Summary. Intergenerational intimacy, social as well as sexual, has been studied in the United States and abroad for some time. In recent years the general trend has been to label such behavior "child sexual abuse." Interest in this type of abuse has generated a considerable amount of more or less scientific literature, some of which seem to have been produced in a "rush to judgment" attempt to build a "professional" literature that supports popular beliefs. This tradition of child-abuse-defined literature, along with the work of investigative and helping agencies which some refer to as a "child abuse industry," has fostered a one-sided, simplistic picture of intergenerational intimacy. A close look at the empirical studies in this tradition reveals flaws associated with two problems: the studies nearly always (1) maintain a narrow focus on sexual contact, and (2) proceed from the related basic assumption that sexual contact in intergenerational relationships by definition constitutes abuse. While sexual abuse certainly occurs, those who apply this assumption to all situations are ignoring empirical findings that show otherwise. Research outside the "child sexual abuse" tradition reveals a broader range of intergenerational relationships outside the family, including a number of aspects which typically are not seen when the focus is on the sexual. Some studies show clearly that even when sexual contact is involved, negative outcomes are not inevitable. This indicates the need for a much broeder approach. Further research in North America society and in other cultures would help us to understand more accurately the diversity and possible benefits of intergenerational intimacy.
[...] Children's sexuality, indeed, is one of the most controversial topics of the present day, in spite of the fact that decades of research have documented the existence of sexual response and feelings (Bakwin, 1971; Kinsey et al., 1948; 1953) as well as the development of overt sexual behavior (Broderick, 1968) in preadolescents.
Consideration of the full range of possibilities in child-adult interactions often seems to be ignored in favor of more and more discussion about the importance of insulating children from anything even potentially sexual involving adults. The trend, also has been for various agencies and people to capitalize on the sensationalism of the issue, as noted by Eberle and Eberle (1986):
We set out to unravel the mystery, and this is what we got: very little evidence of child molestation and a great deal of extremely corrupt behavior by police, prosecutors and "mental health professionals," resulting in the devastation of innocent people's lives and families. There has indeed been child abuse - perpetrated by representatives of the government and police ... (p.283)Brongersma (1984) analyzes the roots of these trends, showing how moralists began to target child sexuality, and pedophiles in particular, "slightly over a century ago" (p.79). One purpose of this paper is to show how these trends are reflected as well as abetted in social science literature, and then to outline and encourage alternatives for more accurate, unbiased and comprehensive future research.
This paper begins with the premise that children and adolescents can experience close one-to-one friendships with adults, and that many actually do so. The term used here to describe these friendships is "intergenerational intimacy." This term includes all non-coercive, two-way interactions in which a physically mature adult and a pre-adult in mid-adolescence or younger share interests, communicate with and trust each other, share responsibility for and power in the relationship, spend time together, and feel mutually fond of one another. Sexual contact is not assumed in this definition of intimacy, and if present, is regarded as adjunct rather than essential. By the same token, intergenerational sexual contact alone does not constitute an intimate relationahip - though a sex-only relationship is not automatically assumed to be abuse, either.
"Intimate intergenerational relationship" as used here is not synonymous with pedophilia, child sexual abuse, pederasty, or other commonly used terms. Rather, some of these terms are seen as limited aspects of intergenerational intimacy. For example, "pedophilia" (at least in modern usage) is not the same as intergenerational intimacy since it is usually limited to contacts involving sexual activity. Other terms, such as "child abuse," are considered to be the antithesis of intimacy, and are used here to refer to behavior that is demonstrably harmful.
[...] The crucial difference has to do with mutuality and control. Abuse consists of an unreasonable, unilateral imposition by the adult of unwanted behavior upon the other person - even though occasionally it might be in the constext of an otherwise close relationship - thereby at least partially denying the younger individual's exercise of choise. Such unwanted behavior may be introduced by trickery, coercion, physical force or a number of other devices. These strategies are not typical of intergenerational intimacy, where the ability of both persons to exercise choise is fundamental.
The element of choise also points to a distinction between intimate relationships within families, and relationships between youngsters and adults outside the family. The former are highly socially scripted interactions which are more often accepted rather than chosen, learned rather than created. While intra-familial intimate relationships do exist and should be included in the scope of intergenerational intimacy, it is assumed that the element of conscious choise is not a salient factor in family intimacy, at least until the later stages of development. Relationships that arise in other socially-prescribed institutions, such as school or church, also are seen as structured; moreover, even the closest of them usually are not characterized by the kind of intimacy described above. If a teacher-student relationship, for example, were to involve such intimacy, in the context of this paper it no longer would be considered a teacher-student relationship, but would be classified as intergenerational intimacy. For these reasons, intra-familial closeness and relationships like those between teacher and student will not be discussed here as such.
The scope of intergenerational intimacy logically includes both cross-sex and same-sex relationships. The pre-adult period of social development is characterized by a large majority of a girl's social time and energy being spent with females, and a boy's with males. The overwhelming tendency to children to choose best friends of their same sex is well-known (Jones and Dembo, 1986; Sharabany, Gershoni and Hofman, 1981). Identity development in adolescence typically is associated with selective attention to a same-sex parent (Marcia, 1980). I si also widely assumed, though not well-documented in empirical research, that pubescents in particular tend to make use of older persons of their sex outside the family as role models and heroes. This strong tendency suggests that same-sex intergenerational intimacy may be developmentally functional.
