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Abstract
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Sexual violence is an umbrella term used to describe a wide variety of sex-related crimes including rape, sexual assault, incest, genital mutilation, intimate partner violence and sexual harassment in physical or digital environments. Almost one in three women globally have been subjected to intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or to both at least once in their lifetime (Borumandnia et al. Citation2020; United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division Citation2015).
The global landscape of sexual violence continues to be dominated by widespread impunity: legal definitions and interpretations vary over place and time, and prosecution and conviction are rare, while in some countries certain groups of people such as married women and girls, or lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex people, may face additional socially or legally sanctioned sexual violence and persecution (United Nations Human Rights Council Citation2021; Human Rights Watch Citation2023; ILGA Citation2023). In countries where marital rape is not criminalised, women and girls who are raped by their husbands cannot take legal action. In countries where male same-sex practices are criminalised, men feel unable to report sexual assault by other men, although male rape remains widespread in institutional settings such as prisons (Caravaca-Sánchez, Aizpurua, and Wolff Citation2022).
While scholarly and activist attention has been given to highlighting experiences of trauma and violence, much of it fails to acknowledge the possibility of rebuilding intimate relationships, achieving closure and having a successful life. Recognising processes of self-healing can reveal the many ways in which people can and do build satisfying intimate relationships and reclaim sexual wellbeing after experiencing sexual violence. To this end, the papers in this themed symposium on survivor strategies bring together newly developing work on the experiences of people of a variety of genders and sexualities from varying cultural and class backgrounds. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks offered by intersectional feminism, and restorative and pragmatic justice, the authors included use a variety of methods, including innovative qualitative approaches, life story analysis and auto-ethnography to explore these concerns. Rather than seeking to define people and their lives by the experience of sexual violence, the papers included here consider how victim-survivors engage with and integrate their experiences so as to build a life in which the experience of sexual violence is only one part of their identity, whether minor or significant. The papers reveal three key practices of survival: recognition, the reframing of narratives, and restorative justice.
Language: en |