Institutions as Perpetrators: Power and Political Violence in Responses to Rape

How and why do attempts to remedy sexual violence fail survivors so profoundly? In industrialized democracies, government consensus that rape is something to combat has done little to reduce its prevalence. A rich corpus of literature in political science focuses on the causes and consequences of public violence while ignoring private violence altogether. In states that identify as leaders on gender equality, how does this failure to effectively respond to sexual violence unfold? We build on a wealth of feminist scholarship to advance a simple claim, worthy of urgent attention from scholars of political violence. Through formal and informal institutions, states routinely perpetrate violence, upholding structures of gendered, classed, and racialized domination and oppression. We show how legal, medical, and family systems perpetrate violence by reimposing rather than challenging patriarchal power in their interactions with survivors. By denying survivors’ experiences, dehumanizing their survival, and subjugating them in their efforts to seek care, legal, medical, and family systems refuse survivors and other feminized populations autonomy, power, and control over their own lives and bodies. These practices enact violence by recreating the embodied experiences and power dynamics present in acts of sexual violence. We join a chorus of feminist scholars to argue that understanding how institutions perpetrate violence after rape is critical for understanding broader power relations in society.