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This study sought to characterize online disclosure of, and reactions to, sexual violence victimization via the Twitter hashtag #ChurchToo, which emerged following the hashtag #MeToo as a call for disclosure of victimization within religious contexts. Thematic content analysis of 1,017 original content, English-language tweets containing the hashtag was conducted. Twitter users who chose to disclose personal experiences of violence often shared specific details about their abuse and described institutional harm they experienced. Institutional harm included negative responses from their religious communities (e.g., minimizing, denying, blaming, and silencing). Among tweets categorized as responses to disclosure, subthemes included both positive (e.g., raising awareness, emotional support) and negative (e.g., distracting and egocentric) reactions. The commentary on Twitter reflected a concerted desire to establish accountability for perpetrators of interpersonal violence within religious communities. These data highlight the importance of providing education to religious communities on how to best support and respond to individuals who experience victimization perpetrated by religious leaders or another member of the religious community.

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The experience of sexual victimization may lead to increased threat-biased information processing, including increased perceptions of peer attitudes that condone sexual violence. The perception that peers generally condone sexual violence may in turn inhibit survivors of sexual violence from intervening to address risk for harm among their peers. To assess this possibility, the present study examined the direct and indirect association between sexual victimization by a romantic partner, perceived peer rape myth acceptance (RMA), perceived social barriers to bystander intervention, and bystander behaviors over 2-month follow-up in a sample of 843 high school students. Multiple regression path analyses revealed a sequence of positive associations between sexual victimization, perceived peer RMA, and perceived social barriers to bystander intervention, respectively. These direct associations to be significant among girls, but not boys, and revealed an additional negative direct association between perceived social barriers to bystander intervention and bystander behavior over 2-month follow-up among girls. Furthermore, sexual victimization was indirectly associated with decreased bystander behaviors among girls through perceived peer RMA and perceived social barriers to bystander intervention, respectively. Taken together, the current findings highlight the importance of addressing misperceptions of peer norms among survivors of sexual violence in bystander intervention programs.

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