Sexual Violence Against Women Sociology Report 2022

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
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Introduction
Sexual vehemence is prevalent all through the world. Even though in most nations there
has been insignificant amount of investigation on the crime, existing evidences suggest that in
nations like Australia, United States and Canada majority of women have been experiencing
sexual assault by an intimate companion and equal to one third of adolescence girls have been
reporting their first sexual involvement as being enforced. Sexual assault or violence against
women significantly affects physical as well as mental health. Furthermore, its impact on mental
condition can be serious as its physical influence and may be in the same way long lasting
(Smith, 2015). Reports reveal that sexual violence to be consequential of suicide, HIV infection
or killing whereby the second takes its occurrence during the act of sexual attack or consequently
as a killing of 'honour'. Sexual violence against women can be intensely influential on the social
security of the victims whereby individuals tends to face stigma and maybe ostracized by their
families and others consequently (Pateman, 2016). The following paper will aim to analyse
women sexual assault as a critical crime by throwing light on its consequences and causes.
Additionally it will highlight the underlying factors related to the crime through sociological
lenses and suggest necessary recommendations for its mitigation.
Discussion
It is highly challenging to quantity the actual magnitude of violence counter to women as
majority of events of sexual attack tends to go unrecorded. As per reports, in 2005 the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (ABS) projected that about 36% of female sufferers of physical molestation
and around 19% of female targets of sexual violence in Australia have informed their
experiences to the law enforcement officers (Henry & Powell, 2015). In recent years, there have
been witnessed significant amount of studies on sexual violence against women in Australia. A

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significant part of understanding social problem as well as a precursor of its prevention is
realisation of the underlying factors related to its occurrence. Critical investigation on causes of
sexual violence against women as heinous crime comprise of two lines of enquiry related to the
assessment of the attributes which impact the behaviour of criminals and secondly the
deliberation of whether some women have an elevated susceptibility to discrimination. García-
Moreno, Hegarty, d'Oliveira and Koziol-McLain et al. (2015) have sought underlying factors at
level of sociological analysis. Studies of offending and victimization have remained conceptually
separate excluding socio-cultural analysis where universal concern is typically given to two vital
procedures. These processes focus on factors, which influence men to conduct such crime and
direct their expressions of violence towards women also situations which tend to position women
to receive ferocity as well as drive to silence them subsequently.
Sexual violence against women is successfully used to be stimulated by desire and needs
to subjugate women. Such a perception conjures portrayal of dominant man utilizes aggression
against women in order to uphold his dominance. However, critical studies have claimed that
such relationships are highly complex since power and regulation usually intensify intimate
partner violence (Bone, Goodfellow, Vahidi & Gelberg,et al., 2018). Nevertheless, intention of
aggression shown against women may also be in response to man's emotional factor related to
powerlessness and incompetence of accepting refutation. Comprehensive studies claimed that
efforts of resolving arguments regarding sex versus power included extensive laboratory research
of sexual arousal of men to stimuli of the pixels of pure violence or truly consensual sex and
assault. On the other hand, social learning theory mention that humans learn social behaviour by
studying the behaviour patterns of other individuals in addition to the outcomes of those
behavioural patterns, thus forming perceptions regarding which behaviours appropriate by trying

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those patterns and continuing them in order to receive positive outcomes. In the view of
McGlynn, Rackley and Houghton (2017), social learning theory does not considered women
sexual violence inevitable would rather views it as a social behaviour and heinous crime which is
shaped by its consequences and tend to continue if it is strengthened. One of the mechanisms
through which social learning has its occurrence relies on social information processing that is
decoding for understanding social interactions on making judgements regarding appropriate
responses based on the coding and performing a response in order to see whether the impact has
been intended. Studies have hypothesized that aggressive men tend to lack ability vital to
accurately interpret communications from women. At this juncture, Zavala (2017) have
illustrated that men's decisions of videotapes of male-female conversation are immensely
sexualized in comparison to judgements made by women.
Feminist approach to apprehend sexual violence incorporates Hirschi's social bond
theory. According to this theory, higher the emotional attachments men have with other male
associates in sphere of hyperactive masculine subculture, the higher propensity of women sexual
assault. However, another critical factor related to this crime is commitment, which posits that
men tend to conform to patriarchal social order on the basis of strong trust and reliance. This can
manifest itself by consistent associations with female inspector of the repercussions, which are
involved. Moreover, by means of this theoretical understanding, individual can attain masculinity
and further illustrate trust and commitment to the patriarchal social order. Furthermore, Hirschi's
theory notes that individuals possessing conviction of legitimacy of patriarchy as well as
masculinity have greater propensity to pursue such criminal acts, consequently leading to sexual
violence against women. As per Fox, Nobles and Fisher (2016), Hirschi's integrative theory
provides rationale for causes, which lead men to involve in sexual molestation against women.