‘Justice for Victims is Possible’: Student Reflections on #MeToo in an Online Gender and Justice Course

Abstract

A Spring 2020 online undergraduate gender and justice course included a redesigned emphasis and approach with a focus on gender-based victimization in the #MeToo era. The course emphasized victims’ experience of gender-based violence and justice, with particular attention to how recent social change efforts by and for survivors of sexual violence have raised awareness and pointed to needed reforms in the justice system. Students demonstrated learning and personal reactions to the educational materials through journals and group discussions. This article investigates student engagement and reactions to #MeToo-related content in the course, using qualitative coding of online discussions and journal entries regarding course materials on campus sexual assault, #MeToo activism, and the personal memoir Know My Name (2019) by survivor Chanel Miller. Findings from qualitative analysis of student narratives in the course demonstrate how (1) students felt supported expressing varied emotions through online discussion of gender-based violence, and (2) while students sometimes experienced negative emotion, this was balanced with hope and empathy for victims in reflections on #MeToo and gender-based victimization topics. This research contributes to the literature on teaching about gender-based violence and exploring the student experience in this #MeToo era, with strategies for online approaches.

Keywords:

• Teaching victimology
• victim blaming
• empathy
• online teaching
• #MeToo
• sexual violence

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the reviewers and editors for their helpful comments which improved this article, and to Raven Muñoz, graduate student in the M.S. in Applied Criminology program at Northern Arizona University, for her assistance with qualitative coding and other research support for this project. Special thanks to Chanel Miller for sharing her story, which encourages us to listen to all voices in the effort to end violence.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding information

No funding was received for this article.

Notes

1 The author received IRB approval for retrospective research, as this course was completed before the time of the study and student work was submitted for non-research purposes.

2 Several students identified themselves as transgender in their introductions, but it is important to remember that not all students included full detail in their introductions.

3 While beyond the scope of this article, others have noted the importance of instructors being prepared for student disclosure of their own experience as a victim (Cares et al., 2014). A faculty instructor may be the first person at the university an individual will tell if they have experienced gender-based violence. Faculty should know and explain to students whether they are mandated to report such disclosures under their university’s policy and otherwise become familiar with their Title IX resources.

4 The syllabus and other course materials are available upon request by contacting the author at [email protected]

5 Readings included excerpts from Krakauer’s (2015) Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, Javaid (2016), and Miller (2019) and de Heer and Jones (2017) as previously cited.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lynn C. Jones

Lynn C. Jones is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University, where she teaches courses on gender and justice, victimology, and justice policy. Her research emphasizes gender, difference and justice with a particular interest in how justice professionals and activists advocate for legal and social change. Her collaborative community-based work has been funded by the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime and the Center for Victim Research, with direct impacts for justice access and service delivery for those most vulnerable in society. Her research related to crime victims, rural and indigenous people, and those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, can be found in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (May 2021), and the text Investigating Difference: Human and Cultural Relations in Criminal Justice (Pearson, 2018). Other recent work has been published in Violence and Victims and Theoretical Criminology.