Diane Crocker - Violence Interrupted

VIOLENCE INTERRUPTED

Violence Interrupted

Confronting Sexual Violence
on University Campuses

Edited by
DIANE CROCKER, JOANNE MINAKER,
AND AMANDA NELUND

McGill-Queens University Press
Montreal & Kingston London Chicago

McGill-Queens University Press 2020

ISBN 978-0-2280-0099-0 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0100-3 (paper)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0238-3 (e PDF )

ISBN 978-0-2280-0239-0 (e PUB )

Legal deposit third quarter 2020

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Violence interrupted: confronting sexual violence on university
campuses / edited by Diane Crocker, Joanne Minaker, and Amanda Nelund.

Names: Crocker, Diane, editor. | Minaker, Joanne Cheryl, 1974 editor. |
Nelund, Amanda, 1985 editor.

Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200213504 | Canadiana (ebook)
20200213539 | ISBN 9780228001003 (paper) | ISBN 9780228000990
(cloth) | ISBN 9780228002383 (e PDF ) | ISBN 9780228002390 (e PUB )

Subjects: LCSH : Rape in universities and collegesCanada.

Classification: LCC LB 2345.3. R V 56 2020 | DDC 371.7/82dc23

This book was typeset by Marquis Interscript.

Contents

Figures and Tables

FIGURES

2.1 Fire with Water zines. Photo by Maria Ezcurra 56

2.2 Fire with Water zines. Photo by Maria Ezcurra 57

2.3 Fire with Water zines. Photo by Maria Ezcurra 58

2.4 Altar for the Day of the Dead: To Honour the Lives of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
and Girls in Canada . Photo by Maria Ezcurra 59

6.1 Participatory photography. Photo by Audrey 148

6.2 Participatory photography. Photo by Lucy 149

6.3 Participatory photography. Photo by Rabina 153

6.4 Participatory photography. Photo by Audrey 155

17.1 What motivated people in your story to act the way they acted? 382

17.2 The experience I wrote demonstrates something about 383

TABLES

7.1 Study measures 1701

7.2 Descriptive statistics; full sample and by gender 173

7.3 Mean scores for likelihood to intervene scale; full sample and by gender 174

7.4 Multivariable linear regressions predicting male and female students intentions to intervene in sexual violence 1767

17.1 Relationships between story prompt and characteristics 379

Acknowledgments

Id like to acknowledge the support I have from my family and my friends for indulging me in lengthy conversations about the issues raised in this book. My work on this book also benefited from input by many colleagues and especially those working in Nova Scotia universities.

Diane Crocker

My gratitude and unconditional love to my family team, Bryan, Ayden, Taryk, and Maylah for always believing in me. I admire so many trailblazing, feminist humans too many to name who inspire me. I dedicate our project and quest to end sexual violence to Diane Minaker, my beautiful and strong mother, whose legacy lives on every time we are humble and kind with ourselves and each other.

Joanne Minaker

I would like to thank Fraser and Abi for their constant support and encouragement. Id also like to thank all of the students and colleagues who have studied, worked to end, and experienced the violence this collection deals with.

Amanda Nelund

This work has been a collaborative project from the beginning. We value the ideas and insights that all the authors share here. We want to thank all of the contributors to Violence Interrupted for what you wrote on the page and for what you do in the world to interrupt sexual violence on and off campus.

Big thanks and appreciation to Jessica Burke for sharing extraordinary talents to assist with the planning and implementing of our colloquium. Kudos and gratitude to Larissa Doran for hours on hours of editorial assistance and index help. Funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through the Connections funding program and an Award to Scholarly Publications grant. We are also grateful for financial support from Saint Marys University.

We asked ourselves: can we thank each other in the main acknowledgment? We decided, yes!

Its been such a pleasure to have a project grow from some initial conversations into a huge collection like this. We continually look to each others research, teaching, and service for inspiration and support on how to build a meaningful academic career. It has been an honour to collaborate with such incredible hearts and minds. Thank you for all you do and your faith in a more just society.

For a world without sexual violence.

VIOLENCE INTERRUPTED

Introduction to Sexual Violence
on Canadian University Campuses

New Challenges and Novel Solutions

Diane Crocker, Joanne Minaker, and Amanda Nelund

WHY BRAVE AND CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS ARE NECESSARY

Times up for complicity, silence, and inaction. The realities of sexualized violence persist. The onslaught of blame, shame, and distrust of survivors a group that continues to be disproportionately made up of women, girls, and those marginalized by their gender or sexual identity persists. And, so do we. Brave and critical conversations about these issues are necessary because sexual violence continues relatively unabated while going under-reported, and survivors still suffer in silence. We teach, do research, and work administratively within Canadian post-secondary institutions where we see the impact of deeply entrenched social norms that perpetuate sexual violence. A feminist social fact we learned in our own undergraduate educations that individuals who identify as women disproportionately experience sexual violence holds up at the institutions where we work, in the lives of the students who come forward to disclose, report, and seek support after sexual violence. Working to challenge and change systemic, cultural, and social inequities is difficult and meaningful work. Building a culture of consent, respect, and accountability for harm becomes paramount if post-secondary institutions are to truly foster academic growth and transformative education.

In this introduction, we outline the key threads that stitch together the collective conversation inspired by the books contributors about campus sexual violence. Definitions of sexual violence vary among scholars, community advocates, and universities. The Sexual Violence Policy at MacEwan University (the institution where both Joanne and Amanda work) defines sexual violence as any sexualized act or act targeting a persons sexuality that is committed, threatened, or attempted against a person without that persons Consent. Sexual Violence varies in severity, can be physical or psychological in nature, and may include but is not limited to all forms of sexual contact, sexual humiliation, sexual exploitation, degrading sexual imagery, sending unwanted sexualized text messages, cyber harassment, indecent or sexualized exposure via electronic or social media or otherwise, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, Stalking, and Sexual Assault (MacEwan University 2018). At Saint Marys University (where Diane works), the Sexual Violence Policy and Procedures define sexual violence as any act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a persons sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim. Sexual Assault is an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada. It is illegal. Sexual assault is any unwanted act of a sexual nature imposed by one person upon another and includes such activities as kissing, fondling, oral or anal sex, intercourse, or other forms of penetration, without consent. Sexual assault can occur between strangers but it can also occur in a dating relationship or between spouses (Saint Marys University 2019). Campuses across the country include similar definitions in their policies. They typically include a full range of behaviours, from rape and sexual assault to sexual harassment. Some are included in the Criminal Code of Canada (such as sexual assault), while others are prohibited under human rights legislation (such as sexual harassment). All policies allow students to make complaints without involving police or human rights tribunals.