A body of professional literature developed over the last 25 years links incest to various family characteristics. This link does not have strong empirical support. Virtually all the literature describes small samples of sexual abuse cases, and most are clinical descriptions unaided by measurement or control procedures. No major effort has been mounted to determine to how many cases a specific observation applies. The literature has also assumed a priori that intrafamilial child sexual abuse is fundamentally different from extrafamilial child sexual abuse, even though there is preliminary evidence that incestuous and nonincestuous child molesters have many common characteristics. The family perspective applied to child sexual abuse is only at the stage of describing variables which characterize families in which sexual abuse has occurred. The next and more important step is to identify the processes which account for the development of sexual abuse. A focus on the family system of sexual abuse. A focus on the family system dynamics as the primary problem often ignores primary sexual dysfunction in the offender which resists efforts to change behavior by modifying family dynamics. The family focus may also facilitate 'scapegoating' by the offender and divert the treatment focus from the trauma the abuse has produced in the victim. 39 references.