Grandfather - granddaughter incest: a trigenerational view

Grandfather-granddaughter incest accounts for about 10% of all reported cases of intrafamilial childhood sexual abuse. In a sample of 10 such cases, all referrals came from mothers of the child victims; six of these mothers had themselves been abused in childhood by the perpetrator. For eight of the 10 perpetrators, multiple child sexual victims were identified in a pattern that suggests facultative pedophilia. Only two of the 18 grandchildren sexually abused by the 10 grandfathers were asymptomatic at the time of report. Grandchild victims from chaotic families showed educational and behavioral symptoms; those from stable families exhibited fears and phobias. Eight of the 18 grandchildren were victimized by multiple perpetrators. The results cast doubt on the assumption that grandparent incest is a benign form of abuse and indicate that there is some justification for the fears expressed by adult incest victims about visitation between their children and the father-perpetrator.