Handbook on Sexual Violence

Handbook
on

Sexual Violence

Edited by

Jennifer M. Brown

and
Sandra L. Walklate

Handbook on Sexual Violence

This book contextualises the complexity of sexual violence within its broader context – from war to the resolution of interpersonal disputes – and covers a wide span including sexual harassment, bullying, rape and murder as well as domestic violence. Written by leading academics from a variety of disciplines, contributions also include commentaries that relate the research to the work of practitioners.

Despite advances made in the investigation of sexual offences, evidence still points to a continued belief in the culpability of victims in their own victimisation and a gap between the estimated incidence of sexual violence and the conviction of perpetrators. Adopting an implicitly and explicitly critical stance to contemporary policy responses that continue to fail in addressing this problem, this book focuses on attitudes and behaviour towards sexual violence from the point of view of the individual experiencing the violence – perpetrator and victim – and situates them within a broader societal frame. It is through an understanding of social processes and psychological mechanisms that underpin sexual violence that violence can be combated and harm reduced, and at this individual level that evidence-based interventions can be designed to change policy and practice.

The Handbook is split into four sections:

1. Legacies: Setting the Scene
   offers a critical overview of historical, legal and cultural processes which help to explain the origins of current thinking and offer steers for future developments.
   

2. Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Violence
   examines contemporary thinking on sexual
   

   violence and reviews explanatory frameworks from a number of perspectives.
   

3. Acts of Sexual Violence
   reviews a number of specific types of sexual violence, elaborating the range of circumstances, victims and perpetrators with a view to addressing the general and pervasive nature of such violence, thus contradicting narrow cultural stereotyping.
   

4. Responding to Sexual Violence
   overviews and evaluates current policies and practices
   

and offers new ideas to develop different types of interventions.

The editors’ conclusion not only draws out the key themes and ideas from contributions to the Handbook, but also considers the nature and the extent of the progress which has been made in understanding and responding to sexual violence.

This will be a key text for students and academics studying sexual violence and an essential reference tool for professionals working in the field including police officers, probation staff, lawyers and judges.

Jennifer M. Brown
is the Deputy Director of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the London School of Economics. She previously co-edited
Rape: challenging contemporary thinking
with Miranda Horvath and the
Handbook of Forensic Psychology
with Elizabeth Campbell.

Sandra L. Walklate
holds the Eleanor Rathbone Chair of Sociology at the University

of Liverpool. She has written numerous books including
Criminology: the basics
,
Understanding Criminology: current theoretical debates
and
Imagining the Victim of Crime
.

Handbook on Sexual Violence

Edited by

Jennifer M. Brown and Sandra L. Walklate

First published 2012 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 Jennifer M. Brown and Sandra L. Walklate; individual chapters, the contributors

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice
: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Handbook on sexual violence / edited by Jennifer M. Brown and Sandra L. Walklate.

1. cm.
   

   1. Sex crimes. 2. Sexual abuse victims. 3. Women–Violence against. I. Brown, Jennifer, 1948- II. Walklate, Sandra.
      

HV6556.H38 2012 364.15’3–dc22

2011013950

ISBN: 978-0-415-67071-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-67072-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-80243-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Palatino by PDQ Typesetting Ltd

To Amanda Hart of Counsel

Carla Machado: an inspiration to all who knew her and to the inspirational life and work of Corinna Seith

Contents
‌

List of figures and tables xi

Abbrevations xiii

Acknowledgements xv

Preface by Liz Kelly xvii

Introduction 1

Jennifer Brown and Sandra Walklate

Part One: Legacies: Setting the Scene 13

Introduction 15

Jennifer Brown and Sandra Walklate

1. Sexual violence in history: a contemporary heritage? 23
   

   Shani D’Cruze
   

2. Sexual violence in literature: a cultural heritage? 52
   

   Liam Murray Bell, Amanda Finelli and Marion Wynne-Davies
   

3. The legal heritage of the crime of rape 69
   

   Joan McGregor
   

4. Developing measures of multiple forms of sexual violence
   

   and their contested treatment in the criminal justice system 90
   

   Sylvia Walby, Jo Armstrong and Sofia Strid
   

5. Developments in investigative approaches to rape: the
   

   investigative heritage 114
   

   Miranda A.H. Horvath and Mark Yexley
   

6. Practitioner commentary: a police perspective 137
   

   Sharon Stratton
   

   Part Two: Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Violence 147
   

   Introduction 149
   

   Sandra Walklate and Jennifer Brown
   

7. Psychological perspectives on sexual violence: generating
   

   a general theory 156
   

   Jennifer Brown
   

8. On sociological perspectives 181
   

   Helen Jones
   

9. Family violence and family safety: working therapeutically
   

   with victims, perpetrators, survivors and their families
   203
   

   Arlene Vetere
   

10. Violence and prostitution: beyond the notion of a ‘continuum
    

    of sexual violence’ 218
    

    Jo Phoenix
    

11. Practitioner commentary: treating the perpetrators of sexual
    

    violence – an applied response 237
    

    Ruth E. Mann
    

    Part Three: Acts of Sexual Violence 245
    

    Introduction 247
    

    Sandra Walklate and Jennifer Brown
    

12. Silencing rape, silencing women 253
    

    Jan Jordan
    

13. Co-ordinating responses to domestic violence 287
    

    Nicole Westmarland
    

14. Destroying women: sexual murder and feminism 308
    

    Anette Ballinger
    

15. Violence, sex and the child 331
    

    Stephanie Petrie
    

16. Under their parents’ noses – the online sexual solicitation of
    

    young people 353
    

    David Shannon
    

17. Practitioner commentary: working with sexual violence 374
    

    Stephanie Kewley
    

    Part Four: Responding to Sexual Violence 383
    

    Introduction 385
    

    Jennifer Brown and Sandra Walklate
    

18. Bullying, harassment and sexual orientation in the workplace 394
    

    Helge Hoel and Duncan Lewis
    

19. Public sector and voluntary sector responses: supporting survivors 417
    

    Kate Cook
    

    Contents
    

20. Public sector and voluntary sector responses: dealing with sex
    

    offenders 436
    

    Hazel Kemshall
    

21. Changing the community response to rape: the promise of sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) programmes 458
    

    Rebecca Campbell
    

22. Practitioner commentary: response from South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centres (SERICC) Home Office Women’s