Observations
If the #metoo movement wants sexual abusers held accountable, why doesn’t the same philosophy apply to all violent crime offenders?
Is one violent victim more worthy than others?
“It’s not about rooting out the bad apples; we need to focus on the whole barrel.”
Why doesn’t, “real consequences for bad behavior,” apply to everyone who violently offends?
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University.
Article
Per The Huffington Post, “When sexual harassment happens, it’s easy ― and not wrong ― to blame individual perpetrators, i.e., the “bad men.” And over the past couple of years, lots of men have been fired, demoted, arrested and publicly shamed for various acts of sexual misconduct.
“But a major study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlines a more comprehensive way of looking at sexual harassment within organizations and identifies the strongest predictor of such behavior. Surprisingly, it has little to do with individual perpetrators.”
“The study finds that the strongest, most potent predictor of sexual harassment is essentially the culture of the company ― what the researchers call “organizational climate.”
Criminality is Societal
The study drawls fair and accurate conclusions. Sexual harassment, like all criminality, can be organizational or societal in nature.
We within the justice system have been saying for years that illegal acts are more than individual offenses. Like the organizational climate described above, law breaking does not exist in a vacuum.
Society mostly decides what actions are proper or unwanted; the justice system has little to do with it.
Whether you drink and drive or use hard drugs or cheat on your income taxes or buy stolen goods or beat your significant other pretty much depends on your values or the values of your community or the larger society.
The same applies to sexual transgressions.
There are people who are simply thugs; they use their positions of power to harass, intimidate and sexually abuse women. To suggest that this is immoral, improper or just plain wrong is today’s understatement. But they are influenced by music or movies or the subculture that protects predators.
More from the Huffington Post, “Just look at the apparatus of lawyers and enablers that helped disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein get away with harassment and even sexual assault for so many years.”
“It’s not about rooting out the bad apples; we need to focus on the whole barrel,” said Lilia Cortina, a professor of psychology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan and one of 21 experts who authored the report.”
“When organizations really cultivate a climate that makes clear it will not tolerate sex harassment, employees are much less likely to engage in sexual harassment,” she said.
There isn’t a person in America who believes that sexual abuse isn’t institutionalized to some degree and a condition that’s well entrenched in many aspects of society from entertainment to religion to companies to politics.
How Far Does the “Whole Barrel” Extend?
It seems misguided to suggest that accountability only applies to sexual transgressors in the workplace. Having been a first responder to a wide array of criminal victimizations, and having served as a Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention and Victim’s Issues for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse, I understand that the psychological trauma that comes with being a victim can be devastating. I could go on with endless examples of homicides, robberies, rapes, and spouse abuse that would bring most people to tears.
Violent criminality destroys lives, families and communities. Violent criminality destroys jobs, schools and disrupts the fabric of society.
Are we suggesting that one form of victimization is more worthy of society’s concern than others?
The Sexual Abuse of Women Offenders is Routinely Ignored
Worthiness applies to the sexual abuse of women offenders which is routinely ignored by almost everyone. There is an array of data suggesting that most women caught up in the justice system were sexually abused, mostly by people they knew before the age of 18, Crime in America.
Does the “need to focus on the whole barrel,” apply to them as well?
Does focusing on the whole barrel apply to “women’s” magazines proclaiming a feminist agenda with ads focusing on a woman’s appearance, or to male politicians, religious leaders and entertainment officials charged with endless abuses who were self-proclaimed feminists?
Does focusing on the whole barrel apply to sexualized music, movies and television shows?
As to music…
“….when I get out I’m f______ all your little sisters in the f______ throat hole.”
“At Vulture, Craig Jenkins surveyed the “new wave of rap violence” and drew the following conclusions: “We owe it to the women who say they’ve been hurt by these artists to stop offering them space in interviews to trash their accusers before everyone gets their day in court. The current climate of simply shoveling more money and clout at rappers with dangerous tendencies and hoping they’ll straighten themselves out is untenable,” The Daily Beast.
“To be a woman who loves hip-hop at times is to be in love with your abuser,” she said. “Because the music was and is that. And yet the culture is ours.” That familiarity with trauma doesn’t have to be hip-hop culture’s narrative moving forward. We, as listeners, need to challenge ourselves to be better and simply not listen to these artists,” Noisey.
Conclusion
Communities and society give guidance as to how people should be treated.
For way too long, my gay friends and family members were subject to immense discrimination due to society’s willingness to look the other way. To be gay was to be an open and acceptable target. No more.
The collective culture (the whole barrel) suggests how girls and women are treated. We want accountability for female victims. We demand that there be no more victims of sexually abusive people. But is society still sending mixed messages?
As necessary as this discussion is, should it be expanded to accountability for all violent offenders? If not, why?
I’m suggesting that all victims of violent crime need accountability from their abusers. All victims of violent crime need rights. Society and communities complicit in this abuse need to understand the trauma “all” violent victims suffer.
Like the cited study, we need accountability from society as well as individual offenders. Violent crime and anything that promotes it must be discouraged, not by government, but by everyone.
#Metoo is the right movement at the right time, but #metoo also needs to be extended to the victims of all violent crimes.
If you need convincing, I’ll introduce you to victims who, after decades, still live with the effects of their victimization. If you talk to them and believe that victims of workplace sexual abuse are more worthy of attention, we can have a discussion about your humanity.
From the study, “The belief that a company will fairly handle harassment even trickles down to would-be perpetrators, who become less likely to actually harass anyone if they understand there are real consequences for bad behavior…”
Why doesn’t, “real consequences for bad behavior,” apply to everyone who violently offends?
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