This essay examines how Anderson’s Speak can be used in the Swedish Upper Secondary classroom to talk about the difficult topics ‘sexism’ and ‘sexual assault’. The paper discusses several examples of where the power structures between the genders affect the main character of Speak. The novel contains a connection to Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, which is also discussed in this essay, focusing on the timelessness of the issues discussed. The conclusion is that the difficult topics in Speak are important to discuss in the classroom, because a functional way of battling sexism is through vocalizing the problem.

Research has linked rape victim-blaming attitudes (VBAs) with gender role stereotyping, negative peer attitudes towards women, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. The current study analyzed longitudinal questionnaire data of college men (n=166) from White and Smith's (2001) study of college student victimization. Results indicate that VBAs can be conceptualized as either overt or covert, and that the covert VBA was more strongly correlated with alcohol use, sexualized peer attitudes, traditional gender stereotypes, need for sexual dominance, and perpetration of dating aggression. The covert VBA was also correlated with rape proclivity one year later, and partially mediated relationships between earlier variables and later rape proclivity. Additionally, endorsement of chivalry moderated the relationship between traditional gender stereotypes and the covert VBA, casting new perspective on the role of chivalry. Overall, results demonstrate the importance of targeting subtle expressions of VBAs in educational programs, and the need for longitudinal studies on rape attitude development.

Posttraumatic growth, defined as positive psychological changes in the aftermath of adversity and suffering, is a relatively recent focus in psychological research. The addition of this concept to the literature has provided a new, more resiliency-based framework through which to view survivors of various forms of trauma. Despite estimates that over half of all sexual assaults are not reported to the authorities, current crime statistics indicate that 1 in 4 women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime (Campbell & Wasco, 2005). Given the large percentage of the population that is impacted by sexual assault, it is essential that professionals better understand the factors that influence the successful healing and growth that can occur post-trauma. The purpose of this study was to further expand the literature on posttraumatic growth in sexual assault survivors by considering this phenomenon through the lens of attachment theory. Specifically, this study tested a proposed model of the inter-relationships among subjective and objective perceptions of threat during the sexual assault, adult romantic attachment, and posttraumatic growth. It was hypothesized that adult romantic attachment and parent-child attachment would mediate the relationship between subjective, or perceived threat, defined as the victim's perception of life threat, and objective threat, defined as the severity of the sexually aggressive act perpetrated on the victim, and posttraumatic growth. Finally, it was hypothesized that subjective threat appraisal would better predict posttraumatic growth than objective threat appraisal. Contrary to hypotheses, results of the study indicated that adult romantic attachment and parent-child attachment did not mediate the relationship between subjective and objective threat appraisal and posttraumatic growth. Thus, both path analytic models were not viable. However, exploratory analysis indicated that both subjective and objective threat appraisal were directly related to posttraumatic growth, with subjective perceived threat appraisal accounting for more of the variance.

abstract: Biases have been studied in many legal contexts, including sexual assault cases. Sexual assault cases are complex because there are many stages that biases can come into play and have lasting effects on the rest of the case proceedings. One aspect that has not been widely explored is how people perceive institutions’ liability in sexual assault cases based on an obligation to create non-discriminating environments for members and employees according to laws like Title VII and Title IX. The current project focused on how and why cognitive biases affect laypeople’s judgment. Specifically, laypeople’s ability to discern the strength of evidence in civil sexual assault cases against institutions. This was addressed in a series of two studies, with samples collected from Prolific Academic (n = 90) and Arizona State University students (n = 188) for Study 1 (N = 278), and Prolific Academic in Study 2 (N = 449). Both studies used Latin-square design methods, with within and between subject elements, looking at how confirmation bias influenced decisions about whether an institution demonstrated negligence, and thus liability, in the way they responded to sexual assault allegations within their institution. Results from these studies suggest that jurors are overall accurately able to differentiate between weak and strong cases. However, consistent with previous literature, jurors may be susceptible to confirmation bias from outside information (e.g., news stories) and negatively influenced by their personal attitudes (e.g., rape myth acceptance). Given the increased attention of the Me Too movement, these results provide an initial insight into how individuals may be judging these types of cases against institutions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Law and Psychology 2020

