Sexual Harassment and Assault During Field Research

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Stacey L. Hunt

ABSTRACT Political scientists have recently taken great strides to expose and address sexual harassment and assault in our academic departments and professional conferences. Little has been said, however, of the sexual violence and discrimination that political scientists confront during field research. Female field researchers may encounter a number of power disparities that put them at acute risk for sexual violence during fieldwork, and evidence suggests that experiences of sexual misconduct in the field are both pervasive and professionally devastating. This article challenges the discipline to break its silence on sexual violence during fieldwork, remove the stigma of incompetency assigned to survivors, and support field researchers in confronting sexual harassment and assault in the field.

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-80
Author(s):  
Sarah Banet-Weiser

When the hashtag #metoo began to circulate in digital and social media, it challenged a familiar interpretation of those who are raped or sexually harassed as victims, positioning women as embodied agents. Yet, almost exactly a year after the #metoo movement shot to visible prominence, a different, though eerily similar, story began to circulate on the same multi-media platforms as #metoo: a story about white male victimhood. Powerful men in positions of privilege (almost always white) began to take up the mantle of victimhood as their own, often claiming to be victims of false accusations of sexual harassment and assault by women. Through the analysis of five public statements by highly visible, powerful men who have been accused of sexual violence, I argue that the discourse of victimhood is appropriated not by those who have historically suffered but by those in positions of patriarchal power. Almost all of the statements contain some sentiment about how the accusation (occasionally acknowledging the actual violence) ‘ruined their life’, and all of the statements analyzed here center the author, the accused white man, as the key subject in peril and the authors position themselves as truth-tellers about the incidents. These statements underscore certain shifts in the public perception of sexual violence; the very success of the #metoo movement in shifting the narrative has meant that men have had to defend themselves more explicitly in public. In order to wrestle back a hegemonic gender stability, these men take on the mantle of victimhood themselves.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052098038
Author(s):  
Melissa S. de Roos ◽  
Daniel N. Jones

The rise of the #MeToo movement highlights the prevalence of sexual victimization and gives a voice to victims who may have been silent before. Nevertheless, survivors or victims of sexual violence who come forward may be blamed or not believed. These reactions are evident both with adult and child victims. Further, fears about false accusations of sexual misconduct may negatively impact responses to disclosures. This study aimed to examine gender differences in perceptions toward the #MeToo movement, and the extent to which these translate into a skeptical response to disclosure. Further, we wanted to explore whether proximity to false allegations of sexual violence was linked with more negative responses and whether use of self-affirmations may decrease the likelihood of such a response. Through an online survey ( N = 235) on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, we assessed participants’ exposure to and perceptions of the #MeToo movement. Further, we asked them about their proximity to sexual violence (victimization or perpetration) and to false allegations. Using a threat manipulation (news article about false accusation) and a self-affirmation exercise, we studied the effects of both variables on responses to disclosure. Results indicated that after reading an article about a false accusation, male participants were more likely to blame a victim of childhood sexual abuse and to perceive the abuse as less harmful, compared with female participants. Further, we found that self-affirmation was linked with more supportive responses to a disclosure. These findings highlight the threatening nature of false accusations of sexual violence for men, and how this threat may shape the narrative regarding sexual violence. Opportunities to use self-affirmation to change this narrative to a more supportive one are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155708512110626
Author(s):  
Shauntey James ◽  
Melanie D. Hetzel-Riggin

Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) have used restorative justice (RJ) to address sexual misconduct on college campuses under Title IX. In 2020, Title IX guidance was codified. The application of RJ under the new policy may create procedural and distributive justice issues. This article (1) defines the new policy; (2) explores suitability of RJ to sexual misconduct and specifically yellow zone behavior under the new policy; (3) discusses justice for the various stakeholders under the guise of advantages and disadvantages; and (4) makes recommendations to strengthen the choice of either implementing or not implementing restorative justice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-59
Author(s):  
Rika Dewi Auliani Usman ◽  
Nurul Husna

