Underserved and Hard to Reach
The Complexities of Online Disclosure of Sexual Violence, and Lessons for Critical Social Work Practice
Keywords:
Online disclosure, Sexual violence, Intersectional FeminismAbstract
AbstractThis article seeks to explore the complexities of online disclosures of sexual violence that are situated within digital feminist social movements and activism. The literature suggests that in the face of being let down by traditional justice systems, many are utilising techno-social spaces to meet their needs for justice and support. However, online spaces are not without their risks whereby victim/survivors are subjected to further harassment or abuse. Notably, people from marginalised groups felt that online spaces recreated the types of injustice experienced in formal justice systems. Hence, an intersectional feminist lens is applied to analyse the experiences of victim/survivors when disclosing sexual violence, and how their ‘justice needs’ are met, or not met. This presents a critical issue for social work in the twenty-first century, and as such implications for practice, policy and research are discussed.
References
Alaggia, R., & Wang, S. (2020). “I never told anyone until the #metoo movement”: What can we learn from sexual abuse and sexual assault disclosures made through social media? Child Abuse & Neglect, 103, 104312–10.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Sexual Violence - Victimisation. Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/sexual-violence-victimisation.
Australian Broadcasting Commission (2021, April 28). Victorian Opposition pushes for informal sexual assault reporting option. Australian Broadcasting Commission. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-18/victorian-opposition-plan-for-informal-sexual-assault-reporting/100077112
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2022). Family, domestic and sexual violence: National data landscape 2022. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/ae248bec-3060-40a1-b3d6-696a2f2c74d7/aihw-fdv-11.pdf.aspx?inline=true
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2020). Sexual Assault in Australia. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/domestic-violence/sexual-assault-in-australia/contents/summary
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2021). Indigenous community safety. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/indigenous-community-safety
Bach, M.H., Hansen, N.B., Ahrens, C., Nielsen, C.R., Walshe, C., & Hansen, M. (2021). Underserved survivors of sexual assault: a systematic scoping review. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12, 1-15.
Bogen, K.W., Orchowski, L.M., & Ullman, S.E. (2021). Online disclosure of sexual victimization and social reactions: What do we know? Women & Therapy, 44(3-4), 358–373.
Burrows, A. (2011). Online peer support for survivors of sexual assault. South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault: Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from https://www.secasa.com.au/assets/Documents/online-peer-support-for-survivors-of- sexual-assault.pdf
Clark, H. (2010). “What is the justice system willing to offer?”: Understanding sexual assault victim/survivors’ criminal justice needs. Family Matters, 28, 28–37.
Clark-Parsons, R. (2021). “I SEE YOU, I BELIEVE YOU, I STAND WITH YOU”:
#MeToo and the performance of networked feminist visibility. Feminist Media Studies, 21(3), 362–380.
Commonwealth of Australia. (2022). National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. Canberra, Australia: Department of Social Services. Retrieved from https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/10_2022/national_plan accessible_version_for_website.pdf
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of colour. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Daly, K. (2014). Reconceptualising sexual victimisation and justice. In I. Vanfraechem, A. Pemberton, and F.M. Mdahinda (Eds.), Justice for Victims: Perspectives on Rights, Transition and Reconciliation (pp. 378–395). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Fallot, R. D., & Harris, M. (2006). Trauma-informed services: A self-assessment and planning protocol. Retrieved from https://www.theannainstitute.org/TISA+PPROTOCOL.pdf
Fawcett, H. & Shrestha, L. (2016). Blogging about sexual assault: A thematic analysis. Journal of Forensic Practice, 18(1), 39-51.
Fileborn, B. (2017). Justice 2.0: Street harassment victims’ use of social media and online activism as sites of informal justice. British Journal of Criminology, 57(6), 1482–1501. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azw093
Fileborn, B. (2019). Naming the unspeakable harm of street harassment: A survey- based examination of disclosure practices. Violence Against Women, 25(2), 223–248.
Fraser-Barbour, E. F., Crocker, R., & Walker, R. (2018). Barriers and facilitators in supporting people with intellectual disability to report sexual violence: Perspectives of Australian disability and mainstream support providers. The Journal of Adult Protection, 20(1), 5–16.