For this discussion of intergenerational relationships, no essential qualitative distinction is made between man/boy and women/girl relationships, though the latter are almost never considered in empirical, theoretical or historical literature. For male relationships, the term "pederasty" often has been used, at least in the historical literature; no corresponding term describing female relationships is known to this author. Etymologically, pederasty actually might come the closest to the concept of intergenerational intimacy that is the subject of this paper, except for the use of the term in recent centuries as a synonym for all homosexuality (Oaks, 1979/80) and the even more recent quasi-medical definition as anal sexual contact with no connotation of emotional involvement (Freedman, Kaplan and Sadock, 1976).
A typical assumption of the child sexual abuse literature is that sexual contact with an adult is emotionally traumatic and causes damage that often extends well into adulthood. This is not at all an established conclusion in the empirical literature (Wilson and Cox, 1983). Such harm undoubtedly can occur, though a number of authors have pointed out that the trauma may be induced or exacerbated by strong reactions of parents, police,court officials and other adults when they discover that such an activity has taken place (Lempp, 1978; Mohr, 1968; Weeks, 1976). Some studies have found benign or even beneficial results in boys who were at the time involved with men (Ingram 1981; Sandfort 1981, 1983) and in adults who had been involved in sexual relationships with adult men when they were boys (Landis 1956; Tindall, 1978). These findings are significant because the child abuse literature, as it developed in the 1970s, ignored the earlier studies thqt found no harm due to sexual contact per se (e.g., Bender and Grugett, 1952; Landis, 1956), just as today's writers are ignoring more recent literature which discusses intergenerational contact and child sexuality in value-neutral terms (see Jones, 1982, 1984, for a review of these).
Some of the research dealing with child sexual abuse may be conducted for the secondary purpose of justifying existing or proposed law enforcement activities, not for primary purposes of adding to professional knowledge regarding human behavior. The "child abuse industry" is the term sometimes applied to the collection of professionals who, one way or another, earn livelihoods from investigating, treating, prosecuting or otherwise dealing with those involved in child abuse. In effect, they both profit from and influence public policy regarding child abuse.
The literature associated with "child abuse industry" professionals is often identifiable by the fact that its authors are involved professionally in careers which depend on the continued existence of child sexual abuse, for example foundation directors (Densen-Gerber, 1980; Densen-Gerber and Hutchinson, 1977), therapists and child sexual abuse consultants (MacFarlane, 1978; Nielsen, 1983; Summit, 1983), law enforcement officers (Lanning, 1984; Tyler, 1982a, 1982b), or combinations of these (Lanning and Burgess, 1984; Stone, Tyler and Mead, 1984). Articles by such authors often contain non-empirical statements of opinion, personal experience, policy suggestions and, too often, sensationalized detail from isolated, non-typical case studies. Those few that are empirical frequently gather their information from small samples of incarcerated or court-referred adults or chidren (e.g. Groth, Burgess, Birnbaum and Gary, 1978). The use of research desing without control samples is common. Many of these features are virtually identical with the literature before 1970 dealing with homosexuality (Hoffman, 1970).
The controversy surrounding erotica and pornography provides clear examples of how questionalbe research is used to further the apparent goals of those in the "child abuse industry." The act of photographing minors in sexually explicit poses has been illegal in the United States for a long time, but child abuse industry professionals in the last eight years have steadily continued their call for more legislation through the use of exaggerated statistics (Densen-Gerber and Hutchinson, 1979) and emotional rhetoric. It is not uncommon to hear testimony in legislative hearings claiming (or implying) that the presence of child pornography indicates pedophile behavior (Dworin, 1984), that there is a "growing kiddie porn subculture" catered to by underground dealers filming "sex acts on infants as young as eight months" (Gentile, 1982), and that child pornography creates more victims every time it is used by its customers (Los Angeles Times, 1984; Tyler and Stone, 1985). What is uncommon,however, is to hear any mention f valid documentation of these claims. The fact is that the vast majority of such claims, in the literature and elsewhere, are not founded on rigerous research.
A careful reading of the literature dealing with pornography reveals a different picture, as seen in the following examples. (1) The very Senate subcommittee that heard some of the testimony mentioned above concluded that child pornography is not increasing, is not profitable, and involves a minnuscule number of people (United States Senate, 1986). (2) Pornography in general has been found to reduce, rather than heighten, the tendency to act out "antisocial sexual behavior" (Goldstein and Kant, 1973, p.152). (3) A direct study of pedophiles and others, including controls, found that "deviant" groups, one of which was pedophile sex offenders, were characterized by less exposure to pornography during their adolescence than the "normal" groups studied (Goldstein, Kant, Judd, Rice and Green, 1971). (4) The legalization of all erotic materials in Denmark has resulted in a significant reduction of all sex crimes, including those against children (Lipton, 1976) (though Diamond, 1980, has disputed the particular Danish findings dealing with violent sexual assaults against women).
Clearly the issue of pornography is clouded by more than just variations in research methodology, and the need for quality investigations untained by emotions is obvious. Existing research is far from conclusive, but the possibility exists that further studies might confirm earlier findings that erotica tends to reduce antisocial acting out. If child abuse professionals succeed in eliminating access to such materials, the net effect might actually be to increase the risk to children. The basic point is that we just don't know until we study the issue.