Social Stigma of Incest in Malaysia

International Academic Research Journal of Social Science 1(2) 2015, Page 112-117
Although incest is a worldwide problem, it remains a neglected social problem and in the developing countries,
incest is taboo. In the context of reconstituted families, incest is frequently used to describe these same taboo
sexual behaviors though the perpetrator is genetically unrelated caretakers (Jean-François de Rochemont, 2008).
As reported by Csorba et al. (2006), the incidence of incest was 25% among all adolescent sexual abuse cases.
Father–daughter incest is apparently not an uncommon occurrence (Kim and Kim, 2005; Kuartei, 2005;
Alikasifoglu et al., 2006). There is never a more vulnerable victim than a powerless child, especially when the
child is abused by a caretaker e.g. a parent or stepparent, a grandparent, an uncle or an aunt. Often the rape of a
child, especially incest that involves the child’s family members, is viewed with revulsion and disgust by many
cultures and religions. For instance, incest has been a criminal offence in England & Wales in 1908. There is a
widespread disgust at incestuous activity and generally accepted is the wrongfulness of sex with children
(Roffee, 2014).
It is believed that incest is a problem, which occurs within families at the lower socio-economic levels, living in
rural or low-cost housing areas, which are often overcrowded. Many studies conducted overseas confirmed the
fact that incest occurs in families of low socioeconomic levels (Molnar & Cameron, 1975; Maish, 1972 cited in
Katz and Mazur, 1979). On the other hand, Kinsey’s (cited in Katz and Mazur, 1979:256) study of sexual
offenders showed that 70-77% of sexual offenders were in the upper and upper middle working class. In
Malaysia, a study conducted by Hadi (1996) showed that incest in this country is more prevalent in families of
lower socio-economic levels. This was also confirmed from the findings of Rohana et.al. (1997).
Incest is one of the most under-reported forms of crime. Disclosure of incest is a delicate and sensitive process
that is influenced by implicit or explicit pressure for secrecy, feelings for responsibility or blame, feelings of
shame or embarrassment, or fear of negative consequences. (Collin-Vezina et al., 2013). Ethnic & religious
cultures may also influence the way by which the process of disclosure is experienced and can act as either
facilitators or barriers to the telling and reporting of incest. Economic dependency is also another important
factor which influences a victim or the victim’s female caregiver (usually mother) not to report the crime as she
would be concerned about the well-being of the family in not receiving financial support from the breadwinner
who committed the incest.
The incidents of incest have the tendency to recur when the perpetrator influences or threatens the victim to
remain silent. Another factor is because of the dynamics of such cases: the victims are usually young children
who are either threatened or manipulated into acquiescence or silenced; parents may not be trained to recognize
signs of sexual abuse in children; parents who know of the incident may not report it due to the lack of support
systems available; or a host of other factors (Rohana Ariffin & Rachel Samuel, 2008).
SOCIAL STIGMA AND INCEST
Stigma plays a primary role in sociological theory. Émile Durkheim, one of the founders of the social sciences,
began to address the social marking of deviance in the late nineteenth century. Erving Goffman, an
American sociologist, is responsible for bringing the term and theory of stigma into the main social theoretical
fold. In his work, Goffman presented the fundamentals of stigma as a social theory, including his interpretation
of "stigma" as a means of spoiling identity. By this, he referred to the stigmatized trait's ability to "spoil"
recognition of the individual's adherence to social norms in other facets of self. Goffman identified three main
types of stigma: (1) stigma associated with mental illness; (2) stigma associated with physical deformation; and
(3) stigma attached to identification with a particular race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, etc.
In Erving Goffman's theory of social stigma, a stigma is an attribute, behavior, or reputation which is socially
discrediting in a particular way: it causes an individual to be mentally classified by others in an undesirable,
rejected stereotype rather than in an accepted, normal one. Goffman, a noted sociologist, defined stigma as a
special kind of gap between virtual social identity and actual social identity.
Society establishes the means of categorizing persons and the complement of attributes felt to be ordinary and
natural for members of each of these categories. When a stranger comes into our presence, then, first
appearances are likely to enable us to anticipate his category and attributes, his "social identity" (Goffman,
1963). Goffman divides the individual's relation to a stigma into three categories:
1. the stigmatized are those who bear the stigma;
2. the normal are those who do not bear the stigma; and
3. the wise are those among the normal who are accepted by the stigmatized as "wise" to their condition
(borrowing the term from the homosexual community).
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