So is adultery. Were this same classification proffered for rape or forcible sodomy, antagonistic public reaction would be near universal. And its victims, especially teenagers, will be perceived as complicitous. We cannot continue to reward a certain criminal sub-class simply because its members have biologically produced their own victims. Incest violates them all.
Incest is the rape of childhood.
As deMause's article so clearly illustrates, incest occurs in private darkness, but is sanctioned in various ways by various cultures. It is systemically traumatic, profound in its consequences, and a monumental impetus to every known manifestation of personal dysfunction. 4 All cultures aspire to cohesive achievement. So long as our verbal condemnation of this evil is subsumed into our active condonation, it will continue to cast its shadow over all societies. Incest is a chain.