Internalized Messages: The Role of Sexual Violence Normalization on Meaning-making after Campus Sexual Violence

Abstract

The impact of violence normalization on the perpetration of sexual violence against women is well known. What is less known, however, is how survivors of campus sexual violence recognize, internalize, and respond to normalization both within and outside their university institutions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to (1) explore where survivors of undergraduate sexual violence recognize the normalization of violence against women within their environments, and (2) describe the impact of violence normalization on survivor’s processing of their own sexual violence encounters. Ethnographic narrative interviewing followed by a grounded theory analysis was utilized in a sample of 24 women-identifying individuals who experienced sexual violence as an undergraduate. Normalization was recognized by survivors through the tolerance of sexual aggression, existing within both the university’s hook up culture and larger societal rape culture. Internalized normalization influenced survivors’ abilities to label and make meaning of their campus sexual violence experiences. Moreover, internalization of normalization occurred in different ways, influencing alternative trauma processing pathways. This research fills a critical gap of understanding the impact of internalized normalization on survivor processing. Future research is needed to further explore normalization in this population to understand areas for intervention and pathways for healing.

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