The role of culture in understanding child sexual offending: Examining feminist perspectives Mayumi Purvis a , Tony Ward b, * a University of Melbourne, Australia b Department of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand Received 8 April 2005; received in revised form 12 August 2005; accepted 25 August 2005 Available online 22 September 2005 Abstract Psychological theories on child sexual abuse continue to dominate etiological and rehabilitative approaches to understanding and treating sexually abusive behavior. However, even though psychological researchers are motivated toward development of comprehensive and highly integrated theories, there has been continued neglect of the cultural dimensions of child sexual abuse. Feminist theories of child sexual abuse have been particularly helpful in filling this explanatory gap, as they have persisted in locating sexually abusive behavior within a cultural context. In this paper we review and critique selected feminist theories on child sexual abuse with the aim of establishing their explanatory scope and utility. Overall, we found that feminist perspectives were useful in justifying and establishing social policies aimed at preventing the sexual abuse of children from ever commencing. However, despite this strength, they offer little guidance in the treatment of individual offenders. D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Culture; Feminist perspectives; Child sexual offending Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................... 299 2. Levels of theory .................................................... 299 3. Culture ........................................................ 299 4. Feminist theories of child sexual abuse ........................................ 300 4.1. Radical feminism................................................ 301 4.1.1. Critique of radical feminist theory .................................. 302 4.2. Post-modern feminism ............................................. 304 4.2.1. Critique of the post-modern perspective................................ 305 4.3. Sociological feminist theory: Cossins’ power/powerless theory ........................ 306 4.3.1. Critique of the power/powerlessness theory .............................. 307 5. Clinical utility of feminist theories .......................................... 309 6. Conclusions ...................................................... 310 References ......................................................... 310 1359-1789/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2005.08.006 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: tony.ward@vuw.ac.nz (T. Ward). Aggression and Violent Behavior 11 (2006) 298– 312