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.
Sexual violence is a widespread social issue, and sexual victimization is especially prevalent among queer-identified women. Still, there is little research on queer women’s experiences of sexual violence or explanations for the high rate of victimization. This study uses data from 40 open-ended interviews to investigate queer women’s experiences with sexual violence and those who perpetrate it. Respondents answered questions about the characteristics of their sexual assaults and perpetrators, as well as connections the survivors perceive between their sexual assaults and sexual identities. Findings indicate that the perpetrators of such sexual assaults invoke an expression of masculinity, regardless of the perpetrator’s gender identity at the time of violence. To understand the nuanced role of masculinity in queer assailant’s assaults, we develop the concept of “righteous masculinity,” which refers to a traditional (and, in this case, violent) masculinity invoked by marginalized people in an attempt to reclaim power. We find that sexual violence against queer women is an especially powerful way to enact masculinity through drawing upon misogyny and homophobia simultaneously, providing an explanation for the high rates of sexual victimization among queer women. We argue that centering masculinity can help scholars and activists better challenge the sexual victimization of queer women and deepen understanding of the links between gender-based violence and masculinity.
Sexual harassment of graduate students is prevalent, yet little is known about their experiences reporting sexual harassment to their university. We conducted interviews with 32 graduate students who reported sexual harassment to Title IX to understand how survivors’ experiences of harassment align with report outcomes. Nearly all participants experienced severe, education-limiting consequences of the harassment and reported to ensure safety and restore educational access. Most reports were deemed unactionable and findings of responsibility were rare, demonstrating a disconnect between survivors’ experiences and Title IX outcomes. Our analysis suggests that Title IX practitioners rely on notions of “severity” rather than harassment consequences.
The U.S. Department of Education (DoE) released new Title IX regulations in May 2020, including the requirement that post-secondary institutions must conduct live hearings with direct cross-examination for sexual misconduct reports. The 2,033-page document included a summary of public comments and the DoE's discussion of those comments. We analyzed this publicly available document to answer two questions: 1) What are the primary concerns of the crossexamination requirement for victims within the Department's summary of public comments? 2) How did the Department respond to these victim concerns? We conducted a content analysis, with a specific focus on the DoE's summary of survivor-focused comments regarding crossexamination and the DoE's discussion of and changes made in response to those comments. We identified four overarching survivor-focused concerns and four categories of DoE responses. Our findings suggest that the DoE did not meaningfully address survivor-focused concerns, but instead, selectively wielded "due process" as a shield to deflect critiques and legitimize the myth that sexual misconduct allegations inherently lack "credibility." The lack of protections for victims is a significant departure from legal norms in other settings. Our findings identify the importance of legislators working with survivor-activists, practitioners, and researchers to ensure complainants receive adequate procedural protections.
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