Faculty of Humanities School of Human and Community Development 0008716g Mashils@hotmail.com / This study explored the effects of extra-familial child sexual abuse on the victims’ primary caregivers. The study focused on the experiences of ten mothers whose children were raped during the six months that preceded the study, and they were drawn from Zamokuhle and Nthabiseng clinics in Soweto. A semi-structured individual interview was used to explore the implications of the rape on the primary caregivers’ psychological well being. The data was processed using qualitative content analysis as the methodology. Findings indicate that the children were raped in their everyday environment during their mothers’ absence. The majority of the perpetrators are trusted neighbours and some used violence to coerce the children into participating. Some children concealed the rapes from their mothers and they were threatened with punishment to facilitate disclosure. The primary caregivers responded with anger post-disclosure which was directed toward different parties. They blamed the children for withholding the rape and for failing to combat it, and the perpetrators for betraying them. The mothers’ anger was exacerbated by the failure of the justice system to bring the perpetrators to book, and other people whom the mothers felt should have protected their children. In terms of causal attribution, the respondents questioned their maternal role and felt that they did not provide their children with the necessary care and protection they needed. The primary caregivers also felt that the children could have prevented the rape if they behaved differently. The rape took a toll on the relationship the mothers had with their children as some became overprotective to compensate for the protection they never provided their children with. Most mothers displayed an inability to cope post-disclosure which suggests that child sexual abuse has adverse effects on the psychological well-being of noniv offending mothers. For purposes of clarity, the word “mother” will be used interchangeably with “primary caregiver” throughout the study.

Several justifications exist for the death penalty, yet it is only recently that the concept of “closure” has come to serve as a rationale for American capital punishment. This contemporary justification promises murder victims’ families that the execution of their loved one’s murderer should provide them with “closure”—a contested word that typically denotes an end to the pain associated with their loved one’s murder. How and when this new narrative came about has garnered little scholarly attention, particularly as murder victims’ families begin to challenge closure as relevant to their healing. The goals of the current study seek to: 1) elucidate how closure entered the American death penalty debate; 2) illustrate the myriad meanings assigned to closure, identifying how various stakeholders have trafficked in the term’s use; 3) examine how closure has been used politically to legitimize death penalty practices and the state’s right to take life; and 4) critically analyze claims that closure has “symbolically transformed” the American death penalty today. The study employs discursive textual analysis of nearly 2500 American newspaper stories from 1989 to 2008, legislative hearings, legal case histories, academic and popular sources, and archival materials from American death penalty and victims’ rights groups during this twenty year period. The findings illustrate that closure entered death penalty discourse in the late 1980s, and reached a tipping point in news coverage in 2001 with Timothy McVeigh’s execution. While the term was used in nearly every way imaginable, the findings illustrate it was most prominently used in supporting secondary victims’ “right to view” the executions of their loved ones’ murderers and in justifying Timothy McVeigh’s execution for his role in the Oklahoma City Bombing. I argue that the media’s sensational portrayals of such historical moments allowed them to serve as “galvanizing events” ushering in closure as a powerful symbol in justifying the state’s right to take life and the view that executions are a form of “therapeutic justice.” Despite closure being used to support certain death penalty practices, the analyses presented here provide little support for the notion that closure has “symbolically transformed” American capital punishment today as has been suggested by some scholars. Closure is a small blip in print news coverage and does not resonate strongly with Americans’ support for capital punishment in national opinion polls. The study concludes with a critical examination of the role of closure as a contemporary, and empirically unchallenged, justification for the death penalty—one that serves as an empty promise for murder victims’ loved ones. / text

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Thesis (M.Phil.) -- Australian Catholic University, 2002. / Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy for the School of Social Work. Bibliography: p. 163-180. Also available in an electronic format via the internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2008. / Appendices: 76-92. Title from PDF title page (October 25, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-75)

Thesis (PhD) -- AUT University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print ( xii, 265 leaves ; 30 cm.) in City Campus Theses Collection (T 616.8583 FRE )

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Laura Lein and Noel Busch. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 165 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-165).

Thesis (M.A.(Practical Theology)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-77).

This dissertation examined the relationship between support services for adult survivors of sexual assault and judicial outcomes. Specifically, this study explored survivors' willingness to participate in the judicial process. Although "victim unwilling to participate" is the primary reason given by the police for cases not progressing to prosecution, we know little about most aspects of survivors' willingness to participate in the judicial process, especially beyond initial reporting of the assault. The steps to prosecution are dependent on one another yet a survivor's willingness to participate in these steps is a fluid process. The primary research question explored was Are there clusters of survivors according to their responses to specific items on a Willingness to Participate scale? Additional research questions focused on differences among possible clusters of survivors. A semi-structured interview protocol was completed with 46 survivors of adult sexual assault. Cluster analysis was conducted and three clusters emerged. Findings suggest that support services were helpful to those who were highly willing to participate but that willingness was insufficient to influence judicial outcomes. Future research concerning judicial outcomes in sexual assault cases should focus on strategies to dispel myths about rape among survivors, within the judicial system, and with potential jurors as a means of improving both survivor participation and judicial outcomes.