Identification and exploration of core features of a real rape paradigm using three data sources relevant to state grant funded rape prevention and education (RPE) program
The primary goal of this dissertation is to identify in rape research and practice literature four core aspects that constitute a real rape paradigm and explore these four aspects across three data sources that speak to a mid-Atlantic state’s Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) program. The four aspects of the real rape paradigm identified in the literature and explored in the data sources for this study include the 1) focus on physical force as the primary tactic of rape, 2) narrow perceptions on all the various relational contexts in which rape occurs (e.g., victim/offender relationship), 3) conceptualizing rape as something that happens by men against women, 4) attention is primarily given to adolescents and adults at the expense of children. This entire dissertation project is theoretically guided by thinking with theory and the utilization of three frameworks: a critical perspective/lens, sociology of attention & the iceberg metaphor, and social problems theory & history matters. ☐ The data collected for this dissertation come from interviews, analysis of select policy and practice documents, and my observations as an evaluation member of the RPE evaluation as well as my analysis of one particular survey used for evaluation: the state’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The interviews were with a range of RPE and non-RPE practitioners across three different roles of practitioners in the RPE program: RPE coordinators, coalition members, and local employees. RPE coordinators oversee the grant’s operations, coalitions provide trainings and engage in public education, and local programs implement RPE programs on the ground. Policy and practice documents from organizations that are associated with the RPE program, were identified for analysis in an ad hoc fashion as they were deemed important during the course of the study. Finally, evaluation data constitute my systematic observations of evaluation decisions and internal discussions, as well as an analysis of one of the most salient and relevant surveys utilized by the evaluation team to evaluate RPE efforts – the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The design of this study then is qualitative mixed methods, with interviews being the central data and the additional data points from policy and practice documents and evaluation data being supplemental. ☐ Analysis of the data reveal both adherence to and transcendence away from the four core features of the real rape paradigm. The aspect adhered of the real rape paradigm adhered to most significantly was the ‘male perpetrator/female victim’ aspect. The vast majority of data across all three sources, reveal that rape is primarily conceptualized in a mid-Atlantic state’s RPE program as something that happens to women and girls with men as the perpetrators. The second feature of the real rape paradigm that was largely adhered to across the three data sources is the ‘age of victim’ aspect. Data reveal that the attention is mostly on adults and adolescents, and child sexual abuse or childhood trauma is often considered as something outside of direct prevention efforts and is instead a risk factor for sexual violence that needs intervention (as opposed to prevention). The last two– the ‘physical force’ and ‘victim/offender’ aspects of the real rape paradigm were both adhered to and transcended. ☐ These findings reveal that the aspects of the real rape paradigm are present across the three data sources in this study, demonstrating that aspects of this paradigm are embedded within the mid-Atlantic state’s RPE program. One major takeaway from this study is that we need to shift the paradigm to conceptualize sexual violence in a more comprehensive and holistic manner with attention to various contexts and types of sexual violence. Despite the strong adherence to two aspects of the real rape paradigm, the state’s RPE program and practitioners focused on in this study demonstrate transcendence away from two aspects of the real rape paradigm, providing evidence that this state’s RPE program and practitioners may already be in the middle of a paradigm shift and towards a broader conceptualization of rape.
Grant, Paradigm, Qualitative mixed methods, Rape
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