In incest crimes the situation is usually a sexual act between father and daughter and the victim of the crime is usually a child or a minor.
The literature on incest offences has repeatedly pointed out that all the members of a family play a part in the precipitation of these [page 129] crimes. Even "incest families" have been mentioned in this connection. It has been said that the unconscious part played by the other members of the family, each in their own role, is of special importance (Kaufman et al., 1954; Lustig et al., 1966; Machotka et al., 1967; Tuovinen, 1972; Brant and Tisza, 1977; Summit and Kryso, 1978). Brant and Tisza (1977) have emphasized that it is often difficult to separate family members' actions from their underlying fantasies in this kind of family.
The part of the girl victims has been especially emphasized (Kaufman et al., 1954; Weinberg, 1955; Schachter, 1960; Lutier, 1961; Lustig et al., 1966; Machotka et al., 1967; Tuovinen, 1972; Lukianowicz, 1972; Virkkunen, 1974; Williams, 1974; Browning and Boatman, 1977; Brant and Tisza, 1977; Summit and Kryso, 1978). These girls frequently participate in an incestuous relationship over an extended period of time without taking steps to report the father's behaviour. For instance, Lustig et al. (1966) noticed that no report of the incestuous relationship was made to others until somebody had threatened the family with disintegration, and even then the report was usually made by someone other than the child. Williams (1974) also found that in a proportion of the cases the relationship had continued for more than a year.
Virkkunen (1974) separated the cases where the fathers had problems of alcoholism from those where there was no such problem. The fathers with alcohol problems had a tendency to react explosively within the family, usually under the influence of alcohol. Also, these alcoholics had been under the influence of alcohol, usually at least, at the beginning of the relationship. Such was not the case in the control group. In non-drinking cases the complaint concerning the incest had been made more often by someone outside the family. In the drinking cases the complaint tended to be made by the wife or the child. So it was obvious that in the first-mentioned cases the long-standing incestuous relationship had been more satisfactory to all parties, including the victim of the incest, and that the victim had played a part contributing towards the continuation of the process. Lukianowicz (1972) also says that at least some girls may have played an active part even in initiating the incestuous relations, and not all of them are simply "innocent victims".
Lustig et al. (1966) have tried to clarify the situation, and its dynamics, within the family as a whole. They show that a dominating [page 130] feature is as they say: "An assumption by the daughter of the mother's role so general that the daughter becomes the central female figure of the household." This happens at a time when sexual relations between the parents are disturbed and the father is experiencing increasing sexual frustration. At the same time, the threat of the disintegration of the family increases and, "there is a conscious or unconscious sanction of the nonparticipant mother who must contribute to the assignment of the daughter in her place to care for the sexual, affectional, and nurturant deprivation of the father" (Lustig et al., 1966).
According to the literature, a daughter who, for some reason or other, has assumed the role of mother in the family, may respond to the situation by starting to contribute towards the precipitation of incest. To a certain extent, although obviously not entirely, she realizes what is happening. The confusion of roles has happened in these families (Summit and Kryso, 1978) .
Maisch (1973) has found that the wife's temporary absence or illness has often led to a curtailment of sexual relations between parents before the incest. Browning and Boatman (1977) made some especially interesting observations. They found an excessively high rate of depression among the mothers of victims of incest. These depressive features among wives are also mentioned, for example, by Summit and Kryso (1978). In the opinion of Browning and Boatman (1977), this could account for the frequently cited finding of sexual withdrawal, passivity and emotional remoteness in these mothers, which in their turn may explain why the daughters are "forced" into assuming the role of the mother.
The above suits the findings of Virkkunen (1974). He noticed that alcoholism in the father, and all that this entailed (sometimes explosive tendencies under the influence of alcohol in the family etc.), was the most important cause of the spouse's rejecting attitude. He found that a large family and/or the family's poor economy contributed to this rejecting attitude. It is easy to understand that situations such as these might sometimes cause depression in the mother, and thus lead to the child taking, or being forced to take, the mother's role.