'You Can't Stop the Bell from Ringing.' Protean, Unpredictable, and Persisting: The Victim Impact Statement in the Context of Sexually Assaulted Women.

Abstract

The victim impact statement (VIS) is a victim's voluntarily written account of a range of harms experienced as a consequence of a crime. Rarely is the VIS investigated specific to sexual assault or from a theoretical perspective. This qualitative study was designed to address these gaps. Interviews were conducted with 44 participants who sought or provided VIS-related services in Canada. Findings were analyzed using insights from actor-network theory.Findings of the overall study are presented through three distinct but interrelated papers. "Obliging Detours" (Miller, submitted) describes the development of the VIS in Canada, and its multiple, innovative, and unauthorized pathways of use. These pathways created novel opportunities, demands, and risks for sexual assault victims, particularly those who were mothers, female offenders, or had been excluded at trial. "Relational Caring" identifies an ethic of care that underpinned use of the VIS by sexually assaulted women. Victims prioritized the well-being of others by constructing VIS narratives that privileged the harms experienced by others, protected future victims, and promoted the interests of intimate partner offenders. Victims who were mothers, iii especially those abused as minors, and those who were intimate partners of their offenders were particularly implicated. "Purposing and Repurposing Harms" demonstrates how harm descriptions were manipulated by victims and others in keeping with, and contrary to, legislators' design of the VIS. VIS repurposing occurred through victims' practices of strategic disclosure, which was intended to effect changes in others' behaviours, and harm peddling, which was the circulation of the VIS in nonsentencing arenas by victims and nonvictims to obtain compensation, child custody, and parole delay.Taken together, the findings revealed that the VIS has a protean nature that is produced by structural and relational factors, and lends itself to multiple uses in multiple contexts. VIS-related outcomes and the effects on victims and others could neither be wholly predicted nor prevented, and involved interactions beyond the criminal court setting. The protean, unpredictable, and persisting positive and negative effects of the VIS hold promise-and danger-for sexual assault victims.iv AcknowledgementsSincere thanks are owed to the women who were sexually assaulted and whose experiences are represented here. My heart often ached after the interviews, but never did I cry as much as I learned. Nonvictim participants spoke earnestly, and frankly, about the merits and the dangers of the victim impact statement in the context of sexual assault; thank you. I am also deeply appreciative of the skilled and supportive guidance offered by my thesis supervisor, Janice Du Mont, and thesis committee members Ted Myers and Dan Allman. In addition to her doctoral supervision, Jan has been a mentor since I was a graduate social work student, and provided the original research opportunities from which I launched a qualitative health research career...