives that have shaped our understanding of sexual abuse."

"For any professional interested in child sexual abuse, Accounts of Innocence will be a fascinating book."

co-winner of the Cooley Award

"This is a provocative book. While it ought to be read by professionals who work in legal, psychosocial, and medical fields, because it challenges the implicit moral assumptions underpinning much professional practice in child sexual abuse, it is likely to be controversial for the same reasons. Those who appreciate scholarly sociological critique will gain a well-argued alternative perspective on child sexual abuse."

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One - Defining a New System of Meanings
1. Incest and Sexual Offenses before the Social Discovery of Sexual Abuse
2. Constructing Sexual Abuse 1: Family Therapy and the Child Protection Movement
3. Constructing Sexual Abuse 2: The Antirape Movement and Victim Activists
4. Interpreting Abuse: From Collective Story to Psychological Trauma Model
Part Two - Defining Client Experience
5. Therapeutic Rationale and Therapeutic Persuasion
6. The Victimization Account
7. From Victim to Survivor and Beyond
Part Three - Victimization and the Self
8. Memory Wars
9. Accounts of Innocence
Methodological Appendix
Notes
References
Index

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu

Culture Studies

History: American History

Psychology: Clinical Psychology

Rhetoric and Communication

Social Work

Sociology: Social Change, Social Movements, Political Sociology

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