Dimensions and figures inscribed in child sexual abuse

reflections from the ecological model of violence

Abstract

The purpose of this article seeks to put into dialogue a series of reflections around three figures registered in the occurrence of child sexual abuse: the victims, the abuser and the witness. These reflections reached arise from the findings resulting from the qualitative research on this sexual crime, which were achieved from the realization of three discussion groups in the municipalities of Aquitania and Chitaraque of the department of Boyacá, Colombia with the participation of different institutional and community actors belonging to this region of the country. The results obtained are analyzed in the light of the integrated feminist ecological model, seeking to identify the relationships and interactions that are built between each of these actors, taking into account the personal dimensions of the microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem that the model proposes. Faced with the findings, the mediation carried out by the blaming of the victims and the invisibility of abusers and witnesses stand out, as factors that contribute to the maintenance of child sexual abuse suffered by girls in the rural environments of these municipalities targeted by the investigation, and that can be extended to other settings in the department. Finally, the reflections reached are aimed at considering the mechanisms by which the patriarchal and adultcentric legacy are instituted as stimulators of sociocultural practices and imagery that legitimize and naturalize child sexual abuse as part of the continuum of violence suffered by girls.