The review of reviews. If the #metooincest, aroused by the shock story of Camille Kouchner in The Big Family (Seuil, 2021), has helped free speech and mobilize politicians on domestic violence, one question remains in the shadows: that of incest committed by a minor. It is precisely to break this ” ultimate “ taboo – considered moreover as a “sub-incest” by justice – that Sarah Boucault embarked on a long investigation for the review The breaking wave. Through multiple testimonies from victims, including his own, which is delicately intertwined, but also the analyzes and points of view of the few childhood specialists – researchers, psychologists, magistrates – devoted to the subject, this work, rich and solidly documented, makes it possible to take the full measure of a “structural unthought”.
Although there are no reliable statistics, the journalist estimates, by crossing the rare data available, that the violence committed by minors (92% of boys, estimates the sociologist Marie Romero) would represent between a quarter and a third cases of incest, i.e. approximately two million people in France. Gold, “indifference, minimization and denial lead to an overwhelming silencing of this phenomenon”, believes Sarah Boucault, who strives to demonstrate that this is a “major social event”.
massive taboo
She depicts how the veil of denial covers almost everything and the forms it takes. In particular in the collective imagination, through formulas such as ” child games “, “touch-pee” or the concept of“happy incest”, which make it possible to avoid violence and, with it, the question of consent. Within incestuous families, incest spreads through there “contamination of silence on practice”, as explained anthropologist Dorothée Dussy: “Children come into the world with parents, uncles, aunts socialized with incest. » This “contamination” also affects the scientific literature, which is not very vocal on this subject, and the justice system, which is almost silent: “The law says little or nothing about sexual assaults committed by minors, notes Sarah Boucault. Even less when they are intrafamilial. »
Between legal vacuum and absence of public policy, the care of the victims and the aggressors – all the more complex as it is played out between sanction and education – is poor. In France, only one program deals specifically with minors who commit incest. More than an inventory, this edifying investigation into a massive taboo is a salutary call for collective awareness.
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