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A Woman’s Story Goes International
Kelly Johnson is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology, at the University of Durham. She has conducted research investigating police responses to domestic abuse, and her current PhD work focuses on the experiences of European migrant women seeking support for domestic abuse from various institutions in the UK.
I recently visited Colorado College – a university in the state of Colorado - as a visiting lecturer, teaching a research module to undergraduate students in the Department of Anthropology. The class involved a research project, which aimed to collect individuals’ experiences of reporting sexual and domestic violence within military institutions in the region.
The project was set up in collaboration with a local sexual and domestic abuse organisation, because staff there had noticed a large number of their clients were in the military (there are several bases nearby) and were seeking the organisation’s services because they felt let down by how the military responded to their reports of abuse.
The US military has received widespread criticism for its responses to sexual violence – most notably in the harrowing documentary The Invisible War – but in recent years it has introduced widespread reforms in an attempt to improve survivors’ access to safety, justice and support.
When it came to teaching this class, I wanted to assign reading for the students that provided survivors’ accounts of reporting domestic abuse or sexual violence.
I was surprised by how little accounts there were out there – despite survivors’ voices being so important for shaping our understanding of the reporting process. Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre's (ERCC) A Woman’s Story was one of the few sources I could find – and what a valuable teaching resource it proved to be.
Students really connected with the writing and felt deeply passionate about the account they read, as excerpts from their written reflections on the piece attest:
"On paper, the woman received all of the services a rape victim should receive. It is not one of those stories where no one believes her and she’s left utterly alone. The incredible thing about this narrative, is that she may as well have been. It wasn’t the lack of services that is so heart-breaking, it’s the inadequacy of them. How people do their jobs, and most significantly, how people treat a victim, can define a victim’s post-rape experience. It is truly amazing to me that simple empathy and kindness of humans (or lack thereof) can make a world of a difference."
"Learning of the ways that the system treats and provides care (or doesn't) for victims through a survivor’s personal account served to humanize the reporting process for me. Reading the author’s very human reaction of helplessness, despair, and fear made me realize that the reporting process itself can be a site of re-traumatization for survivors, which is horrifying. The lack of transparency, the perpetrator-focused response, the lack of humanity, and the theft of the survivor’s sense of control all contributed to the failure of the system to adequately respond to her needs, to provide justice, and to work towards preventing future assault."
"I think that A Woman’s Story is an incredibly important piece for anyone involved with sexual violence–whether a survivor, friend, family, or care provider. By shedding light on the successes and failures of the many institutions involved, the author provides a basis from which institutional improvements can be made to make the process less traumatic for survivors."
In her writing, the author of A Woman’s Story expressed that she hoped her account could be used to enhance the awareness and education of others - and clearly, from these student reflections, we can see that she achieved just that.
Despite being set in Scotland, A Women’s Story proved to be an invaluable international teaching resource: for providing insight into a woman’s experience of navigating the criminal justice system after reporting sexual violence, and for highlighting the ongoing need for institutional reflexivity and change. I would like to thank the survivor for taking the difficult step to share her story, and ERCC for making this resource available.
