Coordinator(s): May-Len Skilbrei (Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo, Norway) and Kari Stefansen (NOVA, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway)
In policy-making, activism and popular culture, rape is presented as one of the most serious forms of crime, one with major consequences for victims and society at large. Psychological and medical research point to widespread trauma and legal, criminological and feminist scholarship address challenges and additional harms to victims throughout the criminal justice process. A critique has been that both the exploration of why rape is committed, how it is experienced and how society approaches it, has a distinct individualistic orientation, looking at individual pathology, harm and access to justice. An explanation to this is lack of sociological engagement with the phenomenon, one that investigates contextual and relational aspects of both the crime, its consequences and justice strategies. We believe sociologists can contribute positively to the study of rape and the social production of victimhood, and that the study of sexual harms can contribute to developing how sociology engages with the complex relationship between power and sexuality.
This symposium is designed to address one aspect of rape; the sociological study of the consequences of rape, focusing on for example consequences for identity, relations and local communities. The aim is to bring together scholars working on the sociological study of consequences in one way or another, of rape, but also of related sexual harms. Contributions can be of an empirical or a theoretical nature.
This session is based on presentations and discussions of participants’ papers. We are expecting extended abstracts (800 words or less) stating the aims of the paper, the topic’s relation to the state of the knowledge in the field, the methodological approach, findings (for empirical papers) or new conceptual argument (for conceptual papers) contribution of the work to the field, as well as a reference list.