Fear to Retaliation: The Most Frequent Reason for Not Helping Victims of Gender Violence

Abstract

When faced with situations of gender-based violence, one becomes exposed to risk in giving support to the victim (van Reemst, Fischer, & WC Zwirs, 2015, Hamby, Weber, Grych, & Banyard, 2016; Liebst, Heinskou & Ejbye-Ernst, 2018). This form of violence, second order of sexual harassment (SOSH), occurs when people who support victims of gender-based violence experience violence themselves because of this positioning (Vidu et al., 2017; Flecha, 2021). There is little research on the subject. Through a quantitative study carried out with 1541 Spaniards over 18 years of age, we provide, for the first time, quantitative evidence of the incidence of SOSH in the responses of people who have been aware of a situation of gender-based violence. Our results show that SOSH is an important obstacle; 40% of people who did not offer help in the case of gender-based violence did not do so for reasons that correspond to SOSH.We concluded that the fear of suffering SOSH can condition people’s reactions in the environment, thereby limiting the possibility of female victims of violence receiving help.

The concept and the name of Isolating Gender Violence

“…Although the international scientific community has widely recognized the importance of support and solidarity with survivors (Ullman et al, 2008;Reilly et al, 1992), support for gender violence victims is still lacking. One of the causes of the lack of supporting victims is the fear of becoming a victim of IGV, as the abovementioned study confirms (Melgar et al, 2021). Coker and colleagues (2016) evaluated the impact of the outcomes of various university measures and mechanisms that had been implemented over the years to address sexual harassment.…”

“…Scientific research conducted by CREA has presented quantitative data about the reasons why most people do not support victims of sexual violence for the first time ever. The first reason found is the fear of retaliation, as 40% of those not supporting victims answered (Melgar et al, 2021). One of the initial approaches in the scientific literature regarding gender violence focused on advocating for victims to report their cases (Benson & Thomson, 1982), arguing that official organisms and mechanisms have to be created for that purpose (Choate, 2003).…”

Men Tackling Isolating Gender Violence to Fight against Sexual Harassment

“…The six interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Following the communicative approach, data was analyzed considering on one hand, those exclusionary elements and barriers, such as the IGV and the adverse health consequences, and on the other hand, the transformative elements that favored the mitigation of the consequences of IGV and the overcoming of it, such as support networks [ 6 ].…”

“…Researchers found that the fear of retaliation was the most frequent reason for not helping victims. 40% of respondents reported not offering help in the case of GBV that they witnessed out of fear of suffering retaliation, consequences, and attacks [ 6 ]. Other researches were conducted in this line; the fear of becoming the target of violence and the fear of losing friends were obstacles to intervening among Netherlands teenagers’ cyberbullying witnesses [ 7 ].…”

Health and Well-Being Consequences for Gender Violence Survivors from Isolating Gender Violence

“…However, citizens provide us with relevant information about why it is easier or more difficult for them to support victims. The first quantitative study about this issue with 1541 participants over 18 years old identified that 40% of them had not helped a case of genderbased violence they had witnessed or had been told about for fear of the consequences they might have suffered [13].…”