NCJ Number
138518
Date Published
1991
Length
13 pages
Annotation
To provide a context for the Safer Society's work in controlling and reducing sexual violence, this essay outlines the social change process and abolitionist perspective; identifies some challenging and often conflicting areas involved in the pursuit of safety, justice, and nonoppressive remedies; and considers some of the primary themes and components of a community organizing model for reducing and controlling sexual violence.
Abstract
The preferred model is a social justice prevention model based on community responsibility for one another's safety and on respect for all persons involved in the sexual assault. The formation of three coordinated task forces or components is recommended to communities that want to control and reduce sexual assaults: a perpetrator prevention/education component, a victim/survivor prevention component, and an offender restoration component. The perpetrator prevention/education approach has been validated by the research of anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday (1982) who found 47 percent of the 95 tribal societies studied to be free of sexual assault. A victim/survivor prevention component needs to encompass funding for all service, advocacy, and restoration strategies and support systems. The offender restoration component should involve services to the "hands-off" nuisance offenders, the "hands-on" passive offenders, and the "hands-on" aggressive offenders. 9 notes and 17 references