Beyond Trigger Warnings: A Survivor-Centered Approach to Teaching on Sexual Violence and Avoiding Institutional Betrayal

2021 ◽  
pp. 0092055X2110224
Author(s):  
Nicole Bedera
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Victim Blaming ◽  
Student Education ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Trigger Warnings

As sociology instructors increasingly include materials on sexual violence in their courses, both instructors and students express anxieties over how best to handle such sensitive conversations. This article critically examines the conventional advice to offer a trigger warning, which can interfere with student education (e.g., requiring survivors to miss out on a lesson) and does not adequately prepare instructors for the difficulties that may arise during discussions of sexual violence (e.g., managing victim-blaming comments). Using institutional betrayal as an alternative frame, this article builds a trauma-informed and survivor-centered pedagogy that offers specific examples and strategies of how to teach to survivors instead of around them.

scholarly journals Sexual Violence and Victim Blaming in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
Emmanuel E. Nwusulor ◽  
◽  
Ifeoma I. Onwubiko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
African Country ◽  
Victim Blaming ◽  
Health Consequences ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Major Factors

Aims and Objectives To determine the trend and pattern of sexual violence and victim blaming in Nigeria, which is associated with a range of health consequences, to publish the trend and proffer solutions on how to stem the tide. Methods Questionnaires were administered to individuals physically by hand as well as electronically via online social media groups. Results In this study carried out between July 2019 and August 2020, the opinion of 251 respondents comprising 153 males (61%) and 98 females (39%) between ages 23 and 60 years, were sought concerning who to blame in a sexual violence event: 150 (60%) comprising 120 males (45%) and 30 females (15%) blamed the victim: 80 (31%) comprising 26 males (10%) and 54 females (21%) blamed the perpetrators, while 21 (9%) comprising 7 males (3%) and 14 females (6%) were indifferent. Conclusion Victim blaming is prevalent in Nigeria and this has been one of the major factors that make sexual violence the fastest growing crime in this most populated Sub-Saharan African Country.

scholarly journals Freud’s Oedipus Complex in the #MeToo Era: A Discussion of the Validity of Psychoanalysis in Light of Contemporary Research

Philosophies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Renée Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Opposite Sex

The Oedipus complex is a child development construct developed by Sigmond Freud that asserts that all children experience sexual desire towards their opposite sex parent, and failure to accept this “truth” can lead to mental health issues. Freud also asserted that children are not harmed by acts of sexual violence. In contrast, the #MeToo movement is a global incentive aimed at creating an awareness of the harm that sexual violence can cause. In many regards, #MeToo is a reaction against a systemic failure to prevent sexual violence from occurring in the first place. By contrasting Freudian ideas with #MeToo, I argue that the enduring popularity of Freud and his psychoanalytic ideas is a negative influence on culture. In the light of contemporary research from cognitive psychology, psychosocial considerations, child development, and trauma-informed practices, Freudian ideas can be proven to be fallible. Moreover, dispelling misleading assumptions about sexual desires is a beneficial endeavour towards reducing the likelihood of future sexual violence. Additionally, I explore Freudian interpretations of mythology and propose that he misappropriated ancient belief systems.

scholarly journals Amusing Abusers and Humourless Survivors: Analysing the Role of Comedy in Media Representations of Sexual Violence

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-373
Author(s):  
Bethany Rose Lamont
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Date Rape ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Child Safety ◽  
American University ◽  
Interpersonal Abuse ◽  
Family Guy ◽  
Trigger Warnings

This article reflects on the importance of comedy when considering media engagements with sexual abuse themes. This approach is informed by how closely the study of humour is rooted in the analysis of power relations, with comic theorists, both historical and contemporary, grounding the work.The comic figures of both the child sex (CS) abuser and the sexual violence survivor are first identified, before exploring what exactly about these tropes evoke laughter, and what this means for wider conceptions of interpersonal abuse and victimology. In analysing examples of CS abuser themed British and American comedy, animated adult comedies such as Family Guy (1999-present) and Monkey Dust (2003-2005) are considered in the context of early 2000s anxieties towards the suburban dirty old man and online child safety. In the case of the sexual violence survivor, Saturday Night Live’s 1993 ‘Is It Date Rape?’ sketch is considered within the context of 1990s anxieties regarding feminist campus politics, and is paralleled to the mid-2010s media panic surrounding British and American university students and trigger warnings through examples including The Simpson’s 2017 ‘Caper Chase’ episode and early to mid-2010s online academic polemics on the humourless feminist, such as Mark Fisher’s ‘Exiting The Vampire Castle’ (2013) and Jack Halberstam’s ‘You are Triggering Me!’ (2014). The article concludes by considering the changing consensuses for sexual violence themed humour in the Me Too era through the 2018 episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-present) ‘Times Up For The Gang.’

Assessing the Victimizaton-Offending Hypothesis of Sexual and Non-Sexual Violence in a Nationally Representative Sample of Incarcerated Men in the United States: Implications for Trauma-Informed Practice in Correctional Settings

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110501
Author(s):  
Phillip Marotta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sexual Offenses ◽  
Adverse Childhood ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Violent Offenses

