Family genealogies of incest

The theory of family genealogies of incest traces the ways incest is reproduced systematically and systemically across generations and within immediate and extended kin.

In her study of incest, Gonzalez-Lopez found that women aren’t typically only abused by one man in the family but rather by multiple family members and/or that their abusers abused others within their family.

In this way, the incest is systematic because it is not isolated but rather patterned and cyclical.

And it is systemic in the ways it affects girls and women across generations and is reproduced as part of family life.