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Biography

Andrea Giuffre is doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at The University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL). Prior to arriving at UMSL, she obtained a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice with a specialization in Victimology from Seattle University. Her primary research interests include the impact of identity formation on desistance, the social harms of criminal legal system contact, the financialization of the criminal legal system, monetary sanctions, and corrections. Giuffre currently works with Drs. Beth Huebner and Lee Slocum on the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance’s “Probation Violations as a Driver of Jail Incarceration in St. Louis County, Missouri.”

Elaine Gunnison is Professor/Graduate Director in the Criminal Justice Department at Seattle University. She has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati with a specialization in life course criminology, female offending, and corrections. Her research interests include the applicability of criminological theory to females and ex-offender reentry. Her research has been published in: Crime & Delinquency, Criminal Justice Studies, Federal Probation, The Journal of Criminal Justice, The Journal of International & Comparative Criminal Justice, The Journal of Crime & Justice, Women & Criminal Justice, The Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, The Journal of Prison Education & Reentry, The Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society. She is lead/sole author of several books: Offender Reentry: Beyond Crime & Punishment (Lynne Rienner); Women & Crime: Balancing the Scales (Wiley-Blackwell); Community Corrections (Carolina Academic Press); and Women Leading Justice: Experiences and Insights (Routledge). She recently served as Co-PI on an academic-practitioner research initiative, the Seattle Women’s Reentry Initiative. She is also currently serving as Co-Editor of Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society. She is a member of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the American Society of Criminology, and the Western Society of Criminology.

Abstract

While researchers have attempted to estimate the prevalence of and identify risk factors for sexual assault, less is understood about the relationship among populations at high risk for sexual assault and their perceptions of survivors’ services organizations and justice. The purpose of this investigation is to contribute to existing research through exploratory qualitative analyses of 43 undergraduate sorority women’s perceptions of survivors’ services and justice on a large, urban campus in the Pacific Northwest in the United States. Results of these exploratory analyses revealed that the sorority women had preferences for informal confidants and services whom they could trust concerning matters of sexual violence. The women also discussed that they would prefer confidential and mental health competent services for fear that disclosing sexual violence might draw public attention to them. On the same note, the women expressed a preference for justice that would prioritize their reputation and minimize stigmatization and highlighted how disclosure of sexual violence could impact their social, educational, and employment opportunities. Moreover, they described a fear of being blamed or not believed about sexual violence. Lastly, participants supported relatively punitive sanctions for perpetrators. Overall, participants cited many barriers to accessing formal support services, exposing the persistent justice gap that remains for this population. Findings suggest a need for outreach regarding campus services designed to address sexual violence.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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