Rates of exposure to sexual and non-sexual physical violence and other adverse childhood events are greater among people who are incarcerated with convictions for offenses related to sexual and non-sexual violence compared to other incarcerated populations and the general community. Few studies have differentiated which types of prior adverse experiences are greatest predictors of sexual and non-sexual violent offenses. The following study investigated associations between experiencing sexual abuse as a child or adult; experiencing non-sexual physical violence during childhood, adulthood, or both; having a caretaker who uses drugs; being in foster care; growing up in socioeconomically marginalized conditions; and the likelihood of reporting a prior physical or sexual conviction. The sample consisted of 13,604 men incarcerated in state and federal prisons in the United States. Multinomial regression models compared convictions for sexual offenses and non-sexual violent offenses to all other crimes. A model also compared sexual offenses to non-sexual violent offenses to differentiate between types of adverse childhood experiences associated with sexual versus non-sexual violent offending. Models adjusted for race/ethnicity, education, and age. Results suggest that exposure to violence during childhood was significantly and violence during adulthood was insignificantly associated with increased risk of conviction for a non-sexual physical offense. Sexual violence victimization as a child only was associated with increased risk of conviction for sexual violence perpetration during adulthood. Foster care involvement was associated with increased risk of being convicted for a non-sexual violent offense. Findings suggest that different traumatic pathways may differentiate types of aggression in adulthood. Future research must evaluate if trauma-informed approaches should be catered to address the unique effects of sexual and non-sexual victimization and the perpetration of different types of aggression in adulthood.

Are Survivors of Sexual Assault Blamed More Than Victims of Other Crimes?

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110374
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Reich ◽  
Grace A. Pegel ◽  
Alixandra B. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Causal Attribution ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
Physical Assault ◽  
Victim Blaming ◽  
Sexual Assault Survivors ◽  
Social Reactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Trauma Informed

Although victim blaming in the context of sexual assault is often emphasized, little research has compared rates of victim blaming following sexual assault relative to other forms of victimization. This research investigated whether there is a crime-specific bias toward blaming victims of sexual assault. Victim blaming was assessed via different methods from the observer perspective in vignette-based studies, as well as survivors’ accounts of social reactions they received. In Study 1, participants were asked to rate how much the survivor was to blame in three vignettes, each with a different randomized crime outcome: rape, physical assault, or theft. Study 2 assessed blame for a vignette that either ended in rape or theft, via a causal attribution statement. Study 3 asked interpersonal trauma survivors who had experienced at least two forms of victimization (i.e., sexual assault, physical assault, or theft) to report the social reactions they received following disclosure of each of these crimes. Across all three studies, victim blaming occurred following multiple forms of victimization and there was no evidence of a particular bias toward blaming survivors of sexual assault more so than other crimes. However, results of Study 3 highlight that, following sexual assault, survivors receive more silencing and stigmatizing reactions than they experienced after other crimes. Interpersonal traumas (i.e., sexual or physical assault) also resulted in more egocentric responses compared to theft. Altogether, there does not appear to be a crime-specific bias for victim blaming; however, crime-specific bias is apparent for some other, potentially understudied, social reactions. Implications of these findings highlight the value of victim blaming education and prevention efforts through trauma-informed services and outreach following victimization. Furthermore, service providers and advocates might especially seek to recognize and prevent silencing and stigmatizing reactions following sexual assault disclosures.

Butterfly, Emerging

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Melissa Lucchesi
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Expressive Arts ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
First Person ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Complicating Factors ◽  
Healing Arts ◽  
Person Experience ◽  
First Person Experience

The prevalence of traumas such as sexual violence is difficult to measure. However, it is fairly widely accepted that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 33 men will be a victim of sexual violence in her or his lifetime. Because of complicating factors to this type of trauma, survivors may not readily identify themselves as that. Healing arts and yoga help survivors to process traumatic energy and thoughts without having to delve into those dark and painful caverns. This chapter shares first person experience of sexual violence and navigating healing, as well as professional experience with other survivors, to illustrate the importance of trauma-informed healing and expressive arts when healing from trauma.

Talking (or Not) About Sexual Violence: Newspaper Coverage of the Confirmation Hearings of Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052090617
Author(s):  
Millan A. AbiNader ◽  
Margaret M. C. Thomas ◽  
Kelsi Carolan
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Victim Blaming ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Qualitative Thematic Analysis ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
Confirmation Hearings

The ways in which sexual violence is portrayed in the media contribute to communities’ understanding of violence and can influence survivor outcomes. The parallel cases of the confirmation hearings of Justices Kavanaugh and Thomas provide an opportunity to measure if and how the cultural zeitgeist has shifted around issues of sexual violence. This study sought to answer two questions: (a) When a supreme court nominee is accused of sexual violence, have the ways the mainstream media discussed the violence in newspaper headlines changed between 1991 and 2018? To what extent and how? (b) Have the ways the mainstream media characterizes the nominee and the accuser within and between 1991 and 2018 changed? How? Headlines were collected systematically from eight major U.S. newspapers, resulting in a data set of 373 headlines from 1991 and 249 from 2018. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to examine the characterizations of the accuser, nominee, and violence. Supplemental chi-square analyses were used to compare how violence was categorized in the two years. While less victim-blaming and minimization of sexual violence occurred in the 2018 headlines, newspapers continued to avoid naming the sexual violence. The characterizations of the nominee, accuser, and violence became depersonalized in 2018, focusing on politics rather than the people and issues at hand, likely reflecting a highly politicized American public. Despite the heightened attention to sexual violence that current movements have sparked, our analysis of comparable cases in 1991 and 2018 suggests newspaper headlines continued to avoid naming sexual violence as violence in 2018 as in 1991, and furthermore, contemporary language about sexual violence and its survivors and perpetrators has not changed to reflect an increased response to survivor healing and perpetrator change. Rather, shifts in language suggest survivors and perpetrators may be politicized as tools for parties and politicians to debate larger issues or stake political positions.

An Integrated, Trauma-Informed Care Model for Female Survivors of Sexual Violence

2019 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Ades ◽  
Stephanie X. Wu ◽  
Emily Rabinowitz ◽  
Sonya Chemouni Bach ◽  
Brian Goddard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Care Model ◽  
Female Survivors ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Trauma Informed
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