When Ontologies Collide it's a Slippery Slide: Differing Representations of the Social Construction of Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

ization through the mediating of the trauma model in survivor therapy, while Kitzinger addresses the role of the media in perpetuating a completely different set of understandings. This is rooted, I believe, in a perhaps even more fundamental difference. The authors have different ontologies. Davis's is reflexively and consistently constructionist and Kitzinger's is, perhaps inadvertently, objectivist at its core. After discussing each scholar's significant contributions to our understanding of the social construction of child abuse, I will explain why I believe Kitzinger's impact is more limited as a consequence. Davis's book traces the background, emergence, development, and dissemination of the cultural narrative of child sexual abuse, showing how the story of incest originated in the child protection and anti-rape movements and became the model for a therapeutic rationale and victimization account that