Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2017

Department

Social Justice and Community Engagement

Department

Social Justice and Community Engagement

Abstract

This research study focuses on sexual violence (SV) in Canada, which one in three women will experience during their lives. Yet, even though the prevalence of violence against women in Canada is so significant, only one in ten survivors will report their experience of SV to the criminal justice system (CJS). Previous literature has identified the limited number of reports to authorities in Canada as being related to rape mythology. Due to the influence of rape mythology, a notion of a “good versus bad victim” is often used to deem which survivors are innocent and credible versus responsible or blamed for their victimization. Canadian legal and feminist scholars, such as Melanie Randall (2010), Elizabeth Sheehy and Holly Johnson (2012), have maintained that survivors do not trust the CJS’s response because the CJS dismisses a majority of SV complainants as “unfounded,” meaning the responding officer believed the crime had not occurred. Using an intersectional feminist theoretical framework, this study investigates if rape myth acceptance and victim blaming play a role in the Canadian CJS’s response to disclosures of SV. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with five SV professionals, participants discussed their interactions with the CJS and how they perceive the legal responses’ impact on survivors of SV. Participant’s stressed that CJS was not built to support survivors of SV nor the individuals’ most likely to experience violence, which was reflected through participants’ discussions around using the term, legal system or “prison industrial complex,” rather then CJS. The research findings highlight that the Canadian legal system has not provided justice or support for survivors of SV, but rather survivors’ credibility as a complainant has been measured against rape mythology and the construction of the “good or ideal victim.” This research study further argues that survivors who engage with the legal system are met with victim blame and self-blame, which has been represented through the prevalence of “unfounded” cases in SV crimes. The Canadian legal system needs to be changed and re-structured in order to provide support for survivors and to uphold a feminist and survivor-centered framework. But until that change occurs, the system will continue to cause harm and oppression against those most vulnerable to violence.

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