Gender, Power, and Violence

Gender, Power and Violence examines gender based violence (sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and child sexual abuse) in 5 social institutions: the military, prisons, fraternities, sports, and the Catholic Church. These five institutions share a set of characteristics that result in high rates of gender based violence: sex segregation, hyper masculinity, fraternal nature (loyalty to the institution above to the person) and internal systems of justice. Though there is variation among the institutions with regards to these characteristics (e.g. prisons are entirely sex segregated whereas the Catholic Church is sex segregated among the leadership but not the general body), these characteristics shape the prevalence of gender based violence and responses to it. In general, these institutions deny that gender based violence takes place at all, but particularly in their institutions, they fail to acknowledge the role that the culture of the organization plays in creating a climate ripe for gender based violence, and they sweep it under the rug, which tends to result in serial offenders abusing multiple victims.