Sexual harassment is a global problem and it is not a new one, although it took until the 1970’s before it became an accepted concept. Sexual assault was one of the reported crimes, that had increased the most during 2016. The number of convicted sexual offences during 2015 had also increased, especially an increase in, among other things, sexual assault. There is a need of increased knowledge about what sexual harassment is about. In addition, more research about the motive behind sexual harassment, how sexual harassment is received and its effects, are needed. The purpose of this study was to investigate how sexual harassment is looked upon by a group of people via social media in comparison to how sexual harassment is defined according to Swedish case-law. Nine semi-structured interviews were performed, and analyzed with a narrative method and then problematized thru Swedish case-law in the discussion. The participants in this study regarded sexual harassment as an act against someone’s will. This could entail that someone made sexual acts (acted in a sexual way), took advantage of the others body, did not respect the others boundaries or made sexual approaches. Typically, a person did not respect the others boundaries when making a sexual approach, there was a lack of a mutual understanding. Often with the purpose to mentally break someone and by touching the intimate parts of another without their consent. According to the participants in this study the reasons for people to sexually harass depends on different things and how the victims react varies. It was considered, however, that sexual harassment could happen anywhere and by anyone. When looking at Swedish case-law it seems obvious that the judiciary does not have an all too easy task. One may spectacle whether this might be due to that the boundaries of sexual harassment is unclear as it as borders to sexual interest/attention and is a rather common phenomenon in society.

Sexual assault on college campuses continues to be a pervasive public health issue with approximately one in five women experiencing sexual assault. Stranger rape is most commonly what people think of when they think of sexual assault, however, acquaintance rape is the most common form of sexual assault. Yet, victims are blamed more in acquaintance rape as compared to stranger rape situations. Thus, the perceptions of sexual assault occurring in various romantic relationships warrants further attention. Using an online survey at a large southern university, the current study examines the perceptions of college students, in various sexual assault scenarios, including stranger, acquaintance, committed dating, cohabitating, and marital. In addition, the levels of victim blame, rape myths, sexual attitudes and beliefs, and hostility toward women are examined. Findings may help inform future prevention efforts to help reduce rape myths regarding dating and marital rape.

There has been a heightened effort to research the overwhelming prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses. Female undergraduates are the most common victims, with rates of one in five experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact during their college years. However, there is very little research that has examined sexual assault among students with disabilities. Students with intellectual disability are sexually assaulted at rates more than seven times higher than students with no disabilities. Thus, students with disabilities are hidden victims who experience sexual violence at extremely high rates. The current study used an online survey to assess the prevalence of sexual assault among students with disabilities at a large southern university. Findings may help inform future prevention efforts to help the high rates of sexual violence rates among students with disabilities on college campuses.

Research relating to campus sexual assault has traditionally focused on its prevalence and factors that serve to influence risk of victimization. Less attention has been directed toward the presence and effectiveness of campus sexual assault resources. In addition, few studies have explored the role that culture and other geographical factors may play in this process. The current study seeks to address this limitation in two unique ways: (1) determining whether an Appalachian upbringing influences knowledge of and willingness to utilize campus sexual assault resources and (2) exploring its impact on adherence to common rape myths. Survey data are gathered from students at a public university located in the heart of the Appalachian Region, with results serving to improve our understanding of how culture affects students’ knowledge and perceptions of campus sexual assault resources.

Red Label is a short ilm, adapted from a one-act play, that will serve as proof of concept for an anthology series. The logline reads as such: A sexual assault survivor is forced to confront his past trauma when he and a family friend seek refuge during a screening of the Kavanaugh TV hearings.

Past research has confirmed that structural attributes of nations, as well as individual characteristics of people contribute to levels of fear of crime, across both nations and individuals. Specifically, in regard to the effects structural characteristics have on fear, gender equality has been shown to affect rates of rape, which in turn, affect women's fear of crime. Regarding individual-level determinants, age, income, education, whether one dwells in an urban or rural area, and prior victimization have been shown to have effects on fear. This dissertation set out to answer several research questions related to prior findings: 1) How does gender equality affect women's fear of crime across nations?; 2) Does gender equality have a direct effect on women's fear, or is this effect mediated by national rape rates?; 3) How do structural characteristics other than gender equality affect women's fear of crime?; and last, 4) How do individual characteristics affect women's fear of crime? Using data from various sources, including the International Criminal Victimization Survey, the World Values Survey, the United Nations, and the World Bank (total N=20 nations and 17,384 individuals), I assessed the aforementioned research questions using multilevel modeling. Overall, findings indicate that individual-level characteristics did a better job than structural context in predicting women's fear of crime across various nations. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed in the final chapter.