Episode 25: Sexual Harm in Religious Spaces

As we close out the season, we invite our listeners to submit any questions they may have for the season 2 finale! Send us any questions you may have at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Beyond Fear is truly groundbreaking. We welcomed four esteemed guests - Nadiah Mohajir, MPH, Dr. Maryyum Mehmood, Dr. Guila Benchimol, and the Rev. Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen - to lead a discussion about sexual harm that occurs across different religions including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. You may remember that we spoke to Dr. Karen Terry in Season 1 about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. That episode focused on the institutional response to the abuse that was eventually uncovered and what the data showed about those that experienced abuse and those that perpetrated it. In this episode, we dig deeper and discuss how abuse across these different religious spaces is and is not being addressed. Our guests talk about the scope of the sexual harm occurring, their thoughts as to why sexual harm occurs in religious spaces, the role that lay members of their faiths play in sexual harm, and how this type of harm impacts survivors. Recording this episode was fascinating and we could have continued talking for another hour or two. We know that you will find it just as informative and interesting as we did!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Episode 10 Beyond Fear listeners! We realized that it has been a while since we caught you up on the work that we have been doing outside of the podcast. In this episode, we interview each other about the projects that have been keeping us busy.  Alissa shares her journey of co-founding Ampersands Restorative Justice – an organization dedicated to restoring the world from sexual harm. Among other things, Ampersands facilitates restorative processes for cases of sexual harm and trains other folks to facilitate these cases. Alissa shares what it has been like to see her dream become a reality. Alexa speaks about a project that is close to her heart as well. In 2020, she and Dr. Nicole Fox found out about the Survivors Memorial located in Minneapolis, MN. It is the first ever memorial dedicated to honoring survivors of sexual harm. Alexa describes what she and Dr. Fox discovered after speaking to the people that were involved in all aspects of making the memorial a reality. She also discusses the next step in their research on the Survivors Memorial which is designed to uncover how it functions in the community as a site of healing, education, prevention, and more.  We hope you enjoy catching-up with us! Don’t forget that we are planning a final episode dedicated to answering your questions. So, send us questions you have about us, our work, or the topics that we have covered to [email protected].  Additional Readings and Resources: Ampersands Restorative Justice Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm (2022) by Alexa Sardina & Alissa R. Ackerman published in CUNY Law Review The Survivors Memorial  Memorial for Survivors of Sexual Violence Vandalized (May 16, 2022) – KARE 11 News America’s First Memorial Honoring Survivors of Sexual Violence (2022) by Alexa Sardina & Nicole Fox – Journal of Interpersonal Violence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout this podcast, we have discussed the ways in which sexual harm impacts survivors psychologically, emotionally, and physically. A less talked about consequence stems from abuse that occurs within the context of institutional environments that are expected to be safe.  In this episode we speak to Dr. Caroline Heldman an expert on the consequences of sexual harm that takes place within institutional environments. Institutional betrayal refers to the harm that an institution does to those who depend on it. As you will hear, this betrayal can be explicit policies or when an institution fails to respond to sexual harm. This is often seen in the context of college campuses, the military, and religions organizations.  Additional Readings and Resources: Faculty Against Rape The Hunting Ground End Rape on Campus The New Campus Anti-Rape Movement: Internet Activism and Social Justice – Caroline Heldman, Alissa R. Ackerman, and Ian Breckenridge-Jackson Blowing the Whistle on Campus Rape – Caroline Heldman, PhD and Danielle Dirks Institutional Betrayal and Institutional Courage – Dr. Jennifer J. Freyd, PhD Guest Bio: Caroline Heldman, PhD is Chair of the Critical Theory & Social Justice Department and Chair of Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She is also Executive Director of The Representation Project and a political commentator for Spectrum and CNN International. Her research specializes in media, the presidency, and systems of power. Dr. Heldman has published six books on gender justice and politics and her work has been featured in numerous documentaries, including Miss Representation, The Mask You Live In, The Hunting Ground, Informant, Equal Means Equal, Liberated, Nevertheless, and The Great American Lie.  Dr. Heldman splits her time between Los Angeles and New Orleans where she co-founded the New Orleans Women’s Shelter and the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum. She also co-founded End Rape on Campus (EROC), Faculty Against Rape (FAR), and End Rape Statute of Limitations (ERSOL) that successfully abolished the time limit on prosecuting rape in California. She is currently curating the first Civil Rights museum in New Orleans with Miss Leona Tate, one of the four little girls who desegregated the Deep South in 1960.