SOC 325

The Victim-Offender Overlap

Offenders and victims are:
- Male
- Younger (18-24)
- Less educated/ underemployed
80% crime committed by men
Men more likely victims of crime for all crime except sexual/intimate partner violence
Victim offender overlap: when an offender has also experienced victimization, or when a victim also engages in crime
Cycle of violence: witnessing/experiencing violence as a child can lead to perpetration of violence later in life
- ACEs (adverse childhood experiences)
Breaking cycle of violence video:

He witnessed his father abusing his mom

Joined a gang to deal with and control his anger

Became an offender, he learnt how to deal with his anger through his father

Broke cycle by introducing vulnerability into masculinity

Most offenders victimized before every charged (96% incarcerated experienced victimization)
18% men have accessed victim services
Victim services not readily provided to offenders or men

Theoretical Explanations of the Victim-Offender Overlap

Ideal victim: readily afforded legitimate status
- Weak
- Carrying out innocent and respectable task
- Incident occurred in location victim cannot be blamed for
- Offender was physically stronger
- No relationship between victim and offender
Non ideal victim:
- Witches: those who have power (women), goes against their weak attribute
- Workers: victims of the capitalist system, losers of the system
Survivor label seen as active, strong, resilient, rather than passive, weak, powerless as a victim
Just World Belief (JWB): belief in an orderly and just world, where bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people
- Victim-blaming
Hegemonic masculinity: celebrates emotional stoicism and invulnerability (exept anger), strength, control, domination, sexual promiscuity & objectification, competition
- Reinforces unequal gender order
Men’s perceptions
- Victim-offenders: victimization was avoided; men downplayed/ignored their victimization and amplified their use of violence
- Identifying as victim would threaten offender status
- Victims: balancing act between ‘victim’ and ‘man’ identities; attempt to be seen as legitimate victim but still reaffirm their hegemonic man status
- Non-offenders want victim status but still be man
Public perceptions
- Victim blaming
- More likely to believe and support innocent victims who are in our ingroup

Effects of Colonization and Enforcing the Patriarchal Order in Canada

Indigenous gender roles have complementary relationships
Colonization brought strict gender binary
Heteropatriarchy established cisgender, heterosexual male domination
Gendercide: systematic targeting, punishment, and attempted elimination of gender roles of Indigenous peoples (two-spirited)
Subordinated masculinities: anything in opposition to hegemonic masculinity (ex., queer men)
- Seen as lesser than or aberrant from and deviant to hegemonic
Marginalized masculinities: lacking characteristics that allow you to conform to hegemonic masculinities (ex., racialized men)
- Trivialized or discriminated against, or both, because of unequal relations

What is the Patriarchy?

All systems of domination work together
Idea that there are innate roles for each sex
Violence socializes all around it into patriarchal understandings of gender
Boys can exert violence on anyone weaker than them
“Normal traumatization” of boys, turning them into men through injury
Men are a casualty of the patriarchy
We maintain the patriarchy through stereotypes and actions
Discursive distancing: use of discourse (speech, writing, etc.) to distance oneself either from:
- All things feminine
- Only way to remove label is to pass it on to someone else
- Hegemonic masculinity: attempting to position oneself as different than the hegemonic man, though often subtly still aligning oneself with hegemony (ex., gay jokes)
Pop culture promotes violent masculinity as cultural norm

Social Organization of Masculinities

Complicit masculinity: majority of men benefit from patriarchal dividend, despite not actually displaying hegemonic masculinity
- Demonstrates cultural ascendancy
Hybrid masculinity: selective incorporation of identity elements typically associated with various marginalized and subordinated masculinities or femininities into privileged men’s gendered performances and identities
- How privileged men can include parts of their oppressed identities, but turn it in their favor (bromances)
positive/alternative/healthy masculinities: non hegemonic forms of masculinities that encourage men to engage in expressions of masculinity that are not harmful to others or themselves
- Help to legitimate egalitarian relationship between men and women
Emphasized femininity: characteristics defined as womanly that establish complementary relationship to hegemonic masculinity that supports dominate position of men and subordination of women

Constructing Performances and Raising Men

Adultification: where racial minority children’s actions and transgressions are made to take on a sinister, intentional, fully conscious tone that is stripped of any element of childish naivete
Racialized children expected that their actions are more intentional
Hypersexuality: men are constantly searching for sex, can never be satisfied
White anxiety: when white people fear the actions of the racialized
Criminal justice pipeline encourages hypermasculinity as a mechanism of coping, survival and/or resistance
Over-policing in all settings fosters a sense of criminalization

Relationality of Masculinities and Femininities

Elliot Rodger: founder of incel ideology
Femininity is often coded as inauthentic, external imposition, and a form of oppression
Femmephobia: sets gendered standard of femininity, read as inferior to masculinity
Stacy: the universal ideal woman
- Hyperfeminine, sexual actor, “it”, failed feminity, all men entitled to sexual access, stay at home mom
Becky
- Flexible femmphobia, average, puts effort in, queer as coping, casual sex, unfulfilled career woman
Chad: male counterpart to Stacy
- Reframe hegemonic masculinity to pejorative traits
- Women blamed for pursuing them

