The process of incest: biologic father and stepfather families

This article compares incest between biologic fathers and their daughters and stepfathers and their stepdaughters. The term "incest" is applied to each of these types of families. The sample for the study was located in a mental health treatment facility designed to work specifically with incestuous families and includes 102 cases (56 stepfather families; 46 biologic father families). The data were obtained by interviews with the four primary program therapists. Differences in sexual behavior between the two groups indicated that biologic fathers more frequently engaged in full intercourse, more frequently involved multiple daughters and more frequently began the sexual activity when their daughters were adolescents than did stepfathers. Possible explanations of the differences are explored.