Navigating Decision-Making after Sexual Violence: The Influence of Social Identity and Perceived Safety

Background and Purpose: Sexual violence (SV) is commonly identified as the most underreported crime in the United States, which can be indicative of low rates of disclosure, help-seeking, and justice-seeking behaviors after experiences of harm. Survivors’ perceptions of safety and viability shape whether available systems support healing and justice. SV can be contextualized as a symptom of power asymmetry, often compounded by differences in social identity. Despite evidence that gender minorities and people of color experience SV at higher rates, there is an inverse relationship between people with marginalized identities experiencing harm at higher rates, yet disclosing experiences of harm, engaging in help-seeking behaviors, or pursuing avenues of justice at lower rates. There is limited research examining how social identity influences post-harm decision-making behaviors. This study uses an ecological framework to explore how social location influences these processes.

Methods: This hermeneutic phenomenological study relied on principles of the Trauma-Informed Socially Just Research Framework, prioritizing healing-centered engagement with 19 participants recruited through university student body social networks and snowball sampling, using maximum variation sampling. Data were collected through 60-90-minute semi-structured virtual interviews that incorporated participatory activities, including a Social Identity Wheel to understand demographic descriptors and a Social Network Map to visualize supportive relationship infrastructures. Interviews covered domains of disclosure, help-seeking, and justice-seeking after SV, and were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. This process resulted in a 21-code codebook across seven categories.

Results: Findings highlight how congruent and incongruent social identities shaped interpersonal dynamics when disclosing SV, encompassing the intersections of race, gender, age, religion, and sexuality. Participants navigated help-seeking and justice-seeking systems based on satisfaction with disclosure experiences and identity congruence with others, including public figures. Individuals described feeling powerless and like justice was unattainable when they believed they did not fit the ‘perfect victim’ trope (e.g., heterosexual, white, cis women). Strong interest in defining justice outside of legal avenues emerged, like reclaiming agency over their lives or how they choose to move on, options for the person who caused harm to acknowledge the severity of harm caused, or non-punitive consequences.

Conclusions and Implications: Social identity plays a central role in shaping post-harm decision-making after experiences of SV and perceptions of available support. Low trust in formal systems reflects limited narratives and approaches available to support them. SV is a power asymmetric dynamic that is exacerbated by incongruence in social identity, rendering attention to social structures critical to counter inequities in help-seeking and decision-making behaviors. Shared identities with those who caused harm raised concerns about “cultural betrayal” and community impact. Participants expressed the need for justice options beyond the criminal legal system, which can often reproduce harmful dynamics of power asymmetry experienced in SV. Further research should explore the needs and desires of people who have experienced SV in the context of interpersonal relationships, communities, and perceptions of safety. This study introduces a qualitative data collection tool adaptable for population-specific research to expand pathways to healing and justice for people who have experienced SV.