In your opinion, does "just about every family" have "a relative" who has been _sexually abused by her (or his) natal father from age three till thirteen_ like Bettina Aptheker says she was? If so, what is the source of your information (I hope it isn't Oprah)?
Sexual abuse of such young children is hardly common, contrary to what a paranoid style of law and order politics in America leads one to believe (e.g., "just about every family has a relative sexually abused by her [or his] parent for ten years from age three").
See "Table 3-11 Victims by Age Group and Maltreatment Type, 2004" of _Child Maltreatment 2004_ (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, 2006), <http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/table3_11.htm>. The proportion of 1-3 year olds and younger who are sexually abused (by all types of perpetrators such as natal parents, step parents, family acquaintances, and strangers) among the total population of all types of child abuse victims (787,071 victims) in 2004 was 0.7%. The most common form of child abuse is neglect (496,232 victims).
It should be noted that child sexual abuse has declined, much like most other crimes: "After a 15-year increase (1977–92), national data show that substantiated cases of child sexual abuse have been decreasing since about 1992. Summary data from NCANDS indicate that cases of substantiated child sexual abuse reached an estimated peak of 149,800 in 1992, followed by declines of 2 to 11 percent each year through 1998, the last year for which data are available (figure 1). In 1998, estimated cases of child sexual abuse reached a low of approximately 103,600.1 This is a total decline of 31 percent in identified child sexual abuse cases over a 6-year period. . . . These significant declines contrast with the period of the 1980's, when most States experienced 10-percent annual increases in child sexual abuse caseloads" (Lisa Jones and David Finkelhor, "Substantiated Sexual Abuse," _Juvenile Justice Bulletin: The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases_, January 2001, <http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/jjbul2001_1_1/page2.html>); and "The decline in reported and substantiated cases of child sexual abuse does not appear to be just an extension of a general declining trend in overall child maltreatment. The estimated total reports of child maltreatment increased dramatically in the 1980's and, though the rate of increase has slowed, the numbers have continued to climb through the 1990's.4 However, despite increasing numbers of reports during the 1990's, the percentage of reports that were child sexual abuse allegations decreased. Sexual abuse reports dropped from 16 percent of all child maltreatment reports in 1986 to an average of 8 percent of reports from 1996 to 1998" (Lisa Jones and David Finkelhor, "Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Greater Than Decline in Physical Abuse or Neglect," _Juvenile Justice Bulletin: The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases_, January 2001, <http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/jjbul2001_1_1/page4.html>).
The trend in child sexual abuse is best understood in the context of the rise and fall of the "recovered memory" mania as well as the general crime trends. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>