From Harm to Healing: Co-Designing a Framework for Anti-Carceral Feminist Gender-Based Violence Prevention with Men

Abstract

Gender-based and sexual violence (GBSV) is a leading concern on postsecondary campuses, with a 2019 survey indicating that 63% of student respondents had experienced some form of sexual violence while attending an Ontarian postsecondary institution. Of those who had experienced sexual assault, 87% of perpetrators were identified as men (CCI Research, 2019). Institutional responses to the prevalence of GBSV have been critiqued for deploying individualized and retroactive approaches rather than attending to the structures facilitating this violence. This project draws on anti-carceral feminist theory and feminist participatory action research methodology to co-design a framework to engage men in GBSV prevention. Specifically, I invited twelve men postsecondary students into a series of focus group discussions about GBSV and its causes, the efficacy of existing intervention and prevention efforts, and what anti-carceral approaches could offer the broader project of engaging men in these spaces and ultimately preventing GBSV. Overseeing this work, I brought together a group of seven anti-violence service providers who are currently working with men as a Community Advisory Board (CAB). Together, we mobilized the themes from our discussions into a framework for engaging men in anti-carceral feminist conversations about GBSV and its prevention. The key themes emerging from this project explore men’s disengagement and dislocation from GBSV prevention work, the communication of misogynistic ideas despite men’s best intentions while participating in anti-GBSV spaces, the possibilities of anti-carceral feminist thinking in reimagining prevention, and the significance of men’s participation in co-design of this work. This research contributes to the wealth of scholarship on community-based solutions to the issue of GBSV and men’s roles in participating in the feminist anti-GBSV movement. Put simply, this project seeks to shift toward community accountability that recognizes how everyone has a unique role to play in challenging and ending GBSV.