Sexual Violence and Nonconsensual Experiences Among Alt-Sex Communities’ Members

2022 ◽  
pp. 088626052110629
Author(s):  
Susan Wright ◽  
Jessamyn Bowling ◽  
Sean McCabe ◽  
James Kevin Benson ◽  
Russell Stambaugh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Survey ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
The Us ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
National Coalition ◽  
The Moment ◽  
A Minor

Background As behaviors, alternative sexual (alt-sex) (i.e., kink, bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, and masochism , consensual non-monogamy, swinging, leather, and fetish practices) practitioners often emphasize that consent and boundaries are key elements of alt-sex activities. Despite these emphases, individuals experience consent violations and sexual assault both prior to engaging and during their involvement in alt-sex activities. Purpose This study examines alt-sex practitioners’ sexual assault and nonconsensual experiences in order to highlight potential means of intervention and prevention, as well as inform clinical and legal professionals. Methods In collaboration with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, this study uses an international survey of adults in alt-sex communities ( N = 2996) to examine sexual assault and nonconsensual experiences both within and outside of alt-sex contexts. Results We found a lower rate of consent violations in the alt-sex community (26%) compared to sexual assault as an adult outside of alt-sex contexts (34%) and sexual assault as a minor (40%). We found significant differences by groups in sexual assault as a minor (gender, sexual orientation, age, and live in the US or not), sexual assault outside of alt-sex contexts (gender, sexual orientation, and age), nonconsensual experiences in alt-sex contexts (gender, sexual orientation, age, and race), receiving nonconsensual touch in alt-sex contexts (gender, sexual orientation, and age), giving nonconsensual touch in alt-sex contexts (sexual orientation, age, living in the US or not, and race), and being falsely accused of nonconsensual touching in alt-sex contexts (gender, age, and living in the US or not). Within the most recent consent violation, the most common behaviors were non-kink related, except for lack of aftercare. Nearly 40% of participants reported the reasons for their most recent consent violation in alt-sex contexts were being selfish or caught up in the moment. Implications Focused interventions are needed to address how different populations are experiencing assault and violations in alt-sex contexts.

Sexual Victimization and Subsequent Police Reporting by Gender Identity Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Adults

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Langenderfer-Magruder ◽  
N. Eugene Walls ◽  
Shanna K. Kattari ◽  
Darren L. Whitfield ◽  
Daniel Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Sexual Victimization ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Police Reporting ◽  
And Gender

Prevalence of sexual victimization among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) persons is frequently found to be higher than the prevalence reported by their heterosexual peers. Transgender individuals are often included solely as part of larger LGBTQ research samples, potentially obfuscating differences between sexual orientation and gender identity. In this study, the authors examined sexual assault/rape in a large convenience sample of LGBTQ adults (N = 1,124) by respondents’ gender identity (cisgender, transgender) to determine whether differences exist in lifetime prevalence of sexual assault/rape and subsequent police reporting. Findings indicate transgender individuals report having experienced sexual assault/rape more than twice as frequently as cisgender LGBQ individuals. Authors found no statistically significant difference in reporting sexual violence to police. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The Role of Sexual Orientation in the Victimization and Recovery of Sexual Assault Survivors

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir ◽  
Sarah E. Ullman
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Sexual Minority ◽  
Minority Women ◽  
Bisexual Women ◽  
Sexual Minority Women ◽  
Sexual Assault Survivors ◽  
Social Reactions ◽  
Assault Survivors

Few studies examine the sexual violence victimization and recovery of nonheterosexuals. Limited available research suggests that lesbian and bisexual women are at increased risk for sexual violence and experience more recovery problems following assault than heterosexuals. We examine differences by sexual orientation in victimization, recovery, and social reactions as well as whether racial differences relate to recovery in female sexual assault survivors (N = 1,863) from the community. Bisexual women emerged as a distinct group from heterosexual women with greater recovery problems and experienced greater impact of social reactions. Black sexual minority women also had more negative outcomes than White sexual minority women. Results suggest that differences in sexual orientation and race relate to poorer recovery, especially for survivors with multiple marginalized identities.

Disclosing an Experience of Sexual Assault: Ethics and the Role of the Confidant

2021 ◽  
pp. 186-202
Author(s):  
Ann J. Cahill
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Subject Making

This chapter explores the ethical dimensions of a fraught and promising moment: the moment when a survivor of sexual assault discloses their experience to a trusted person (a confidant). I argue that this moment entails and produces multiple forms of vulnerability, and that the ways in which vulnerability is in play can remind us that vulnerability is not only the openness to harm or injury, but is a necessary condition of world-making and subject-making. The harmful or beneficial possibilities inherent in this moment of disclosure should therefore be understood not as different responses to vulnerability, but as different deployments of it. In creating better policies and practices about sexual harassment and violence, then, we must remain aware – and even protective – of the vulnerability of vulnerability. The chapter addresses not only the risks that a survivor takes in disclosing to a confidant, but also the risks and possibilities that the moment holds for the confidant. Legal or institutional encroachments upon this moment of disclosure, such as those now common in higher education in the US, undermine its potential for intersubjective meaning-making while simultaneously rendering survivors even more vulnerable to invasive bureaucratic procedures that rarely result in justice.

