modalités du non-dévoilement dans les récits d'enfants victimes d'agression sexuelle : une étude de l'ellipse narrative

Abstract

This study examines the narratives of children victims of sexual abuse. Specifically, our objective was to explore how sixteen children aged six to eight use language during their investigative interview to avoid mentioning the sexual acts they suffered. One way to silence these acts is the introduction into their discourse of temporal gaps in the description of the event, a phenomenon known as narrative ellipses. Our analyses indicate that the ellipses observed generally relate to the most severe sexual acts or those that the victims have been le d to perform towards the perpetrator. This result suggests that some victims introduce temporal gaps in their discourse to avoid mentioning theparts of the assault that they do not want to address.

The utility of direct questions about actions with the hands in child forensic interviews.

“…Hands are likely to figure prominently in the abusive act, since most touching by the suspect occurs with the hands, and because bodily interactions in abuse will implicate both the suspect’s and the child’s hands. When disclosing abuse, children tend to be reticent about disclosing the details of sexual touch, particularly the most serious acts (Allard-Gaudreau et al, 2021), and typically fail to provide unambiguous descriptions of genitalia (Burrows et al, 2017). These difficulties can lead to vague and inconsistent testimony in court (Sullivan et al, 2021; Szojka et al, 2023).…”