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our last episode, Who is the Ideal Victim? we spoke with Dr. Danielle Slakoff about media depictions of survivors of interpersonal and sexual harm. Specifically, we unpacked the way that race influences media narratives about who qualifies as a “real victim” worthy of help and sympathy. Black and Latina victims are frequently portrayed as somehow to blame for their victimization.  The sexual harm experienced by Black women and girls is often undisclosed, unaddressed, and unseen. In this episode, Dr. Carolyn M. West and Dr. LaDonna Long share their work that exposes the ways in which Black women and girls are treated not only by the media but also by the criminal legal system and its actors.  Much of our conversation centers on the need to understand and acknowledge our country’s racist past in order to make sense of the way that Black women and girls are treated by the criminal legal system. For most of this country's history the rape of Black women and girls was not illegal because they were considered property and were not seen as human beings. This permeated our legal system, and the consequences are still felt today.   Ultimately, it will take all of us to make the changes necessary to reverse these injustices and we hope that our conversation will take us one step closer to understanding the way forward.  Additional readings and resources: Love with Accountability: Digging up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse – edited by Aishah Shahidah Simmons Pornography Consumers of Color and Problematic Pornography Use: Clinical Implications (2022) – Carolyn M. West, PhD Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel: Historical Images of Black Women and their Implications for Psychotherapy (1995) – Carolyn M. West, PhD Let me Tell Y’all bout Black Chicks: Images of Black Women in Pornography by Carolyn M. West, PhD Sara Bartman – Black Past Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood by Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia Gonzalez  Race and Prostitution in the United States by Donna M. Hughes New Docuseries ‘Hunt for the Chicago Strangler’ focuses on Murders of Dozens of Black Women over 20 Years – Fox 32 Chicago Surviving the Silence: Black Women’s Stories of Rape by Charlotte Pierce-Baker Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation by Beth E. Richie Black and Missing Foundation Black Women’s Blueprint We as Ourselves Guest Bios: Carolyn M. West, PhD is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Associate Dean of Special Initiatives at the University of Washington. She is an award-winning author, internationally recognized speaker, documentary filmmaker, and expert witness. For more than three decades, she has been investigating gender-based violence, with a special focus on domestic violence and sexual assault in the lives of African American women. Her mission is to deliver keynote addresses, conduct workshops, and customize innovative training material to educate and equip professionals with the skills to provide culturally responsive services. Her vision is to educate, empower, and inspire a multicultural alliance of survivors and professionals to prevent all forms of violence. LaDonna Long, PhD is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Roosevelt University. Her research focuses on women’s experiences with victimization, particularly how race, class, and gender influences post-assault coping mechanisms. Her prior work focused on age and educational differences in African American women who have experienced sexual victimization as well as factors that predict disclosure of sexual victimization to health professionals. She has also published work on medical advocates’ experiences in the emergency room with survivors and law enforcement as well as vicarious trauma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout season 1, we have discussed how society, often times through the media, blames survivors of sexual violence. Frequently, media portrayals impact trial outcomes, a survivor’s willingness to report, and more. In this episode, we speak to Dr. Danielle Slakoff, a professor and prominent researcher that studies the ways in which the media inaccurately portrays survivors of domestic violence and sexual harm.  During the episode, we also talk about ‘the ideal victim’. According to her research and analysis of newspaper stories, women that are missing, that experience sexual harm or domestic abuse are portrayed differently based on race. The ideal victim has historically been white women and girls. They are frequently portrayed as being blameless and in need of protection. Black and Latina women, women that do not conform to this stereotype, are often blamed for the victimization.  According to Dr. Slakoff’s research, Latina and Black women and girls were portrayed much more negatively than the white women and girl victims. Specifically, they were portrayed as risk-taking at the time that the crime occurred and somehow responsible for the harm they experienced. This deep dive into the ways in which the media influences the way we think about who experiences harm and why is a critical piece of a broader conversation about race and the criminal justice system.  