A Study of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

THE POLITICS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST AUDIT OF INSTITUTIONS AND DISCOURSES IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CALIFORNIA HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY By Jessica A. Whatcott A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Social Science: Environment and Community April 2011 THE POLITICS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST AUDIT OF INSTITUTIONS AND DISCOURSES IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CALIFORNIA HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY By Jessica A. Whatcott Approved by Master‟s Thesis Committee: _____________________________________________________________________ Dr. Llyn Smith, Committee Chair Date _____________________________________________________________________ Dr. Jessica LeAnn Urban, Committee Member Date ________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Ronnie Swartz, Committee Member Date _____________________________________________________________________ Dr. Mark Baker, Graduate Coordinator Date _______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Jená Burges, Vice Provost Date ii ABSTRACT THE POLITICS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST AUDIT OF INSTITUTIONS AND DISCOURSES IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CALIFORNIA Jessica A. Whatcott Anti-violence movements in the United States have demanded that the state, institutions, and communities take steps to respond seriously to domestic violence and sexual assault. In the past 35 years, state and federal laws have been passed mandating criminal justice departments, medical practitioners, and social service agencies to respond to domestic violence and sexual assault in particular ways. These mandates have been accompanied by the availability of state and philanthropic funding for training, policy development, and programming for legally mandated organizations and agencies that voluntarily provide services to domestic violence and sexual assault (DVSA) victims and survivors. Legally mandated responses and the availability of state and philanthropic funding have changed anti-violence movements, and the changes have been a cause for concern in radical feminist narratives. In addition, intersectional feminist narratives have been critical of mainstream anti-violence movements for failing to account for the ways that violence that occurs in the home or “private” spaces intersects with violence at the community, institutional, national and transnational levels that are also damaging to iii women‟s health and well-being. I examine how anti-violence efforts in a rural county in northern California compare to critical narratives about anti-violence movements. Using an ethnographic approach, I interviewed professionals in the DVSA field, participated in public events and coordinating meetings, and analyzed documents/texts produced by this regional movement. By examining the institutions in Humboldt County that respond to domestic violence and sexual assault and by exploring the local discursive terrain, I illuminate the barriers to developing a broad anti-violence movement with an intersectional feminist analysis that is capable of shifting structural power. I also locate many instances when DVSA workers in this region resist being defined by any one DVSA narrative. This research examines how institutionalization and state funding provide some opportunities for social change, but ultimately constrain individuals and organizations from building and sustaining an anti-violence movement that can expose and eradicate the multiple forms of violence that target socially and economically marginalized people. I argue that state actors and institutions have a stake in focusing resources on interpersonal violence and away from macro-level systems of inequality, oppression and exploitation. This research contributes to a small but powerful body of literature that urges the anti-violence movement to be equally critical of conventionally defined domestic and sexualized violence and state and institutional forms of violence. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many voices and strategic silences have influenced and inspired me to write this. I dedicate this research to family members, friends, comrades in struggle, research informants, and clients who have shared with me their personal and painful experiences with violence and with healing. Their stories have influenced my desire to envision and build a world where violence is not used as a tool of domination, subordination, and oppression. Even more important, their stories of survival, struggle, and maintaining hope that another world is possible have inspired me to find and celebrate resistance. You have given me a gift I can never hope to reciprocate. I am indebted to the theoretical and action frameworks developed by the people of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence; the Committee on Women, Population and The Environment; Cynthia Chandler from Justice Now; Generation Five; and Angela Davis. I went back to the smart and fascinating ideas of these organizations and individuals over and over again. Thank you for your work and wisdom. Thank you to everyone who has conspired with me in trying to make our world a better place. Shout out to the amazing people “on the outside” who I have worked with in Bar None including (but not limited to!) Sacha Marini, Yvonne Doble, Sam Page, Marlene Gomez, Ines Gardilic, Ashley Gregory, and Tonya Netjes. My work with Bar None has indelibly shaped my understanding of how violence operates on multiple levels from the institutional to the personal. Through Bar None I learn each day what it means to be committed to long-term social change. Much respect to prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison and other prisons across California who are devoted to improving themselves v and their communities. A giant hug to the youth and families who participated in the Compass Mentoring Program, the youth and families I came to know at the Multiple Assistance Center, and to the crew at the Raven Project. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get to know each of you and for sharing your struggles and triumphs. I am grateful for the support, encouragement and insight of my thesis committee: the brilliant Dr. Llyn Smith, the thoughtful Dr. Jessica Urban, and the willing Dr. Ronnie Swartz. I have grown as a scholar and a person thanks to the intellectual challenges provided by Environment and Community program faculty – especially Mark Baker – staff and students, and other mentors at Humboldt State University including Kim Berry, John Meyer and Christina Accomando. To LJ, I don‟t know if you will ever read this, but I wanted you to know that part of my interest in ending domestic violence was inspired by you and your courage. I hope that Marcela Rodriguez and Hanna Clapsadle know how much their trust, openness, and support have sustained me over the years in my academic and activist life. Finally, I am grateful for the smiles, hugs, words of encouragement, and general love that Sam Page and Jacqui Brennan sent my way while researching and writing this. I owe you one! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... V TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. VII LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... IX ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................... X CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2: ANTI-VIOLENCE MOVEMENTS .......................................................... 10 The Politics of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault........................................ 10 Conventional Narrative of the Anti-Violence Movement: From Grassroots Activism to Professionalization ............................................................................ 14 Victims‟ Rights in the Criminal Justice System ................................................... 23 Intersectional Feminist Narratives About Anti-Violence Movements ................. 24 The State and Institutions as Perpetrators of Violence ......................................... 27 Working Inside the System, Working Outside the System .................................. 40 Tools for Ending Violence Against Women ......................................................... 44 CHAPTER 3: AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST FRAMEWORK ............................ 53 Epistemology, methodology and methods ............................................................ 53 Socially Situated Knowledge ................................................................................ 55 Ideology, Hegemony, and Discourse .................................................................... 57 Feminist Standpoint Theories ............................................................................... 59 Intersectionality..................................................................................................... 62 Feminist Action Research ..................................................................................... 63 Positionality and Reflexivity................................................................................. 64 vii Grounded Theory .................................................................................................

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