Sexual assault is one of the most difficult crimes to prove in court, leading many survivors to never report it to police at all. If they do, the odds of a conviction are low.
For them, the world of “justice” and “proof” — of police and courts — is not the world they inhabit. Instead, justice more often comes from being believed: by talking about what happened, being supported and, long-term, finding an inner sense of resilience.
This was the point two female and one male sexual assault survivors shared with the Bangor Daily News in 2013 as part of a special multimedia project called Proof.
“Being survivors, it is easier when you talk about it. You still get emotional. You still cry. But you’re talking about it instead of keeping it in,” said one survivor of rape.
The national wave of survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment coming forward publicly to share their stories in recent weeks follows the same theme. Most likely will not see their allegations result in court action.
They are pursuing their own justice — remarkable because they are doing so at a significant scale. What’s also remarkable is that they are not always but often being met with belief in powerful circles.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell embodied that larger response with his comments urging Roy Moore to drop out of the U.S. Senate race in Alabama after four women described his sexual misconduct to The Washington Post.
“I believe the women, yes,” McConnell said.
The incredible number of mostly women sharing experiences of men in politics, entertainment and journalism harassing, groping and grabbing them, forcing inappropriate touching, propositioning them, exposing themselves, and raping them has led to some specific calls for action.
The Member and Employee Training and Oversight On (ME TOO) Congress Act, for instance, would require sexual harassment awareness training on Capitol Hill and change the way staffers report complaints. Sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, it has five House cosponsors, including Maine’s Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican.
The House and Senate separately decided to require members and their staff to undergo anti-harassment training.
While the focus on the issue is welcome, there is little evidence that anti-harassment training actually prevents incidents in the workplace. Research shows there are some benefits, such as teaching what constitutes sexual harassment and how to report it. But there may also be a negative effect: In one study male participants were less willing to report sexual harassment and more likely to blame the victim.
There are ways employers can make a difference, wrote Lauren Edelman, a professor of law and professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, for the Post. For instance they can make it clear how employees can make complaints, discipline people promptly and conduct climate surveys to gauge the prevalence of harassment.
But more than policies and procedures, what’s important is “a broad recognition that power and inequality make it easy for people at the top to abuse people lower in the hierarchy, and extremely difficult for those at the bottom to do anything about it,” she said.
Indeed, what’s important is culture — one that demands respect for women, encourages widespread belief in their experiences and doesn’t define them based on a perpetrator’s depravity.
As victim advocates have said for years, an increase in reports of sexual misconduct is typically a positive sign. It doesn’t mean actual rates of sexual abuse are increasing but that more people feel comfortable enough to come forward.
These days, the nation is seeing that fact writ large. The continued response to women’s reports will determine whether the trend continues.
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