There is debate on whether survivors of sexual assault should use social media as a medium for discussing their assault. The two camps are divided between those who believe social media violates the assailant’s right to a fair trial and those who believe the survivor is entitled to cope with their assault the way they want to.
To those who identify with the former camp, I introduce two notions. First, social media has become an alternative form of justice for survivors who are highly unlikely to receive justice through formal institutions. Secondly, the solution to this inherent problem is not silencing survivors, but improving the court system to better facilitate cases of sexual violence.
According to YWCA Canada, there are 460,000 sexual assaults in Canada per year. Out of every 1,000 cases, only 33 are reported to the police, 12 have charges laid and six cases result in prosecution. The disparity between the number of assaults and reports happens for various reasons, such as the survivor being dependent on the perpetrator, experiencing a language barrier, and/or belonging to a minority group that has a historically negative relationship with police.
One of the big reasons among survivors was the concern that they would not be believed if they came forward.
Filing a formal report with the police is where survivors experience the greatest dismissal. This can be observed with the 5,000 reports a year being deemed “unfounded,” which refers to cases being indefinitely closed after being deemed baseless, according to the Globe and Mail’s 20-month investigation into police reporting processes across Canada.
Common reasons for “unfounded cases” include detectives deeming the claimant unreliable or the claimant having an unclear timeline.
These conditions are common among survivors of sexual assault who decide to come forward. The way the brain processes trauma can prevent survivors from having full access to their memories for up to 72 hours after their assault and, in turn, formulating a clear timeline. Forty per cent of survivors interviewed by the Globe and Mail were also under the influence of a substance when they were assaulted, which can also affect the ability to recall a linear and complete history of events.
Sexual assault is often associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. These symptoms can cause individuals to laugh as a coping mechanism or experience dissociation during the interview process. These signs can cause the police to dismiss the survivor’s testimony as unreliable or incoherent.
As a result of this adversarial process, survivors have been turning to social media instead. In being able to disclose online, survivors reclaim control over their assault. This can take the form of reposting/retweeting from accounts that discuss sexual violence as well as openly disclosing the details of an assault.
This eliminates the need for the survivors to prove their reliability before receiving support or witnessing public outcry. With a single post, retweet or publication, survivors can receive messages of support and love from family, friends and strangers. But, this doesn’t mean that they will still not have to prove their reliability after making such a post.
It is not uncommon for people to question the survivor’s claim, shaming the survivor for their assault or accusing the survivor of ruining the accused’s life. Individuals on social media often feel a higher degree of responsibility to ensure due process is maintained because such a claim could “ruin the accused’s life.” This responsibility and interrogation of the claimant does not exist when individuals are accused of other violent crimes. The need for interrogation appears to stem from the belief that lying about being sexually assaulted is “easy.”
There is nothing easy about coming forward and disclosing that another person violated your sexual integrity. If filing a formal police complaint was more likely to lead to charges laid, perhaps more survivors would choose to file a formal police complaint.
Or perhaps social media is a liberating medium for misappropriated power to be restored to survivors.