Gauthier, L. M., Vaillancourt-Morel, M. P., Rellini, A., Godbout, N., Charbonneau- Lefebvre, V., Desjardins, F., & Bergeron, S. (2019). The risk of telling: A dyadic perspective on romantic partners’ responses to child sexual abuse disclosure and their associations with sexual and relationship satisfaction. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 45(3), 480–493.
Gill, A. (2018). Survivor-centered research: Towards an intersectional gender-based violence movement. Journal of Family Violence, 33(8), 559–562.
Gill, R. & Orgad, S. (2018). The shifting terrain of sex and power: From the ‘sexualisation of culture’ to #MeToo. Sexualities, 21(8), 1313-1324.
Gjika, A., & Marganski, A.J. (2020). Silent voices, hidden stories: A review of sexual assault (non)disclosure literature, emerging issues, and call to action. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9(4), 163–176.
Gorissen, M., van den Berg, C., Bijleveld, C., Ruiter, S., & Berenblum, T. (2021). Online disclosure of sexual victimization: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence & Abuse,
Henry, N., & Powell, A. (2018). Technology-facilitated sexual violence: A literature review of empirical research. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(2), 195-208.
Hodes, C. (2021). Safety planning with survivors of domestic violence: How Covid-19 shifts the focus. In E. Tosone (Ed.). In Shared Trauma, Shared Resilience During a Pandemic: Essential Clinical Social Work Series. Cham, Germany: Springer.
Kaufman, M. R., Dey, D., Crainiceanu, C., & Dredze, M. (2021). MeToo and Google inquiries into sexual violence: A hashtag campaign can sustain information seeking. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(19-20), 9857–9867.
Li, M., Turki, N., Izaguirre, C. R., DeMahy, C., Thibodeaux, B. L., & Gage, T. (2021). Twitter as a tool for social movement: An analysis of feminist activism on social media communities. Journal of Community Psychology, 49(3), 854– 868.
Mattsson, T. (2014). Intersectionality as a useful tool: Anti-oppressive social work and critical reflection. Affilia, 29(1), 8–17.
Mendes, K., Ringrose, J., & Keller, J. (2018). MeToo and the promise and pitfalls of challenging rape culture through digital feminist activism. The European Journal of Women’s Studies, 25(2), 236–246.
Mennicke, A., Coates, C. A., Jules, B., & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J. (2022). Who do they tell? College students’ formal and informal disclosure of sexual violence, sexual harassment, stalking, and dating violence by gender, sexual identity, and race. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(21-22).
O’Neill, T. (2018). “Today I speak”: Exploring how victim-survivors use reddit. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 7(1), 44-59.
Powell, A. (2015). Seeking rape justice: Formal and informal response to sexual violence through technosocial counter-publics. Theoretical Criminology, 19(4), 571-588.
Powell, A., & Henry, N. (2017). Sexual Violence in a Digital Age. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Reich, C. M., Anderson, G. D., & Maclin, R. (2022). Why I didn’t report: Reasons for not reporting sexual violence as stated on Twitter. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 31(4), 478–496.
Salter, M. (2013). Justice and revenge in online counter-publics: Emerging responses to sexual violence in the age of social media. Crime, Media, Culture, 9(3), 225–242.
Storer, H. L., & Rodriguez, M. (2020). Mapping a movement: social media, feminist hashtags, and movement building in the digital age. Journal of Community Practice, 28(2), 160–176.
Wafula Strike, A. (2018, March 9). Disabled women see #MeToo and think: What about us? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/08/disabled-people-metoo-womens-movement-inclusion-diversity
Webber, R., & Moors, R. (2015). Engaging in cyberspace: Seeking help for sexual assault. Child & Family Social Work, 20(1), 40-49.
Whiting, J. B., Pickens, J. C., Sagers, A. L., PettyJohn, M., & Davies, B. (2021). Trauma, social media, and #WhyIDidntReport: An analysis of twitter posts about reluctance to report sexual assault. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 47(3), 749–766.
Willis, M. (2011). Non-disclosure of violence in Australian Indigenous communities. Australian Institute of Criminology, Trends & Issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 405.
World Health Organisation. (2021). Violence against women. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women#:~:text=Sexual%20violence%20is%20%22any%20sexual,the%20victim%2C%20in%20any%20setting
Zinzow, H. M., Littleton, H., Muscari, E., & Sall, K. (2022). Barriers to formal help- seeking following sexual violence: Review from within an ecological systems framework. Victims & Offenders, 17(6), 893–918.
