Developing and Investigating a Theory of Endemic Sexual Violence and Abuse

Abstract

Sexual violence and abuse is a serious, global, public health concern. Prevalence rates, however, are unevenly distributed, with concentrations of sexual violence and abuse occurring in some countries, communities, neighbourhoods, organisations and local contexts. Understanding why such concentrations develop is critical to effective prevention and intervention, particularly to ensure key contributing factors are targeted. Regrettably, existing understanding of this phenomenon has been limited, largely by the diverse settings in which concentrations occur, the context-specific nature of existing explanations, and a restricted and disconnected evidence base. Additionally, where explanations have been offered, they are primarily descriptive efforts, focused on what contributes to concentrations of abuse, rather than how this occurs or under what conditions. To address these limitations and build an enhanced understanding of sexual violence and abuse concentrations, this research developed and empirically investigated a new theory of concentrated (endemic) sexual violence and abuse, and explored new opportunities for prevention based on this enhanced understanding. Formulation of the proposed theory of endemic sexual violence and abuse was guided by a realist social explanatory framework, informed by literature previously under-utilised in this field, and built on a preliminary analysis of endemic sexual violence and abuse cases. This theory proposes that concentrated (endemic) sexual violence and abuse emerges in conducive environmental contexts, where social conditions support abuse, formal regulatory controls are compromised or dysfunctional, and where stressors impact whole populations. In these unique contextual conditions, the same causal mechanisms that contribute to sexual violence and abuse in other, non-endemic contexts, are activated at scale producing these concentrations. Shared causal mechanisms include (situational) motivations to offend, breakdowns in personal or informal social controls that might otherwise prevent the behaviour, and the opportunity to offend. The proposed theory of endemic sexual violence and abuse was then investigated in two empirical studies. The first study examined the theory’s application to three disparate global, endemic case studies, representing the three key contexts in which endemic sexual violence and abuse has been reported: (i) international crisis zones; (ii) remote and marginalised communities; and (iii) youth-serving institutions. Specifically, the Democratic Republic of Congo, remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory (Australia), and the Neerkol Orphanage (Queensland Australia), were selected to represent these three diverse contexts. A deductive, qualitative, content analysis was undertaken on publically-available documents pertaining to each case study, to determine whether theory constructs could be identified. Results confirmed theorised contextual conditions and causal mechanisms were evident in the three case studies, with some variation in local manifestations. Importantly, evidence of theorised constructs supported the new theory’s relevance across diverse settings of endemic sexual violence and abuse. The second study quantitatively examined differences between endemic and non-endemic sexual violence and abuse regions in Queensland, Australia, and in particular, whether the new theory of endemic sexual violence and abuse could differentiate between endemic and non-endemic regions. An existing clinical dataset of male youth adjudicated for sexual offences was used for this purpose, with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities selected as the endemic sexual violence and abuse sample (n=36), and remote rural communities chosen as a suitable comparison (n=14). This dataset contained information on each case, relevant to key theory constructs. Consistent with the new theory, bivariate analyses revealed significant differences between contextual conditions across the endemic and non-endemic sexual violence and abuse samples and no differences between causal mechanisms. At the multivariate level, hierarchical logistic regression analysis revealed the new theory differentiated endemic and non-endemic study samples, with contextual conditions the only unique predictors, confirming their importance to the development of abuse concentrations. The overall model, based on the proposed theory of endemic sexual violence and abuse, explained the majority of variance and correctly classified 91% of cases. The proposed theory of endemic sexual violence and abuse advances understanding of this phenomenon, explaining how, and under what circumstances, abuse concentrations develop. The two empirical studies lend important foundational support to this theory, indicating further research on theory utility is warranted. Importantly, the proposed theory challenges and extends the focus of current prevention approaches in contexts with concentrations of sexual violence and abuse, suggesting it has potential to make a significant impact in the field.