Understanding Sexual Violence

Shamus R. Khan

Pořádají Oddělení pro studium moderní české filosofie FLÚ AV ČR a Katedra sociologie FF UK

Approaches to sexual assault have been dominated by a socio-pathology model, wherein those who assault are "pathological predators." This talk draws upon a large-scale team-based quantitative and qualitative study of sexual violence on at Columbia University and Barnard College, which takes a sociological approach, placing sexual violence in relation to "normal" sex, and looking at the individual, relational, institutional and cultural factors that lead to sexual violence. It argues that the vast majority of assaults are social, not pathological. And presenting a model of power and precarity, it begins a provisional outline of a model of the relationship between inequalities and assault, resting on the classic formulation of gender and power, but also integrating a range of other inequalities that generate precarities and thereby risks for assault. The implication is that reducing inequalities is essential to any strategy to address sexual violence.