Victim-Offender Dynamics of Sexual Violence

Sexual assault among women is 4x that of men
Most are victimized by a peer
Sexual offenders are young, white, known to victim, commit multiple acts
Risk markers: men, prior violence, higher alcohol consumption, ACEs, endorsement of assault/gender norms/ hostility, peer norms support, passive consent, sexual risk taking, antisocial orientation
Perpetrator tactics: mechanisms used to coerce and control victims before, during, and after assault
- Identifying vulnerable victims, isolating, alcohol/drugs, surprise, control
Grooming: use of manipulative behaviours to gain trust and access to a potential victim, coerce them to comply to the abuse, and lessen the potential for being caught
- Often known to victim
- 5-stage model:
- Select victim
- Gain access and isolate victim
- Develop trust
- Densitize victim to sexual content
- Maintenance behaviors post-assault
Sex offender registries in Canada are private

Explaining Sexual Violence Perpetration

Queer canadians 3x more likely experience sexual violence
- Higher with disability
Sexual violence explanations:
- Power and control
- Sexual gratification
10 dominant explanations for sexual assault

Responsibility without denial
Victim blame
drugs/alcohol
Don’t know
Sexual pleasur3e
Grievance
Impulsive
Alleviation
Intimacy seeking
1. Need for respect/control

Justifications: individual accepts full responsibility but denies wrongfulness of behaviour
- denial of injury: most common, argue sexual abuse was consensual
- denial of victim, condemnation for condemners, appeal to loyalties
Excuses: recognize wrongfulness, but don't claim full responsibility
- Accident, biologically driven, defeasibility, scapegoating
Scapegoating: blame their experience of sexual abuse as direct cause for their sexual offending
Sexual violence can be used when masculinity is threatened
Righteous masculinity: traditional or oppressive expression of masculinity enacted by someone of subordinate status. In doing so, the acts are recognized by the actor as righteous, even if they are, in fact, reinforcing inequality and oppression

Masks of Masculinity and Sexual Victimization

Rape myths: false views realted to perpetrator and survivor
Reactions of others make a big difference
70% male survivors experience severe and long term confusion with their seuxality and masculinity
Language of vulnerability not readily available to men
- May use language to regain feelings of impenetrability

Rape Laws, #MeToo, and Male Victims/Survivors

Before Canada’s 1983 rape law reform rape was vaginal penetration, committed by man (not husband), required proof woman violently resisted, reported assault asap, and seuxal history was permissible
Canada’s law now:
- Sexual assault (level I): minor or no injury
- Sexual assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (level II): includes threats
- Aggravated sexual assault (level III): wounding or near death
UK Rape Law 2022:
- he intentionally penetrates vagina, anus, or mouth with penis
- No consent to penetration
- And A does not reasonably believe that B consents
Dominant feminist concepualizations of sexual violence reproduce myth of legitimate female survivor and legimitate male perpetrator
#MeToo movement 2006 by Tarana Burke
- 30% were male survivors
- Was intended to be for all survivors
#MenToo in India 2018, countermovement
Men’s rights movements (MRM): blame feminism and claim that women now are more advantaged over men
- Argue they’re victims of reverse discrimination
Victimization surveys show 6x higher female perpetration than official stats
Female offenders apply male theories to their behaviour
- Heteropatriarchy as influence
- Heterosexual nurterers

Sex Offender Registries and Treatment

No one NCRMD could ever be removed from SOR, even if received absolute discharge before G
- Now not included in registries with absolute discharge
US majority support publicized registries; Canada split
Canada has vigilantism despite being private
- People vs. Predators: protestors fighting against release of sex offenders into community, go to peoples houses
- Creep hunters: actively bait individuals online and give info to police or release the info online
SORs and survivors extremely under-researched
Survivors question SOR ability to deter future sexual pereptration
- 70% believe it creates false sense of security
- But believe all offenders should have to register
Survivors tend to have more positive views towards sex offenders than nonvictims
Most sexual offenders want treatment, effective in reducing recidivism
- Vigilantism increases recidivism
Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA)
- Best program, 70-80% reduction in recidivism
- Volunteers support transition from prison to community
- Emphasize reintegration
- Connect offender (core member) with supports and risk markers are worked on

Intimate Partner Violence in Canada

Police reported 80% women vs. self-reported is 44% women
Women more likely to experience severe abuse and severe emotional consequences
- Woman initiates, man escalates
Women higher short term emotional consequences from IPV in all categories than men
Situational couple violence (SCV): most often results from arguments or conflicts that escalate into violent behaviour
- Not as severe, less likely to escalate
- Can stop without intervention
Intiamte terrorism (IT): intimidation, coercion, and controlling behaviours and actions
Cycle of abuse: tension building, incident, reconciliation, calm
Stalking: repeated, unwanted, pursuit behaviours that result in severe emotional consequences for the victim (8% women, 5% men)
- Falls under criminal harassment
No IPV offense in Canada’s criminal code
Clare’s law (Disclosure to Protect Against Domestic Violence): provides info to persons at risk about their partner’s criminal history
- Right to know and right to ask
- Province specific

Explaining Intimate Partner Violence

Coercive control: strategic course of self-interested behaviour designed to secure and expand gender-based privilege by establishing a regime of domination in personal life
- Evan Stark
Power and Control Wheel

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