JUSTICE 2.0 Fileborn, Bianca
British journal of criminology,
11/2017, Letnik:
57, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Emerging scholarship has considered the potential for online spaces to function as sites of informal justice. To date, there has been little consideration of the experiences of individuals who seek ...justice online, and the extent to which victims’ justice needs can be met online. Drawing on the findings of a mixed-methods research project with street harassment victims in Melbourne, Australia, I consider participants’ reasons for, and experiences of, disclosing their encounters of street harassment online. I examine the extent to which these ‘map on to’ a selection of victim’s justice needs. While it is evident that online spaces can function as sites of justice, it is vital to ask for whom and in which contexts justice can be achieved online.
Street harassment may be considered an “unspeakable” harm on account of the routine silencing and trivialization of victims’ experiences. Disclosing street harassment is vital in making its harms ...visible and in working to transform social and cultural attitudes. Despite a recent resurgence of interest in street harassment via online activist groups, there is scant research on disclosure practices. Drawing on findings from an online, mixed-methods survey with 292 participants who have experienced street harassment, I examine disclosure practices using an intersectional lens. I argue that disclosure is an epistemological process, through which a limited and partial understanding of street harassment is produced.
Digital maps have been taken up as a productive tool in both activism and academic research. However, there has been less consideration of their use as a research method in qualitative social ...sciences research. This paper aims to contribute towards scholarship on qualitative research by providing a critical reflection on the use of digital mapping as a research method in a feminist research project on street-based harassment in Australia. Drawing on practices of reflexivity, as well as comments made by participants across 46 qualitative interviews, I consider how digital mapping can be used to facilitate feminist research, arguing that it represents a generative instrument which lends itself to the development of in-depth insights from participants. Yet, mapping also delimits the epistemological possibilities of qualitative research, and I consider how this method simultaneously constrains what can be known about street harassment.
This article presents findings from a comprehensive mapping exercise of activist responses to, and policy advocacy for, street harassment across the US, UK and Australia. Analysis of activist groups ...found that the bulk of responses constituted forms of “awareness raising” and documenting the experiences of victims, suggesting that current advocacy is largely situated within the “problem identification” phase of policy development. The extent and focus of activism and advocacy efforts varied across the three locations, with the responses advocated for shaped by local concerns and politics. In particular, activist groups diverged in their support for criminal justice responses to street harassment. Where policy and other initiatives have been developed, these have rarely been evaluated, and there is a clear need to establish an evidence base to better support future policy and practice developments.
Street harassment represents one of the most pervasive forms of sexual violence. While it is commonly understood as a gender-based harm, it also intersects with racist, homophobic, transphobic, ...ableist, and other forms of abuse. Although it is rarely responded to through government policy, research illustrates that street harassment can have profoundly negative impacts of those who experience it. This article provides a comprehensive review of the current “state of the field” of street harassment research. We undertook two extensive searches of the EBSCO Discovery database in 2015 and 2020, followed by the use of reference snowballing and a Google Scholar search in order to triangulate results. Studies included in the sample were published in English, peer-reviewed and centrally focused on street harassment. Dissertations and nongovernmental organization reports were also included due to the small number of studies in this field. One hundred eighty-two sources were included in the final sample. Findings show that publications on this topic have increased substantially across the two reviews. We provide a thematic overview of key research findings to date and argue throughout that current research suffers from conceptual and typological slippage and does not consistently take into account the need for an intersectional analysis. We close with suggestions for future directions in research and practice, given the emergent nature of the field.
Social media and activist sites have provided an avenue to contest the dominant framing of street harassment as “trivial” and have sought to make street harassment and its harms visible. To date, ...digital activism has been analysed and conceptualised in relation to its potential as a counter-public forum that enables collective action and resistance, political mobilisation, “speaking out” and consciousness raising, and as a site of informal or innovative justice. I aim to build on this literature by examining the potential for the activist sites Hollaback!, @catcallsofnyc and @dearcatcallers to function as a form of “counter-mapping”, contributing towards broader social justice efforts to disrupt and transform dominant productions of space/place. I examine the tensions created by these digital practices, particularly with regards to whether they disrupt the production of space/place or, rather, reinforce urban space as a gendered “threatscape”.
Abstract
Despite the pervasive nature of street harassment, there is currently little research exploring who perpetrates street harassment and why. Drawing on interviews with Australians who have ...experienced street harassment, we examine their insights into perpetration. Participants identified individual-level, social/cultural, structural and contextual factors that facilitate street harassment. While existing theoretical explanations of gendered violence help to account for the perpetration of street harassment, these were not sufficient in accounting for participants’ experiences. Participants often drew on gendered, aged, classed and racial stereotypes in their perceptions of perpetrators. We argue that a nuanced understanding of power that accounts for multiple, intersecting forms of marginalisation is needed to understand who perpetrates, as well as who is perceived to perpetrate street harassment.
Bystander intervention has shown promise in preventing sexual violence in certain social contexts. Despite emerging evidence of pervasive sexual violence at music festivals, no research has ...considered bystander intervention in this setting. Drawing on an online survey conducted with 371 Australian festival attendees, we explore the role of gender on bystander intervention at music festivals. Findings point to significant gender differences, with women more willing and likely to intervene in a broader range of scenarios. We argue that responses to sexual violence are a collective responsibility shared by both women and men, as well as festival organizers and industry bodies.
Historically, police and the criminal justice system more broadly played a role in the policing of queer identity and the construction of queer communities as 'deviant'. Emerging queer criminological ...scholarship has documented the extent to which this historical context (at least within the Global North) continues to shape interactions between police and LGBTQ+ communities, with these relationships sometimes marked by distrust and hostility, though positive changes are also evident. However, the majority of research to date has focused on the experiences of adult members of queer communities living in urban locations. As such, this project sought to examine the experiences of young queer people living in regional Victoria. Drawing on focus groups with young LGBTQ+ people, this paper examines participants' perceptions of and experiences engaging with police. Participants' views and experiences were diverse, with some continuing to harbour distrust for police, though positive experiences were also discussed. Some participants encountered harassment and discrimination from police perceived to be on account of both their youth and identity as LGBTQ+, suggesting the need to take an intersectional approach to understanding relations between police and queer youth and in continuing to improve relations between police and young queer people.
Research on peer review to date has focused on its role as a formal compliance mechanism, a process for enhancing and developing teaching practice, and as a considerable source of anxiety for ...educators. In this paper, we draw on scholarly reflections from our experience of undertaking a reciprocal, formative peer review in an Australian higher education setting. Our findings provide novel conceptual, empirical, and practical insights by providing the first application of an appreciative inquiry framework to the process of peer review. We argue that adopting an appreciative inquiry framework assists us in learning from 'the best' aspects of our colleagues' teaching. Moreover, it offers a framework for understanding and responding to some of the challenges long-associated with peer review. In doing so, it presents potential benefits pertaining to student retention and learning outcomes, while opening up new possibilities for researching and practicing peer review. Author abstract
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