Silence and Narratives of Denial

Despite the high global prevalence of sexual violence (SV), there is a notable gap in the qualitative understanding of the social mechanisms that perpetuate its underreporting in academic settings. This study, part of a doctoral thesis, sought to explore the experiences, perceptions, and narratives of denial of SV among university students in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Through a qualitative exploration, semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirty individuals from the university community. The analysis focused on exposure to different dimensions of SV, including economic coercion and cyberbullying. The results reveal a dissonance: self-reported direct victimization was consistently low (twenty-five to twenty-eight out of thirty denied personal experience), while the narratives obtained demonstrated extensive knowledge of Violence Against Women (VAW) in third parties. This phenomenon is interpreted as direct evidence of Silence and Narratives of Denial, key elements that shape institutional underreporting in this context. The main conclusion is that the low official record is not due to the absence of violence, but due to normalization and a culture of silence that prevents the recognition of one’s own victimization. Institutions need to expand preventive approaches to denaturalize these forms of violence and promote self-reporting.