Internalized Messages: The Role of Sexual Violence Normalization on Meaning-making after Campus Sexual Violence

ABSTRACT

The impact of violence normalization on the perpetration of sexual violence against women is well known. What is less known, however, is how survivors of campus sexual violence recognize, internalize, and respond to normalization both within and outside their university institutions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to (1) explore where survivors of undergraduate sexual violence recognize the normalization of violence against women within their environments, and (2) describe the impact of violence normalization on survivor’s processing of their own sexual violence encounters. Ethnographic narrative interviewing followed by a grounded theory analysis was utilized in a sample of 24 women-identifying individuals who experienced sexual violence as an undergraduate. Normalization was recognized by survivors through the tolerance of sexual aggression, existing within both the university’s hook up culture and larger societal rape culture. Internalized normalization influenced survivors’ abilities to label and make meaning of their campus sexual violence experiences. Moreover, internalization of normalization occurred in different ways, influencing alternative trauma processing pathways. This research fills a critical gap of understanding the impact of internalized normalization on survivor processing. Future research is needed to further explore normalization in this population to understand areas for intervention and pathways for healing.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual Assault
• sexual Abuse
• rape
• intimate Partner Violence
• mental Health

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the immense help of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center at University of Michigan for expanding our knowledge of campus sexual violence as well as the survivors interviewed through this project who trusted and inspired us with their stories of hurt, loss, and hope for a future without violence.

Disclosure of interest

We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support that could have influenced its outcome.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan [Dissertation Grant], Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation [AERO Grant], and Sigma Theta Tau International, Rho Chapter [Research Grant].