Abstract. Sexual crimes occur not only in urban areas but also in villages. This crime has a big impact especially the majority of victims are children. LRSAMPK Darussa’adah is an institution whose role is to provide services for victims. The purpose of this study was to determine the types of cases of child sexual violence, the strategies carried out by the assistants in terminating and barriers, challenges and support in terminating. This is a field research with a qualitative approach. Data collection techniques are observation, interviews and documentation, then the research results are analyzed descriptively. The results showed that the types of child sexual abuse cases handled by LRSAMPK Darussa’adah were rape, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, neglect of the baby, sexual abuse and abduction for sexual purposes. The accompanying strategy in terminating child sexual abuse cases is to convince the victims’ families and communities by involving referrals, “geuchik”, social workers and related agencies. The challenges of Darussa’adah social workers are when client stakeholders are difficult to ask for information about victims and there are some people who refuse and some accept victims. The support received by Darussa’adah social workers is when the referrals are willing to work together to find ways to facilitate the termination of victims, and also families and there are still people who are willing to accept among the majority of people who refuse victims returning,  Abstrak. Kejahatan seksual marak terjadi tidak hanya di perkotaan tetapi meluas ke perkampungan. Kejahatan ini berdampak besar khususnya sebagian besar korbannya adalah anak-anak. LRSAMPK Darussa’adah merupakan lembaga yang berperan memberi pelayanan bagi korban. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengetahui jenis kasus kekerasan seksual anak, strategi yang dilakukan oleh pendamping dalam melakukan terminasi dan hambatan, tantangan maupun dukungan dalam melakukan terminasi. Ini adalah penelitian lapangan (field research) dengan pendekatan kualitatif. Teknik pengumpulan data adalah observasi, wawancara dan dokumentasi, selanjutnya hasil penelitian dianalisis secara deskriptif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa jenis kasus kekerasan seksual anak yang ditangani LRSAMPK Darussa’adah adalah perkosaan, pelecehan seksual, eksploitasi seksual, penelantaran bayi, pencabulan perdagangan dan penculikan untuk tujuan seksual.  Strategi pendamping dalam melakukan terminasi pada kasus kekerasan seksual anak adalah dengan meyakinkan keluarga korban maupun masyarakat dengan melibatkan perujuk, geuchik, pekerja sosial dan dinas terkait. Hambatan dan tantangan pekerja sosial Darussa’adah adalah ketika stakeholder klien sulit dimintai keterangan mengenai korban dan ada sebagian masyarakat yang menolak dan sebagian menerima korban. Adapun dukungan yang diterima pekerja sosial Darussa’adah adalah ketika perujuk bersedia kerjasama mencari cara agar mempermudah terminasi korban, dan juga keluarga serta masih ada masyarakat yang mau menerima di tengah-tengah sebagian besar masyarakat yang menolak korban kembali.  


2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vickie Langohr

The most famous demand raised by protesters in the “Arab Spring” was “al-shaʿb/yurīd/isqāṭ al-niẓām” (the people/want /the fall of the regime). Three years later, little progress has been made—outside of Tunisia—in permanently replacing authoritarian regimes with the formal institutions of democracy. However, new forms of activism have emerged that increase citizens’ ability to directly combat pervasive social problems and to successfully pressure official institutions to alter policies. The evolution of activism against public sexual violence in post-Mubarak Egypt is a concrete example. Sexual harassment of women on the streets and in public transportation, widespread before the 25 January uprising, has likely since increased.1 Many women have been subjected to vicious sexual assault at political protests over the last three years. But activism against these threats has also expanded in ways unimaginable during the Mubarak era. Groups of male and female activists in their twenties and early thirties exhort bystanders on the streets to intervene when they witness harassment, and intervene themselves. Satellite TV programs have extensively covered public sexual violence, directly challenging officials for their failure to combat it while featuring the work of antiharassment and antiassault groups in a positive light. These new practices facilitated two concrete changes in the summer of 2014: amendments to the penal code on sexual harassment, and Cairo University's adoption of an antiharassment policy which was developed by feminist activists.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155708512110625
Author(s):  
L. B. Klein ◽  
Marie C. D. Stoner ◽  
Nivedita L. Bhushan ◽  
Grace E. Mulholland ◽  
Bonnie S. Fisher ◽  
...  

Attention to sexual misconduct has focused on acquaintance rape, leaving a need for research on less highly recognizable forms of harm. We estimated institution of higher education (IHE)-specific prevalence of yellow zone sexual harassment (SH) among students at 27 IHEs. We then examined SH and perceived risk of sexual assault/misconduct, knowledge regarding policies/resources, and perceptions of sexual misconduct response. Between 37.1% and 55.7% of students experienced SH. Harassed students were much more likely than non-harassed students to feel at risk for sexual misconduct and to have negative views of sexual misconduct response. Implications for research, policy, and prevention/response are discussed.


Screw Consent ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 94-116
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Fischel

This chapter surveys several cases of transgender men or butch women being convicted of sexual misconduct for deceiving their partners as to their assigned sex at birth. The conviction and categorization of this sexual conduct as sexual offense is troubling and wrong. These transgender “rapists” are not rapists, the sex is not sexual violence, and consent is not necessarily polluted by the undisclosed absence of a penis, the fact upon which most such cases and convictions rely. At the same time, these cases dramatize a central problem of consent’s scope: what do we consent to when we consent to sex? In this chapter, I propose that the deliberate contravention of an explicit conditional to sex should be a legal wrong and that such a narrowly tailored solution to the problem of sex-by-deception best protects sexual and gender minority defendants from phobic juries and judges while also facilitating sexual autonomy.


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