Filling in the (gendered) gaps: How observers frame claims of sexual assault

Claims of sexual assault are especially prone to scrutiny and (re)interpretation as something else. We investigated how people judged the veracity of sexual assault claims and how they subsequently framed their interpretations of these claims using ‘general knowledge’ in the form of sexual scripts, rape myths, and gender stereotypes. Participants ( n = 161) read about a sexual assault allegation by a male or female claimant and were asked to describe in more detail what they thought had happened. Data were analyzed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative frame analysis. A key finding was that although participants mostly accepted the facts of the claim, this did not automatically imply they shared the claimant’s interpretation of the event as (serious) sexual assault. The analysis revealed that participants drew upon distinct frames to interpret the claim, including frames – such as regretted consensual sex and miscommunication – that exonerated the accused and emphasized claimant responsibility. Frames were differentially employed in response to male and female claims of sexual assault. We discuss how our research design and findings can contribute to an increased understanding of the underlying mechanisms of victim acknowledgment.

Bosnian voices from the bottom of the well: Genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and victims’ right to remedies

Human rights advocates call for reparation as an important step to acknowledge and repair historical injustice and mass harms. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims of war continue to seek monetary reparation for non-pecuniary damages caused by genocide: murder, injury to human body and dignity, and harms inflicted upon a close family member. They seek legal remedies using national, foreign, and international human rights judicial venues. Drawing from qualitative, ethnographic research data and archival documents, the article examines legal claims and public discourse regarding reparation and makes a case for a reconceptualization of reparation by including victim voices. The article concludes that despite being absent from the post-conflict victims’ reparation programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, monetary reparation has assumed a social valuation attribute. On the one hand, it is a victim’s call for retributive, legal conceptions of justice – that someone who escaped international and national criminal justice programs pays. On the other hand, it is a tool to draw attention to Bosnian victims’ present civil and political exclusions that came with the international post-conflict peace treaty. While the post-war reconstruction focused on international trials, democratization, restorative justice, and state building programs, it also restricted socio-economic and cultural rights by redefining the citizenship and dismantling the welfare state. Reparation is a debt owed to victims.

Compensatory justice to the victim of a crime and judicial practices in India: An empirical study

The Constitution of India guarantees that justice shall be delivered to all. The duty to ensure that justice delivery is accessible to all is entrusted to state bodies. The legislature is expected to ensure that the legal framework is there, the executive is expected to ensure that all infrastructural needs of the justice delivery system are in place, and the judiciary is expected to ensure that justice is delivered in their area. This paper deals with the issue of delivery of victim justice, with a special focus on compensatory mechanisms laid down under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973. The Code empowers the courts to award compensation to the victim of a crime to ensure his/her rehabilitation. In light of the observations made by the Supreme Court of India that the trial court judges do not exercise their discretionary power under the relevant statutory provisions to award compensation to the victims of a crime, this paper explores the extent of such failure and the reasons behind it.

Victimology and judicialized public policies. A study on complex victims of the Colombian armed conflict

This article identifies victimological typologies typical of the Colombian internal armed conflict, which denote the double condition of victim–victims or vice versa victims–victimized. These have been classed throughout this research as ‘complex victims’, whose historical existence was unveiled from precursor victimology, which is used in the final part of the text to demonstrate that the exclusion of these victims from public policies of attention, assistance and reparation ignores the scientific contributions of victimology and the real asymmetry that occurred in the Colombian conflict. Finally, it is pointed out how these policies do not prevent victimization or contribute to guaranteeing measures of non-repetition, but, on the contrary, motivate the polarization of the armed actors into irreconcilable sides.

Critical hate studies: A new perspective

This paper sets out a critical perspective that cohesively explains why hate happens in late modernity and its impact on the lived experience of victims. The paper challenges existing theoretical accounts of hate by presenting a psycho-social approach to subjectivity that acknowledges the impact of neoliberal capitalism on the lived experience. By doing so, the paper is able to account for the extremities of hate in society and its apparent normalcy. In conclusion, the paper argues that an interrogation of the extent of the harms of hate should be framed within a positive discourse wherein the human need to flourish, rather than survive, is recognised.

Drizzling sympathy: Ideal victims and flows of sympathy in Swedish courts

By connecting sociological perspectives on sympathy with the concept of ‘ideal victims’, this article examines how sympathy forms and informs legal thought and practices in relation to victim status in Swedish courts. In its broadest sense, sympathy can be understood as an understanding and care for someone else’s suffering and in many contexts victimization and sympathy are densely entangled. However, since ideals of objectivity and neutrality prevail in court, emotional norms are narrow and sympathy is met with suspicion. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Swedish courts, I argue that while sympathetic feelings are mostly backgrounded, they are still a central part of court proceedings and deliberations. The main findings suggest that prosecutors and victims’ counsel use ‘sympathy cues’ to evoke the judges’ concern for the complainants and to facilitate their empathic imagination of the complainant’s situation. In relation to this finding, judges engage in emotion work in order to not be affected by these sympathy cues. The study also shows that in encounters with ‘ideal victims’ who perform a playful resistance to their victimization, legal actors show sympathy more freely and accept moments of temporary relief from the normal interaction order in court.

The debt trap, a shadow pandemic for commercial sex workers: Vulnerability, impact, and action

This research paper is a stringent analysis of the condition of commercial sex workers in India and what is happening to them in this pandemic-stricken time. The study details their economic condition and what is forcing them to borrow money from treacherous lenders despite knowing the risks behind it. Apart from being exploited financially, they are also becoming vulnerable for sexual, emotional, and physical exploitation, worsening their situation even further. The research findings show that 90% of commercial sex workers in red light areas will be forced into a debt trap that is non-repayable in their lifetime, making it a massive movement of commercial sex workers entering into bonded labour, another form of modern-day slavery. Apart from the financial peril, poverty is forcing them to be in a situation of major health hazard. Being deprived of customers for so long, they might be forced to work in this uncertain situation making it an optimum ground for a super-spread of the virus. A rapid assessment method has been used to collect the data from numerous commercial sex workers across the nation. The collected data are analysed using qualitative analysis and also visualized for better understanding. As a means to provide tangible alternative solutions to the problem, the study strongly recommends occupational training programs for commercial sex workers that provide a transition into alternative livelihoods, government action against predatory high-interest loans, and the redevelopment of red light areas where economic returns can be reinvested into commercial sex worker retraining programs.

Violent victimisation in Lagos metropolis: An empirical investigation of community and personal predictors

Violence or its threats have been a part of many African cities since the end of the Cold War, when many African countries transited from military to civilian rule. While the incidence of organised crime and violent victimisation of innocent citizens is not new to many West African cities, the emergence of terrorist organisations, armed bandits, kidnappers and armed gangs in a city like Lagos has created new security challenges. The challenges include the inability of government to cope with the rising number of young people in organised cult clashes and the threats to peace and stability in Lagos metropolis. This study is designed to investigate the influence of socio-demographic (senatorial district, gender, age, ethnic group, marital status, education, employment, duration of residency and type of apartment) and community factors (presence of nightclubs/hotels, use of private security and frequency of police patrol) on residents’ experience of crime victimisation, robbery and organised crime. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and a quantitative method of data collection. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 300 respondents across three senatorial districts of Lagos State. The study found that factors such as location, type of apartment, nightclubbing, duration of residence, employment status and use of private security predicted at least one of the three dependent variables. The implications of the findings are discussed.