Victims of Sexual Violence
Feminist Victimology part II
SGM2058:
Victimology
2022/23
Dr Riikka Kotanen
, Outline of the Lecture
• Historical context for accepting attitudes towards sexual
violence
• Liz Kelly: Continuum of sexual violence
• Case study I: Street Harassment and Women’s Safety Work
• Victim blaming, rape culture and rape myths
• Rape myths and the CJS
• Case study II: Operation Soteria Bluestone
• Resisting sexual violence and victim blaming
Key concepts: Continuum of sexual violence, street harassm
safety work, rape culture, rape myths, victim blaming,
procedural justice
, Sexual Violence: Historical
Context for Accepting Attitudes (I)
• Importance of cultural and historical
context of understandings and definitions
related to sexual violence → Legislation
and social attitudes
• Intertwined effects of social and legal
inequality of genders
• Rape as a crime against female victims’
husbands or fathers → Restricted group of
‘objects of protection’
• Sexual self-determination and its legal
protection → Relatively new phenomenon
, Sexual Violence: Historical
Context for Accepting Attitudes (II)
• Justifications for the late recognition of
marital rape:
Women as property
Marriage as a ‘unity’, ‘becoming one’ →
wife’s legal person subsumed within her
husbands legal person
Marriage as a contract → entering into a
marriage presupposes consent (of a
wife) ⇒
Pre-existing relationship between the
perpetrator and victim still perceived as
an ‘evidence’ of ongoing consent
Sexual violence seen as accepted or
less condemned
→ Victim perceived less credible
,Liz Kelly (1988): Survivin
Sexual Violence
• In-depth interviews of 60 women aiming to
Analyse women’s experiences of the whol
spectrum of (sexual) violence over lifetim
Develop conceptual tools to provide bette
understanding of women’s experiences of
men’s violence as women experienced and
understood them
→ Opposed to how these acts are
reflected in legal codes and (then)
current research
• One of the key contributions →
Introducing the concept of Continuum of
sexual violence
, The concept of continuum of sexual violence
• Explains the connections between different forms of sexual viole
• Challenges the societal hierarchy of sexual offences → Focus
excessively on grievous sexual violence
• Shows how ‘typical and aberrant male behaviour shade into ano
(Kelly 1988, 75)
• Two ways of understanding the meaning of continuum:
I. As ‘a continuous series of elements or events that pass into on
another and which cannot be easily distinguished’ (Kelly 1988
II. Identifies a ‘basic common character that underlies different
events’ that might otherwise perceived as unrelated phenomen
(Kelly 1988, 76)
Feminist Victimology part II
SGM2058:
Victimology
2022/23
Dr Riikka Kotanen
, Outline of the Lecture
• Historical context for accepting attitudes towards sexual
violence
• Liz Kelly: Continuum of sexual violence
• Case study I: Street Harassment and Women’s Safety Work
• Victim blaming, rape culture and rape myths
• Rape myths and the CJS
• Case study II: Operation Soteria Bluestone
• Resisting sexual violence and victim blaming
Key concepts: Continuum of sexual violence, street harassm
safety work, rape culture, rape myths, victim blaming,
procedural justice
, Sexual Violence: Historical
Context for Accepting Attitudes (I)
• Importance of cultural and historical
context of understandings and definitions
related to sexual violence → Legislation
and social attitudes
• Intertwined effects of social and legal
inequality of genders
• Rape as a crime against female victims’
husbands or fathers → Restricted group of
‘objects of protection’
• Sexual self-determination and its legal
protection → Relatively new phenomenon
, Sexual Violence: Historical
Context for Accepting Attitudes (II)
• Justifications for the late recognition of
marital rape:
Women as property
Marriage as a ‘unity’, ‘becoming one’ →
wife’s legal person subsumed within her
husbands legal person
Marriage as a contract → entering into a
marriage presupposes consent (of a
wife) ⇒
Pre-existing relationship between the
perpetrator and victim still perceived as
an ‘evidence’ of ongoing consent
Sexual violence seen as accepted or
less condemned
→ Victim perceived less credible
,Liz Kelly (1988): Survivin
Sexual Violence
• In-depth interviews of 60 women aiming to
Analyse women’s experiences of the whol
spectrum of (sexual) violence over lifetim
Develop conceptual tools to provide bette
understanding of women’s experiences of
men’s violence as women experienced and
understood them
→ Opposed to how these acts are
reflected in legal codes and (then)
current research
• One of the key contributions →
Introducing the concept of Continuum of
sexual violence
, The concept of continuum of sexual violence
• Explains the connections between different forms of sexual viole
• Challenges the societal hierarchy of sexual offences → Focus
excessively on grievous sexual violence
• Shows how ‘typical and aberrant male behaviour shade into ano
(Kelly 1988, 75)
• Two ways of understanding the meaning of continuum:
I. As ‘a continuous series of elements or events that pass into on
another and which cannot be easily distinguished’ (Kelly 1988
II. Identifies a ‘basic common character that underlies different
events’ that might otherwise perceived as unrelated phenomen
(Kelly 1988, 76)