The Right to Bodily Integrity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Brysk
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Global Pattern ◽  
Popular Resistance ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Right

In Chapter 7, we profile the global pattern of sexual violence. We will consider conflict rape and transitional justice response in Peru and Colombia, along with the plight of women displaced by conflict from Syria and Central America, and limited international policy response. State-sponsored sexual violence and popular resistance to reclaim public space will be chronicled in Egypt as well as Mexico. We will track intensifying public sexual assault amid social crisis in Turkey, South Africa, and India, which has been met by a wide range of public protest, legal reform, and policy change. For a contrasting experience of the privatization of sexual assault in developed democracies, we will trace campus, workplace, and military rape in the United States.

Mandatory Reporting and Adolescent Sexual Assault

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802110302
Author(s):  
Caroline Bailey ◽  
Jessica Shaw ◽  
Abril Harris
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mandatory Reporting ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
The Impact

Adolescents experience alarmingly high rates of sexual violence, higher than any other age-group. This is concerning as sexual violence can have detrimental effects on teens’ personal and relational well-being, causing long-term consequences for the survivor. Still, adolescents are hesitant to report the assault or seek out services and resources. When an adolescent survivor does seek out services, they may interact with a provider who is a mandatory reporter. This scoping review sought to synthesize the current U.S.-based research on the role, challenges, and impact of mandatory reporting (MR) in the context of adolescent sexual assault. Database searches using key words related to MR, sexual assault, and adolescence identified 29 peer-reviewed articles. However, none of these articles reported on empirical investigations of the phenomenon of interest and instead consisted of case studies, commentaries, and position papers. The scoping review was expanded to provide a lay of the land of what we know about the intersection of adolescent sexual assault and MR. Results of the review indicate that though implemented broadly, MR policies vary between individuals, organizations, and states and have historically been challenging to implement due to this variation, conflicts with other laws, tension between these policies and providers’ values, and other factors. Based on the available literature, the impact of MR in the context of adolescent sexual assault is unknown. There is a critical need for research and evaluation on the implementation and impact of MR policies, especially in the context of adolescents and sexual violence.

scholarly journals [De]-Centering the Victim: Police Perceptions of Victims of Sexual Violence through a Comparative Lens of Evidence Collection and Processing

2021 ◽  
pp. 155708512110319
Author(s):  
Deborah White ◽  
Lesley McMillan
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Evidence Collection ◽  
Police Perceptions

Police are central to the statutory response to sexual violence, shaping the direction an investigation may take. Evidence provided by victims is also key to the processing of sexual assault cases. From a 2013 comparative qualitative study involving interviews with police officers in one province in Canada ( n = 11) and one region in Scotland ( n = 10) who investigate such cases, we discovered striking unanticipated differences between the two groups in terms of how they perceived victims and the evidence they provide. This paper presents a thematic analysis of these data and considers possible implications and explanations.

The U.S. Marine Corps’ Response to Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: An Analysis of the Family Advocacy Program and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program

2020 ◽  
pp. 0095327X2097439
Author(s):  
Stephanie Bonnes ◽  
Jeffrey H. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Marine Corps ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Sexual Assault Prevention ◽  
Family Advocacy ◽  
Advocacy Program ◽  
Assault Prevention ◽  
The U.S

In this article, we show how the U.S. military treats domestic violence and sexual assault as distinct forms of abuse, which has particular consequences for victims of intimate partner sexual violence. We explore how a specific U.S. military branch, the Marine Corps, complicates these issues further by providing services to intimate partner sexual violence victims from two different programs. Analyzing military orders and documents related to Family Advocacy Program and Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, interviews with eight military prosecutors, and the experiences of one military lawyer, we examine program and interactional-level factors that shape victim services, advocacy, and processes. We find that there are program differences in specialized services, coordinated services, and potential breaches of confidentiality related to victim’s cases. We recommend that the Marine Corps recognize the intersections of sexual violence and domestic violence and offer more tailored services to victims of intimate partner sexual violence.

Capturing sexual assault data: An information system designed by forensic clinicians and healthcare researchers

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Aqif Mukhtar ◽  
Debbie A Smith ◽  
Maureen A Phillips ◽  
Maire C Kelly ◽  
Renate R Zilkens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Data Management ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Management System ◽  
Data Management System ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Data

Background: The Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC) in Perth, Western Australia provides free 24-hour medical, forensic, and counseling services to persons aged over 13 years following sexual assault. Objective: The aim of this research was to design a data management system that maintains accurate quality information on all sexual assault cases referred to SARC, facilitating audit and peer-reviewed research. Methods: The work to develop SARC Medical Services Clinical Information System (SARC-MSCIS) took place during 2007–2009 as a collaboration between SARC and Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. Patient demographics, assault details, including injury documentation, and counseling sessions were identified as core data sections. A user authentication system was set up for data security. Data quality checks were incorporated to ensure high-quality data. Results: An SARC-MSCIS was developed containing three core data sections having 427 data elements to capture patient’s data. Development of the SARC-MSCIS has resulted in comprehensive capacity to support sexual assault research. Four additional projects are underway to explore both the public health and criminal justice considerations in responding to sexual violence. The data showed that 1,933 sexual assault episodes had occurred among 1881 patients between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2015. Sexual assault patients knew the assailant as a friend, carer, acquaintance, relative, partner, or ex-partner in 70% of cases, with 16% assailants being a stranger to the patient. Conclusion: This project has resulted in the development of a high-quality data management system to maintain information for medical and forensic services offered by SARC. This system has also proven to be a reliable resource enabling research in the area of sexual violence.

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