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Chapter 8
‌

On sociological perspectives

Helen Jones

Meet Helen Jones

Helen Jones is a Principal Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Helen’s research and teaching interests include the politics of gender violence, critical analysis of policy on rape and sexual violence, and educational pedagogy. Her book
Rape Crisis: Responding to Sexual Violence
(with Kate Cook) was published by Russell House in 2008. She has written chapters in a number of books and is a member of the editorial panel of the journal
Enhanced Learning in the Social Sciences
. Helen has been a consultant on a number of government committees, including the Sexual Offences Review, which culminated in the enactment of the Sex Offences Act 2003. She has published work in journals such as
Social Policy and Society
,
Feminist Media Studies
and
Contemporary Issues in Law
. She has contributed to the
Encyclopaedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention
published by Sage in 2010 and has presented papers at numerous academic conferences in the UK, USA, Canada, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and Mongolia. Helen considers herself to be ‘so lucky to have worked with so many fine people, from research and writing partners, my students and colleagues, to my local rape crisis group and the women supported there. Yes, the work can be really tough but there is also much laughter and support. Whether we are writing articles or taking part in demonstrations, it all helps to move us forward and speak out.’

Introduction

Sociology has been defined as ‘a science implicated in the policy process’ (Walklate 2001: 20) and the ‘science of society’ (Abbott and Wallace 1990: 3). Sociological analysis operates at the collective level, such as the family, or the community, the city, the organisation, the nation state, and internationally. Of primary importance is how the social structure is maintained or changed through processes that may be beneficial or detrimental to certain social groups. Simply stated, in sociology the emphasis is on society rather than the individual. Certainly, sociological perspectives offer complex theoretical and

methodological frameworks through which to understand and explain sexual violence. Theory is informed by methods and by discourses regarding the nature of the social world. Sociology can therefore offer historically and culturally informed discussions from a range of perspectives to open the door on the once secret world of sexual violence. With around 40 years of sociological research on sexual violence since the advent of the second wave of feminism, many characteristics of sexual violence are now well understood, we have some idea of the extent of the problem, the response of the state and the impact on the lives of the women, children and men affected. Although cross- cultural research suggests that some (rape-prone) societies have higher rates of sexual violence than others it is reasonable to claim that many societies contain some level of sexual violence and that all modern Western societies can be considered rape-prone (Sanday 1981; Seifert 1996: Hagemann-White 2001; Lovett and Kelly 2009).

The primary questions addressed within this
chapter concern whether sociological analysis can tell us anything about the extent of sexual violence; whether the behaviour of the legal system can tell us anything about societal attitudes to victims of sexual violence; and to what extent sociological analysis can help in understanding the phenomenon of myth acceptance across the continuum of sexual violence. Wilson (1983: 12) discussed women’s sexual lives as existing on a pleasure/danger continuum: ‘Men whistle and call after us on the street. This is at the other extreme of the pleasure/danger continuum and is a more contradictory experience than the sheer terror of rape and mutilation [. . .] Yet the daily control of women by sexual innuendo is not trivial.’ Radical analyses of the violence perpetrated against women helped to identify a continuum of violence (Kelly 1988), placing ‘everyday’ violations (Stanko 1990) within a structural context to explore the connections between sexual violation and social control. These theoretical developments from a feminist-informed sociological perspective cast light on the mythology that still exists to support and legitimise sexual violence.

Taking the sociological imagination into women’s lives

Sociology
focuses on human relationships within social settings, how relationships influence other people, what external forces might be influential and the social institutions and structures of the world around us. In 1959, sociologist C. Wright Mills defined ‘the
sociological imagination
’ as the ability to see the impact of social forces on individuals’ private and public lives. Sociological imagination is a central concept to the sociological perspective and yet, until the 1960s and 1970s, sociology demonstrated little ability to see the impact of social forces on women’s private and public lives. The denial of the importance of gender within sociology and other cognate disciplines was ‘in part a product of an uncritical acceptance of deeply embedded assumptions about the nature of scientific enterprise and what could count as knowledge’ (Walklate 2001: 56). Patriarchal ideologies (male patterns of ideas) explained and legitimated the prevailing social structure and culture through partial knowledge: knowledge that served the interests of men (Abbott and Wallace