Additional Readings and Resources: Media Messages Surrounding Missing Women and Girls: The “Missing White Woman Syndrome” and Other Factors that Influence Newsworthiness - Danielle C. Slakoff and Henry F. Fradella A Timeline of 22 Year Old Gabby Petito’s Case - CNN White, Black, and Latina Female Victims in U.S. News: A Multivariate and Intersectional Analysis of Story Differences - Danielle C. Slakoff and Pauline Brennan How Social Media Shone a Light on the Lauren Smith-Fields Case - Time Magazine The Black and Missing Foundation Restoring Justice for Indigenous Peoples Guest Bio: Dr. Danielle Slakoff is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University, Sacramento. Her research interests include media representations of women and girl victims and perpetrators, women’s issues within the criminal justice system, race/ethnicity, true crime, and domestic violence. Dr. Slakoff’s commentary on media portrayals of the justice system has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Time Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @DSlakoffPhD.  Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes. If you have questions about this or any of our previous episodes, or if there is anything you'd like to know about our work, we hope you will email us at [email protected] or you can contact us on our site here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM), previously known as child pornography, can be a confronting and uncomfortable topic. CSAM can refer to the possession, viewing, sharing, and creation of images or videos that involve the visual depiction of children involved in a sex act. Although CSAM was almost completely eradicated in the 1980s, the dawn of the Internet ushered the proliferation of it. The anonymity of the Internet and the ease of sharing digital images of children makes this material ‘one click away’. During this episode, we speak to Nicholas a person who was convicted of and served prison time for the possession of child sexual abuse material. Importantly, Nicholas emphasizes the fact that although his committed a non-contact offense, his crime was not victim-less. His description of his life before, during and after the offense provides critical insights regarding the factors that can lead someone to consuming CSAM, the importance and effectiveness of treatment, the challenges of life after prison for someone convicted of an act of sexual harm, and many other topics that we have covered during previous episodes.  We understand that hearing Nicholas’ story can be confronting and uncomfortable, but we think his account provides important information that can be used to combat the proliferation of child sexual abuse material in the future.  Additional Readings and Resources: Child Pornography – The United States Department of Justice Citizen’s Guide to U.S. Federal Law on Child Pornography – The United States Department of Justice Child Pornography Offenders: Quick Facts – United States Sentencing Commission  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 5 is the last part of our series of episodes dedicated to human trafficking. In this episode, you will hear Jess’s story of surviving trafficking. Our conversation exposes some of the many myths about the crime of human trafficking (which often includes sex trafficking), including who perpetrates it, who experiences it, and the context within which it occurs.  Traffickers do not usually target victims they do not know. In fact, like other types of sexual harm, survivors are usually trafficked by someone they know, such as a family member. People often assume that trafficking involves traveling or transporting a person. While this is sometimes the case, as Dr. Branchini-Risko noted in Episode 4, trafficking does not require movement across boarders. And as we hear in the case of Jess, a child may be trafficked or exploited from their own home. Furthermore, people who are trafficked are often not held against their will but may be controlled through other means, like a lack of financial independence.  Jess’s story of healing is emblematic of what many survivors of sex trafficking experience. The psychological harm may take many years to heal and often include post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.   Additional readings and resources:  Centering Survivors – Polaris Project  Survivors of Human Trafficking Recount Experiences, Provide Advice – U.S. Department of Defense  Faces of Human Trafficking – Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)  Helping Human Trafficking Victims – Center for Prevention of Abuse   Guest Bio Jess grew-up in the duality of New York City and Seattle. They settled in the Pacific Northwest and earned their bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, from the University of Washington. While attending undergrad courses, Jess found a passion for Restorative Justice and a desire to influence policies responding to real life circumstances. Advocating for change, Jess challenges systemic racism and the false narratives of popular culture.   After several years in the Social Justice arena, Jess made the decision to pursue their master’s degree in Social Work to expand their professional process. Embracing adversity and a colorfully diverse background, Jess is focused on the advancement of Transformative Justice and continues their commitment to harm-reduction and enhancing repair, one person at a time.  Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes. If you have questions about this or any of our previous episodes, or if there is anything you’d like to know about our work, we hope you will email us at [email protected] or you can contact us on our site here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Human trafficking is an incredibly complex issue that includes several different important topics we felt should be covered during our second season. Due to this complexity, we agreed to dedicate three episodes to cover it. Welcome to Understanding Trafficking Part 2! During this episode, we speak with Dr. Casey Branchini Risko, an expert on international labor and sex trafficking. The interview with Dr. Branchini Risko gives further insight into the many ways that trafficking is associated with other crimes perpetrated against the most vulnerable people in societies across the globe. Importantly, Dr. Branchini Risko also emphasizes that there is often significant overlap between labor and sex trafficking. We also talked to Dr. Branchini Risko about more specific offenses, including sex tourism. Stay tuned for Episode 5 next week when our discussion of trafficking comes full circle and we hear the story of a trafficking survivor. Additional Resources and Organizations   Terres de homes Heart Kenya Free the slaves Freedom Fund Polaris Project (United states) Winrock International Kachin Women's Association Thailand Tenaganita Guest Bio Casey Branchini Risko, PhD is a public health researcher with more than a decade of experience working in the anti-trafficking field – both on research and programming. Her work focuses on using rigorous methods to better understand how human trafficking impacts health, including how to accurately measure these issues and conduct monitoring and evaluation of interventions. She has spent much of her career traveling throughout Southeast Asia and other parts of the world to better understand risks and protective factors associated with trafficking and to find new and innovative ways to prevent and respond to the crime.  Dr. Branchini Risko received both her PhD and MHS in International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While at Hopkins, she also served as a co-investigator on studies estimating the prevalence of forced marriage and childbearing among Burmese women trafficked to China as well as on the health impact of human rights violations, including trafficking, among North Korean children.  Follow us on Facebook at Beyond Fear: The Sex Crimes Podcast, on Instagram @beyondfearpodcast, and on Twitter @fearcrimes. If you have questions about this or any of our previous episodes, or if there is anything you’d like to know about our work, we hope you will email us at [email protected] or you can contact us on our site here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Human trafficking has moved into the public consciousness as a serious offense both domestically and internationally. Over the course of the next three episodes of Beyond Fear, we will cover trafficking from the perspective of researchers and a survivor.   Human trafficking, including sex trafficking, is a multi-billion-dollar industry that impacts an estimated 24.9 million people globally. In the U.S., human trafficking is defined as using force, fraud, or coercion, to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor services against their will. In some instances, people are trafficked for the purpose of commercial sex and in others people are trafficked and forced to work under inhumane or illegal conditions.  In Understanding Trafficking Part I, we speak to Katie Gosch and Dr. Katherine Gomez – experts on domestic sex trafficking. Our conversation touched on several important topics including who is most at risk for victimization, the demographic profile of traffickers, ways to combat trafficking and more.  This episode is the beginning of our exploration of human trafficking. So, stay tuned next week for our discussion as we discuss human trafficking from a global perspective. For additional reading, check out: Human Trafficking Hotline Sex Trafficking – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention What is Human Trafficking? Department of Homeland Security Polaris Project Guest Bios: Katherine C. Gomez, PhD (she/her) currently serves as the Director of Human Trafficking Intervention for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ). She holds a PhD in Public Affairs from the University of Central Florida. She has served Florida since 2006 as a juvenile probation officer, trainer, researcher, and senior administrator. She specializes in working with juvenile justice system-involved youth who have experienced human trafficking, youth charged with sexually-related offenses, youth who identify as part of the LGBTQI community, and high-profile multi-jurisdictional cases.  Ms. Gotch has worked in the field of sexual abuse prevention for over twenty years as a clinician, evaluator, trainer, educator, and in the development of evidence-informed public policy. She currently maintains a private practice, Integrated Clinical & Correctional Services, which provides specialized clinical and consultation services related to adults with sexual behavior problems and other forms of abusive/violent behavior. She is a Clinical Member & Public Policy Executive Board Member – ATSA, Former Board Member & Public Policy Advisor – Oregon ATSA, and Advisory Board Member & Former Public Policy & Engagement Action Team Co-Chair – NPEIV National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence. She frequently provides training to correctional agencies, treatment providers, policy makers, and other community partners on sexual offense specific management and treatment, static and dynamic risk, public policy, public engagement, and related topics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices