DNA tests are uncovering the true prevalence of incest

[EmilyMiller]

1 in 7,000 is the number from this specific example. It doesn't account for all the cases of incest that didn't produce offspring, or where the parents weren't first-degree relatives (so grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts are already out of scope for this study), or where the offspring simply never sent in their DNA (for example because they know about their heritage and are understandably hesitant to let others discover it).

Yeah - the figure suggests that it’s at least 1:7,000, not that it is 1:7,000.

 

[Britva415]

1 in 7,000 seemed rarer than expected to me, not more common. So I looked up the article in Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_disease

Most countries classify a disease as rare if its incidence is < 1/2000. So incest is quite rare, even considering that only a fraction of such relationships result in pregnancy.

Thanks, I was going to do the same investigation.

Examples of rare diseases which are more common than 1/7000 include:
ALS (Lou Gherig's/Stephen Hawking's disease)
Mesothelioma
Cystic fibrosis
Scarlet fever
Tay-Sachs disease
Pre-eclampsia

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks, I was going to do the same investigation.

Examples of rare diseases which are more common than 1/7000 include:
ALS (Lou Gherig's/Stephen Hawking's disease)
Mesothelioma
Cystic fibrosis
Scarlet fever
Tay-Sachs disease
Pre-eclampsia

So incest is a disease, now? That's a new spin. Gee, perhaps there'll be a cure one day, then what will people write about?

 

[Britva415]

So incest is a disease, now? That's a new spin. Gee, perhaps there'll be a cure one day, then what will people write about?

Nobody said that. I sure didn't.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Nobody said that. I sure didn't.

I think he was making a joke. Given he’s Australian, the clue is that he wrote something.

Emily

 

[ElectricBlue]

Nobody said that. I sure didn't.

You've just cited a bunch of disease statistics in the same breath. That's connecting dots, isn't it? If you don't think they're related, why relate them?

 

[silky52]

It's not rare at all!! Incest has been going on for thousands of years. Mostly illegal obviously, and definitely not legal in religion, but that can be somewhat hypocritical! According to anthropologists most people don't like it, and it is done in secret, which may be the pull it has for some (especially on places like lit). However it wasn't DNA that discovered how many and how much IMHO.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think he was making a joke. Given he’s Australian, the clue is that he wrote something.

Emily

Points given, Em

 

[Britva415]

You've just cited a bunch of disease statistics in the same breath. That's connecting dots, isn't it? If you don't think they're related, why relate them?

First of all, I don't know why you're singling me out. I didn't even start the "rare diseases" topic.

As for why comparing a rare thing to another category of rare things is a relation that's useful for conversation, it's the rarity that's being compared, not the categories. If comparing 1/7000 to 1/2000 is not useful to you, so be it. I thought it was interesting to give people a yardstick to let them think about "this one rare thing" and see if it's surprising to them in relation to how they perceive the rarity of the other things I named.

The fact that those other things are objectively rare according to a certain standard of objectivity (medical consensus) does not mean that anyone means to assign incest to the "disease" category.

Your argument is really weak. Your imagination tells you people are saying "incest is a disease," and when one of those people tells you "I'm not saying that," you're all like "yuh huh"

 

[Rob_Royale]

Sadly this is far more evidence of sexual abuse of daughters/sisters, than "my mom is still hot." Reality bites it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Sadly this is far more evidence of sexual abuse of daughters/sisters, than "my mom is still hot." Reality bites it.

It is indeed. Though Mom / son would register like Dad / daughter unless they were looking at mitochondrial DNA.

Emily

 

[SofiaLaFrench]

It's been a few years since I molested my sponge though.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

Sadly this is far more evidence of sexual abuse of daughters/sisters, than "my mom is still hot." Reality bites it.

Yes. But that's because offspring that resulted from the "my mom is still hot" variety is less likely to get abandoned at birth or send in their DNA to a genealogy lab...

 

[Rob_Royale]

Yes. But that's because offspring that resulted from the "my mom is still hot" variety is less likely to get abandoned at birth or send in their DNA to a genealogy lab...

 

[Voboy]

Science: "There's a huge amount of incest out there."

Literotica:

 

[tenyari]

Not just us. We are all related to sponges as well (now some are more closely related of course).

