Reanimating Identities: Queer/ing Quantitative Representations of Marginalized Rape Victims at the Neoliberal Rape Crisis Center

• In Event: Institutions and the Body

Abstract

Quantification, the measurement of incident and prevalence rates, can capture complex phenomena in consumable data. For anti-rape scholars, the quantification of victims and their experiences is a “seductive” way to bolster awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault and advocate for rape reform (Merry, 2016). However, despite its benefits, the quantification of marginalized rape victims can be harmful for the survivors that quantification seeks to support by erasing differences in lived experiences with violence and relying upon inaccurate data. In this paper, I explore how victim advocates, whose roles are to support survivors, quantify and thus inadvertently harm marginalized victims.

Presenter

• Melinda Chen, The University of Oklahoma