Citation

Daigle LE. Am. J. Crim. Justice 2021; 46(1): 2-5.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, College of Law Enforcement, Eastern Kentucky University, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12103-020-09601-w

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The study of sexual victimization is not new. Dating back some 70 years, researchers began using self-report surveys to measure a variety of forms of sexual victimization (Fisher, Daigle, & Cullen, 2010). Indeed, these early efforts by Kirkpatrick and Kanin (1957) demonstrated that 6.2% of college women had experienced aggressive forceful attempts at sexual intercourse during which either threats or coercive infliction of physical pain were used during the academic year (p. 53). These findings reflect what we consider rape to be today. Despite this early finding, there was not an immediate reaction among researchers, educators, or practitioners to focus more fully on sexual victimization of women. Instead, an influx of research on sexual victimization often occurs during periods where there is public attention on sexual victimization and violence against women. Indeed, during the late 70s and 80s several important, large-scale studies on the sexual victimization of women were conducted reflecting the women's movement and its recognition that violence against women should not be a private manner, is common, and deserves special investigation (see for example Koss, Gidycz, & Wisnewski, 1987; Russell, 1982). Of course, research is often not borne out of any particular social movement, but media attention and public awareness has helped bring to light the pervasive problem of sexual victimization.

One such recent movement is the MeToo movement. Although widely popularized in 2017, the MeToo movement originated in 2006 by Tarana Burke. Tarana Burke began using the phrase "me too" on the social networking website Myspace to highlight occurrences of sexual harassment. This original use was focused on women of color as targets of sexual harassment (me too, 2020). The MeToo movement was revitalized when, in 2017, the actress Alyssa Milano used the #MeToo phrase on Twitter - which went viral. She, along with other actresses, began using the hashtag to publicly discuss their experiences with sexual harassment. The hashtag generated 12 million uses during the first 24 hours after it began trending (as cited by Hoffman, this issue). Along with this awareness, the me too movement organization provides assistance to survivors of sexual harassment and works to hold offenders accountable (me too, 2020).

Given the widespread attention the #MeToo received coupled with the arrests of several high-profile Hollywood figures such as Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, it would not be surprising to see another wave of research on sexual victimization that focuses on the link of awareness and how social media campaigns influence occurrence, reporting, and responses to sexual victimization. To that end, this special issue highlights research centered on how the #MeToo movement shapes sexual victimization experiences, and how innovative methodologies may be employed to more fully capture the range of sexual victimization experiences. The first four articles of the special issue examine how college students perceive sexual victimization, how aware they are of sexual victimization and their willingness to use bystander intervention skills, and how disclosure of sexual victimization is influenced by the #MeToo movement...

Language: en