This my cousin Daryll, and my other cousin Daryll, and here's my cousin Bob. Bob's a very good learner; he can absorb just about anything. Bit of a square though.

 

[EmilyMiller]

This my cousin Daryll, and my other cousin Daryll, and here's my cousin Bob. Bob's a very good learner; he can absorb just about anything. Bit of a square though.

That made me

 

[ElectricBlue]

First of all, I don't know why you're singling me out. I didn't even start the "rare diseases" topic.

Irony, sarcasm, dodgy sense of humour. Yours was the post I saw. You're making a mountain out of a throw-away comment.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Literotica incest is unicorns, bunny rabbits and fluffy kittens, Sis gladly tumbling into bed for a loving tumble with Brother or Daddy or both of them and everybody lives happily ever after. OK, fine, everybody here acknowledges that that image is a fantasy.

There’s nothing in this study which supports that chimera. IRL incest is almost invariably a traumatic sexual assault on a minor. All that we have here is laid out very well in the first bit - a badly-done-by 13-year-old girl fleeing in the night.

Have fun with the fantasy - I have some of my own and am not judging. Just don’t let the fact that it’s more common than first thought put a real-world seal of approval in it.

 

[Bazzle]

Which is why I think in some families, the children call everyone uncle or auntie...because there is a good chance they might be.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Which is why I think in some families, the children call everyone uncle or auntie...because there is a good chance they might be.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the taboo against incest is huge. One of the reasons many people from the Stolen Generation married into the white community was because they could not be sure a fellow Aboriginal was not their kin.

Because they were separated from their family as children, true kin lineage was often lost, so to avoid the risk of unknowingly marrying kin, they married into a different community completely. That's part of the tragedy, the loss of family lineage.

Here in Australia, Auntie and Uncle is a terminology of respect for mob elders, regardless of actual family linkage.

 

[Duleigh]

Not passing judgement, just sharing an article:

Thank you for bringing this up, a non-peer reviewed initial study based on a single factor in the DNA string and Ce Ce Moore a "genetic genealogist" a title whose requirements are different with each employer, who seems to take special glee in destroying people's lives. This article read more like those trash "True Crime" TV "news" programs that cater to the easily excitable. Call me when the New England Journal of Medicine publishes their findings.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Thank you for bringing this up, a non-peer reviewed initial study based on a single factor in the DNA string and Ce Ce Moore a "genetic genealogist" a title whose requirements are different with each employer, who seems to take special glee in destroying people's lives. This article read more like those trash "True Crime" TV "news" programs that cater to the easily excitable. Call me when the New England Journal of Medicine publishes their findings.

I understand what they did and the science is robust. Their protocol or stats may not be. It’s not atypical to have studies circulated pre-publication in this type of field. And medical journals are hardly the gold standard, sad as that is to say.

Emily

 

[Kumquatqueen]

ONS figures suggest 2% of now-adults (18-74) experienced "contact sexual abuse by penetration", including attempted penetration, before the age of 16. (6% including all 'contact sexual abuse such as groping or being forced to touch someone else’s body for sexual purposes, also 3% experienced non-contact sexual abuse like being forced to watch porn (probably mostly overlapping with the 6%).

Figures from various orgs suggest about a third of CSA is by a close family member, but about 97% by someone they know, which includes boy/girlfriends, acquaintances, stepparents, other relatives.

So my only surprise at this article is the prevalence of pregnancies and births still resulting from incest - you'd think if you were raping a family member of child-bearing age that contraception, and failing that abortion access, would be a priority, but I suppose such people aren't thinking particularly straight.

 

[EmilyMiller]

ONS figures suggest 2% of now-adults (18-74) experienced "contact sexual abuse by penetration", including attempted penetration, before the age of 16. (6% including all 'contact sexual abuse such as groping or being forced to touch someone else’s body for sexual purposes, also 3% experienced non-contact sexual abuse like being forced to watch porn (probably mostly overlapping with the 6%).

Figures from various orgs suggest about a third of CSA is by a close family member, but about 97% by someone they know, which includes boy/girlfriends, acquaintances, stepparents, other relatives.

So my only surprise at this article is the prevalence of pregnancies and births still resulting from incest - you'd think if you were raping a family member of child-bearing age that contraception, and failing that abortion access, would be a priority, but I suppose such people aren't thinking particularly straight.

It’s horrific, isn’t it ?

Emily