Gender, Campus Sexual Violence, Cultural Betrayal, Institutional Betrayal, and Institutional Support in U.S. Ethnic Minority College Students: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Women and ethnic minorities are at increased risk for campus sexual violence (CSV). Due to inequality, within-group victimization in marginalized communities includes cultural betrayal. Universities commit institutional betrayal (e.g., inadequate prevention) and institutional support (e.g., sensitivity). With a campus climate survey, the purpose of the study is to characterize, by gender, U.S. ethnic minority undergraduates’ CSV, cultural and institutional betrayal, and institutional support. Participants ( N = 222) were a random sample of ethnic minority undergraduates. College women experienced higher rates of CSV and institutional betrayal. Universities can implement a research agenda that centralizes the role of oppression in CSV.

Does a report = support? A qualitative analysis of college sexual assault survivors’ Title IX Office knowledge, perceptions, and experiences

“…Yet, if certain students are disproportionally affected by sexual assault (e.g., women, especially sexual minority women; Coulter et al., 2017; Eisenberg et al., 2017), the Title IX Office's response—or in this case, nonresponse—to their reports reinforces systematic gender discrimination on campus. While our study was mainly focused on the intersection of gender and sexuality, our results also support findings that women of color expect reporting systems on campus to be nonresponsive or ineffective at addressing their experiences of sexual violence (Burton & Guidry 2020; Gomez, 2021; Tillman et al., 2010).…”

“…Moreover, institutional betrayal theory highlights the unique ways that institutions can harm marginalized groups, as institutionalized sexism, cissexism, heterosexism, racism, ableism, and more shape people's experiences with formal resources as they move through the world with different bodies and identities (Brubaker et al, 2017;Burton & Guidry, 2020;Gomez, 2021;Smith et al, 2016). Institutional responses to sexual violence may be particularly likely to foster institutional betrayal related to survivors' gender and sexual identities, as perceptions and experiences of sexual violence are deeply connected to gendered socio-cultural norms and power dynamics (Brownmiller, 1975;Cahill, 2001;Connell, 1995;Pascoe & Hollander, 2016).…”

Campus Sexual Harassment, Other Violence, and Racism, Oh my! Evidence From Black Women Undergraduates for a Culturally Competent University Approach to Title IX

“…Specifically, institutional betrayal refers to acts of commission or omission on the part of institution and/or institutional actors that do harm to dependent members (e.g., Smith & Freyd, 2014). The majority of victimized undergraduates of Color experience institutional betrayal (Gómez, 2021c). Recognizable in universities' responses to campus sexual violence, including SH, is institutional cowardice (Brown, 2021).…”

The Institutional Betrayal and Bureaucratic Violence of Higher Education

“…Harm can be pragmatic (i.e., production of inequality) and psychological (i.e., emotional distress), and it can stem from institutional actions and inactions that affect trauma and traumatic experiences (Smith and Freyd 2014). Originating from trauma theory and betrayal trauma theory in psychology, institutional betrayal has been used to analyze sexual assault (Gómez 2022;Pinciotti and Orcutt 2021), military sexual trauma (Andresen et al 2019;Holliday and Monteith 2019), COVID-19 effects on undergraduates (Adams-Clark and Freyd 2021), nursing (Brewer 2021) and medical contexts (Klest et al 2020), and workplace inequity in academia (Pyke 2018). Where institutions of care, such as a university, create some measure of dependency, individuals may experience violations via that institution such that traumatic experiences are exacerbated or created (Parnitzke Smith and Freyd 2014).…”