One False Accusation Will Ruin Your Life: Parents of Son's Perspectives on Sexual Assault

• In Event: 40820 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: Sexual Violence

Abstract

Abstract
This paper is part of a larger qualitative research project that investigates how, or if, parents who sent one or more children off to college in the post-2017 era educated them about campus sexual assault prevention. This paper focuses on the thirty-eight parents who sent at least one son off to college at that time, out of the larger sample of fifty-six parents. My research finds that in the face of the problem of campus sexual assault, parents of sons were overwhelmingly concerned that their son might be falsely accused of sexual assault and that such an accusation would be devastating, derailing his entire life. They were mostly unconcerned their son would ever assault someone or be the victim of a sexual assault. These concerns seemed to fly in the face of reality, as numerous high-profile people, from Donald Trump to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., seemed to pay no price for allegations of, or even convictions related to, sexual assault. This paper explores the cultural narratives, from television to the manosphere, that perpetuate the idea that women lie about being raped and analyzes culture and power, himpathy and herasure, to understand the perpetuation of this narrative and the harm it causes.

Author

• Kathleen J. Fitzgerald, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill