How to Report on Sexualized Violence
Sexualized violence is an extremely sensitive and often traumatic topic that is difficult to report on both accurately and mindfully. Sexualized violence runs a gamut of experiences, from sexual harassment or assault between individuals all the way up to sexualized violence as a war crime, as is increasingly reported in tandem with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The motive of any and all sexualized violence is for the perpetrator to exert some kind of control or power over the victim in a manner based on sex or gender. Universities and workplaces that have adopted the terminology of “sexualized violence” have defined it as “any non-consensual, unwanted, actual, attempted, or threatened act or behavior that is carried out through sexual means or by targeting a person’s sex, sexual identity, or gender identity or expression. This act or behaviour may or may not involve physical contact.”
Given the breadth of what encompasses sexualized violence, what should journalists be focusing on? How can journalists combat this horrific phenomena while honestly reporting on it?
The Hague Principles on Sexual(ized) Violence are a good place to begin to get a grounded perspective. The Hague Principles, compiled by survivors of sexualized violence, take different cultures and consequences of those cultures into account. It also provides a framework for anyone (including journalists) working with victims in order to maintain their health and safety.
Sexualization is in the eye of the beholder: that is, if the victim of a violent act perceives some sexual component to the nature of their abuse, then that is what happened. And these attacks are often sexualized because they affect an entire community of people: attacks on women in “honor-based” cultures, for example, are leveled to punish the woman’s entire household and community.
Next, since sexualized violence is meant as a tool of power and control, the stakes on a victim telling their story could be catastrophic if the perpetrators catch wind of it. ”Would you rather get someone killed or tell the story with a pseudonym?” said journalist Lauren Wolfe, an adjunct professor at New York University.
The other side of this is that this kind of danger may strike a lot of fear into your subject, and make the interview process more complicated. Slow, thoughtful care must be taken in interviewing your subject and publishing that material. For major help with the interview process, see the Dart Centre Europe’s list of best practices on covering conflict-related sexualized violence.
The trauma that results from sexualized violence is severe. Subjects and witnesses may be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to varying degrees, which can highly impact the memory and precision with which your interviewee may be able to give you information. Also, using questions that allow the participant to volunteer the information–rather than addressing questions interrogation style–can make a big difference in the amount of information and the vulnerability of the information that you get from the interview.
Not only that, but the trauma that sexualized violence can inflict upon communities already in conflict is meant to exhaust and demoralize them. Reporting on what happened to this community should not have the same effect. That means the journalist should be sensitive to any and all asks from communities and subjects that will make the journalistic process easier, and to uplift the affected community rather than put them in continued danger.
Sexualized violence is weaponized for the sake of control, and journalists have the duty to wrest control out of the hands of violent abusers and put it back into the hands of the community. In doing this, journalists must break out of traditional power dynamics and give the power and control back to the survivor of sexualized violence.
