Abstract
Preventing Sexual Violence: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Overcoming a Rape Culture, edited by Nicola Henry and Anastasia Powell, is a collection of provocative essays written by internationally renowned scholars in key fields such as sociology, social work, and women’s studies. Chapters explore and problematize various theoretical frameworks, strategies, and issues related to efforts to reduce sexual violence, including the role of criminal law (chapter four, “Limits of the Criminal Law for Preventing Sexual Violence” by Wendy Larcombe), current threats from technology-facilitated sexual violence (chapter five, “The Dark Side of the Virtual World” by Nicola Henry and Anastasia Powell), programs implemented in schools (chapter six, “The Prevention of Sexual Violence in Schools” by Claire Maxwell) and contradictions within advocacy work (chapter seven, “Just How Do We Create Change: Sites of Contradiction and the ‘Black Box’ of Change in Primary Prevention?” by Gillian Fletcher). Preventing Sexual Violence provides a comprehensive exploration of both the accomplishments of a divergent anti-rape movement and the many challenges that remain ahead.
A thread linking several of the book’s eclectic chapters is how best to reduce the risk of sexual violence without placing the entire onus of prevention on individual women to avoid situations or behaviors that place them at risk. Risk avoidance models have typified many of the prevention programs in both the health and criminal justice fields. By focusing primarily on how individuals should avoid victimization, these victim-focused strategies inadvertently blame victims of rape for being careless or reckless, while ignoring perpetrators altogether. Another thread in several of the chapters is a frank critique of feminist frameworks. Feminist prevention models have focused primarily on the structural and cultural dimensions of sexual violence, including looking more intensely at gender inequality and the culture that cultivates sexist attitudes about women and normalizes violent behavior among men. But even as these frameworks have been crucial in defining rape as a cultural problem beyond individuals at risk, they have tended to construct sexual violence as a women’s problem and, in doing so, have ignored men as victims themselves while also excluding men as active participants in most prevention programs.
Today’s primary prevention programs acknowledge that men and entire communities must be part of the solution. According to the editors in their introductory chapter “Framing Sexual Violence Prevention,” primary prevention programs seek to prevent sexual violence before it occurs. Such efforts include an understanding that violence is a social problem that impacts entire societies and that prevention will only be effective when the broader community commits to change. These changes include rejecting the cultural beliefs and practices that blame victims and excuse a wide range of sexually violent behaviors. Primary prevention programs also encourage everyone—both women and men—to participate as “capable guardians” or bystanders who are willing to say something or take action to stop sexual violence when they see it. As examined in chapter nine, “Taking Stock of Bystander Programs” by Alison Cares, Mary Moynihan, and Victoria Banyard, and chapter 10, “Shifting Upstream: Bystander Action Against Sexism and Discrimination Against Women” by Anastasia Powell, the goals of bystander programs (e.g., Green Dot, Mentors in Violence Prevention Project) are to transform passive bystanders into capable responders by empowering them with both the skills necessary to make a difference and the motivation to play an active role. Doing nothing is doing something. As such, these programs emphasize the need for collective intervention in order to overcome a rape culture.
Preventing Sexual Violence provides an exceptionally reflexive account of the many well-intentioned programs that, even after half a century, have yet to eradicate rape or radically change the culture that makes sexual violence possible in the first place. Yet, the tone of the book is neither overtly critical nor pessimistic, even as authors acknowledge the many problems and contradictions that continue to plague so many of the anti-rape programs. Instead, the authors appear rather optimistic about the future of advocacy, highlighting the progresses already made, and providing hopeful possibilities for the eventual eradication of sexual violence.
One criticism of the book, though, is that it is very narrowly focused on two countries—Australia and United States. The book would have been much more comprehensive and certainly more inclusive had it contained strategies from a much greater range of societies, including some non-Western countries. Still, the book is an interesting read and will be of particular interest to activists and anyone involved in policy, design, implementation, or evaluation of sexual violence prevention programs. It would also be a welcomed reading in varied college courses that address sexual violence, as the book aptly conveys both the successful approaches taken to prevent sexual violence and the sobering reality of just how far there is still to go.