Working the Social-Ecological Model with SV 2.0 Tools

Marianne Winters is a leader in the movement to end and address sexualized and domestic violence and is passionate about progressive movements that are visionary, inclusive, current, responsive and proactive. Some would say that she’s “all over the place”. She prefers to say that she thrives on variety and is energized by the multi-faceted, never ending, interconnected and always exciting work of social change. She is the Project Diva for Graphix for Change and consultant and trainer for Praxis for Change.

Primary Prevention aimed at Individual Factors

In the social-ecological model of prevention, the first level of factors that can influence social change is the individual level. These are the personal factors that may put someone at higher risk of perpetrating sexual violence. One of the biggest factors that the SV movement has consistently named is a set of attitudes that support the myths of sexual violence. In fact, the basic message of the movement – you might be tempted to call it a mantra – is “sexual assault is not your fault”. The basis for the widespread belief that victims are somehow to blame for their own victimization has long been identified as a key source of the problem.

For years, community education efforts have focused their message on exposing the myths around victim blaming and placing the responsibility on the person who chooses to commit the act of sexual violence. And rightfully so, According to the World Report on Violence and Health, these attitudes and beliefs are key in understanding who may be at higher risk of perpetrating these crimes, and therefore, what messages and interventions might be helpful in preventing them.

If you’d like to read more about what the World Health Organization has to say about this, read this Chapter on Sexual Violence from the World Report on Violence and Health. While it has plenty to say about risk factors for sexual victimization of women, some of the most compelling factors are the individual characteristics or factors that seem to increase men’s risk of committing rape. Once we work from a deeper understanding of these risk factors, we have the potential for real primary prevention. Here are some of the risk factors as identified in this report and some ideas for ways that Web 2.0 tools are being used toward prevention efforts.

Alcohol and drug use – This factor points the way to collaborative efforts with efforts that identify and address alcohol and drug abuse. Some of the ways to use these tools would be to develop a forum for leaders and advocates in both field to communicate and draw on each other’s strengths, cross training and issue development using webinar technology.

Coercive sexual fantasies and other attitudes and beliefs supportive of sexual violence and hostility towards women– Now documented as a risk factor which means that it is not longer enough to try to put out positive messages through education and media efforts, we need to call it out wherever we find these images on the internet. By taking a by-stander approach, we can use Facebook and other social media groups to organize people to comment on sexist and coercive images, comment on the many YouTube videos that show sex acts as simulated rapes, comment on victim-blaming and abusive comments. The more we can galvanize those who work for change on sexual violence to do more than ignore these images, to take about 30 seconds and make a comment, the more we impact change. This holds potential for a new type of community engagement volunteer, a group of people who partner with a local or statewide program to systematically respond to the misleading messages that are everyone regarding sexual violence.

History of sexual abuse as a child and/or witness family violence as a child – This research tells us that a history of sexual abuse or family violence can increase the risk factor. This does not mean that we’re saying that all men who were sexually abused or witnessed domestic violence are sexual perpetrators. It does mean, however, that we have data that compels us to figure out how to deepen the involvement and outreach of men in the work and broaden the work to assist men in the aftermath of their histories of violence. Web 2.0 tools can be used to speak to specific cultural groups and populations. It’s important that we figure out how to use these tools to speak to men who may have experienced violence themselves. And for advocates and counselors, we can use forums and social media to share ideas, further develop models for healing, outreach, and engagement of men.

If you have tried to use a Web 2.0 tool to engage in prevention at the individual level, I’d love to hear about it.

Next, Putting the tools of SV 2.0 to use in addressing relationship factors.