Step up, Speak Out: Amplifying young people’s voices in sexual violence prevention through a collaborative participatory approach

• In Event: Juvenile Justice 1. Offender and Participant Prespectives

Abstract

Sexual violence among adolescents remains an urgent concern, marked by a seeming normalisation of violence in young people's lives. This paper will present findings from a collaborative participatory research study with 29 young people (13-18 y.o) from a school and a youth club in Northeast England. Our project sought to explore their understandings of sexual violence and its prevention. Guided by the concept of participation as protective, our collaborative study makes a case for young people’s inclusion of young people in violence and abuse research as a means of promoting their rights to protection. Adopting a flexible design of 17 iterative participatory and creative workshops, the young people participated in individual and group-based interactive activities such as vignettes, games, and discussions.
The key findings of our research underscored the significance of using young people-informed language, terms, and definitions instead of adult-centric language in discussions with young people. Their insights revealed their nuanced views of sexual violence that drew upon gender norms, peer dynamics, and broader contexts perpetuate its normalisation and prevalence in different contexts with adults and peers, online and offline. They underscored the impact of pressure, manipulation, and force that manifest in physical and non-physical ways. A major narrative that arose relates to shame, silence, and stigma as a way of understanding the impact of sexual violence in their lives. These insights have significant implications in co-designing interventions with young people, in educational and community settings, stressing the need for young people-informed strategies that address barriers to disclosure, reporting, and help-seeking among adolescents. By discussing methodological and ethical considerations, the paper presents a replicable approach to meaningfully engage young people in co-designing solutions to sexual violence. Overall, our findings highlight the value of empowering young people in shaping effective responses to sexual violence and abuse.

Author

• Janelle Rabe, Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse - Durham University