Healing from Identity- Based Violence: An Intersectional Discussion

Abstract

There are a variety of complex ways that violence directed towards identity manifests. Ray (2018) argues that violence takes many forms that include collective violence, self-directed violence, interpersonal violence and structural violence. Indeed, it is so entwined with the social world that it appears to be part of the human condition. This conceptual chapter conceives all forms of identity-based violence as belonging to a structure of oppression and marginalization that those targeted navigate as an everyday process. The trauma of such violence on those who are victimized – specifically for the identities they hold and present – is experienced intersectionally based on their social location. For instance, feminist developments have long argued that violence against women and girls is a tool of patriarchal oppression experienced across gendered, racial and class lines (Crenshaw, 1991). While victimological and criminological discourse has posited the nature of violence per se, few have theorized the nature of healing from such violence. Indeed, De La Rue and Ortega (2019) argue that women of colour are often more likely to be blamed for their victimization than white women as they are less likely to fit into the ideal victim model (Christie, 1986). Thus, in order to heal, one must consider the multiple layers of trauma and marginalization that both victims and perpetrators of crime must navigate. This chapter examines the nature of violence enacted against identity through an intersectional lens. The historical and contemporary traumas associated with identity-based violence are then explored, and by so doing this contributes to criminological debates on social harm and identity. It is argued that intersectional healing is gained through self and communal love, which can help marginalized people move towards personal and social justice.