Constructing Sexual Harm: Prosecutorial Narratives of Children, Abuse, and the Disruption of Heterosexuality

Abstract

Sociologists have identified many factors that mitigate the progressive effects of the legal mobilization to end sexual violence. Within this body of research, however, there is little interrogation about the social construction of sexual harm. I use the case of child sexual abuse to investigate how prosecutors make sense of sexual harm. Data are qualitative interviews with 43 prosecutors. Findings reveal that prosecutors use a framework of sexual identity to construct sexual injury on the child’s body. The perceived harm centers on the anticipated loss of the child’s heterosexual potential. Girl victims are thought to grow into sexual promiscuity, and boy victims are thought to grow into sex offenders. Prosecutorial constructions of child sexual abuse cases are future-oriented, which increases their urgency, and these constructions also imagine the child as a person in formation, rather than a fully actualized person with intrinsic rights. In revealing how the state of sexual victimization is not only deeply gendered but also heteronormative, this research has theoretical implications for childhood studies, queer studies, and anti-violence advocacy.

Constructing hierarchies of victimhood: Queer male survivors' evaluations of sexual assault survivors

“…To help reduce hierarchies of victimhood across gender lines, sexual assault scholarship can continue to highlight the role of gender inequality, as well as heteronormativity, in structuring many forms of sexual assault against queer men, in addition to others’ responses toward this violence (Javaid, 2017; Small, 2019). This emphasis on gender inequality can make it more difficult for queer male survivors to view their challenges as entirely separate from those facing women, due to some overlap in structural oppression based on gender and sexuality.…”

“…In addition to exploring hierarchies among queer male survivors, this research focuses on participants' comparisons with women survivors. Previous feminist analyses of hierarchies of victimhood have challenged stereotypical representations of sexual assault and critiqued narrow understandings of this violence (Hlavka, 2014;Ricciardelli et al, 2021;Small, 2019). Estrich (1987), for example, notably referred to notions of "real rape," in which forms of sexual assault have been constructed as serious primarily when they are forceful stranger attacks and involve certain attributes, such as the assailant using a weapon or hitting the victim.…”

“…In short, the overlap of inequalities based on race, gender, and sexuality shaped these findings, as some queer men may be blamed for not preventing sexual violence through physical strength, while others may be blamed in ways that pathologize male femininity or queer sexual desire. Of course, a dichotomous understanding of queer men as either feminine or masculine must be avoided, given that imposing such a binary model of gender onto queer men would reinforce heteronormative standards, yet accounting for racial inequality, as well as differences in gender expression, is essential for understanding how outsiders may respond to sexual assault against queer men (Garvey et al, 2017; Hlavka, 2017; Small, 2019). Among the participants in this section, seven focused on how others may blame male survivors for not physically fighting back.…”

Co-constructing women’s stories about the sexual effects of child sexual abuse: A relational constructionist approach.

“…Despite these figures, women are questioned when they do not appear to be “sufficiently damaged”, what others have labeled as “the good victim” (Sanyal, 2019; Woodiwiss, 2018). This situation has contributed to a “harm story” (O’Dell, 2003) of child sexual abuse that usually ignores local contexts around sexual abuse and women’s agency to respond to its consequences (Small, 2019; Wijaya, 2018), especially the sexual effects (Guyon et al, 2021). Here, we address this issue by conducting narrative research from a relational constructionist approach (McNamee & Hosking, 2012).…”

“…None of these fundamental dynamics are questioned or reflected by harm story (Woodiwiss, 2014(Woodiwiss, , 2018. Finally, women's agency to respond to child sexual abuse has no relevance within this story (Katz & Nicolet, 2022;Small, 2019;Wijaya, 2018).…”