Responding to Sexual Victimization
• Compare how society and the criminal justice system have responded historically to sexual assault victims and how that response is changing today.
Victims and Society
According to Powell (2016), a number of layers within society place barriers in front of victims. Using a public health model to discuss them, she outlines the following barriers:
• Societal-level support: legal structures, popular representations, and persistent gender inequalities allow the differential valuing of people within society, especially by gender and sexual orientation, which impacts victim blaming and access to help.
• Institutional and organizational support: barriers to reporting sexual violence both in the formal justice processes and in organizations (i.e., workplaces, schools, etc.) may not take victim reports seriously, and/or minimizes the responsibility of perpetrators.
• Relationship and peer-level support: socialization within family and friends normalizes or minimizes sexual aggression.
• Individual-level support: individually held attitudes and beliefs minimize sexual violence, blame victims, and excuse perpetrators.
In many societies, there is a culture of patriarchy, which is the dominance of men and the preference of masculine-defined traits over females and feminine-defined traits. What is deemed by a society as masculine and feminine is culturally and temporally specific. Patriarchal societies value characteristics deemed as masculine, such as physical strength, dominance, aggression, and winning, and see characteristics such as compassion and being nurturing, as being weak and inferior. Sexual violence has long been used as a tool to ensure subordination of “weak” individuals (Bell & Naugle, 2008). Dianne Herman (1988) suggested that sexual aggression is not just common, but is often normalized in cultural expectations and sexual practices, coining the term rape culture (Powell, 2016). As Powell (2016) pointed out, rape culture helps identify the sociocultural basis—and thus the shared social (rather than individual) responsibility—for sexual violence. Powell (2016) further points out that the dominance of a “nonconsent” culture limits the right of subordinated individuals to make sexual decisions.
Although there are changes in the United States around gender, sexuality, race, and class, a strong entrenchment of patriarchal views still exist. These patriarchal views attempt to normalize sexual violence. Patriarchal biases can be seen in the workplace, schools, media, and politics. One of the biggest reactions to patriarchal biases is the #MeToo movement. In raising awareness of sexual violence victimization, many women realized that they had experienced harassment, but they had not thought it was wrong because sexual aggression (and ensuing subordination) was common. This is one example that demonstrates the continued entrenchment of cultural norms around sexual violence.
As part of the growing awareness of rape culture and victim blame, demonstrations and advocacy groups, such as the SlutWalk, Take Back the Night, V-Day and other works done by Eve Ensler, have called into question the narratives around accusing women of wanting to be raped, which is an important part of rape culture. Image: SlutWalk London 2011. Authored by: