Competing meanings of childhood and the social construction of child sexual abuse in the Caribbean

This article examines the dynamic interplay between competing meanings of childhood and the social construction of sexual abuse in the Caribbean. Drawing on qualitative data from a study undertaken in six Caribbean countries, the article suggests that Caribbean childhoods are neither wholly global nor local but hybrid creations of the region’s complex historical, social and cultural specificities, real or imagined. As childhood is a concept that lies at the intersection of multiple frames of reference, context-specific definitions of childhood – what it means to be a child – have a direct impact on the way in which the issue of child sexual abuse is constructed and understood.