Was tun bei sexualisierter Gewalt?

Content

Was tun bei sexualisierter Gewalt? (What to Do in Cases of Sexualised Violence?) brings together approaches from the second women's* and lesbian movement in Germany and transformative justice approaches such as “community accountability” (“collective responsibility”) developed in women of Color*, queer and trans* of Color contexts in the USA. The aim is to provide guidance for self-organised and collective processes that support affected individuals and hold those who perpetrate violence accountable. The handbook focuses in particular on the latter and proposes a form of Transformative Work. This offers people who have perpetrated sexualised violence a longer-term process of reflection and change. The process is voluntary and must be genuinely desired by the person who has perpetrated the violence. Its aim is to understand and respect the perspective of those affected, reflect on one's own social positioning and patterns of violence, and bring about long-term changes in one's own behaviour. The focus is on developing and implementing alternative, less violent ways of acting on a personal, interpersonal and societal level. Transformative Work thus also serves as a form of prevention.

A fundamental assumption of Transformative Work is that people are not inherently “evil” as individuals, even when they perpetrate sexualised violence; rather, the actions themselves must be unequivocally rejected. Such actions are understood, among other things, as an expression of violent structures of domination, and it is possible to unlearn this behaviour and thereby break cycles of power and violence. Such Transformative Work initiatives are important because they give people who have perpetrated violence the opportunity to change, while also showing those around them that (sexualised) violence will not simply be tolerated. At the same time, this process often represents a form of “making amends” for those affected and helps prevent further assaults.

In addition to various theoretical foundations underpinning the concept of Transformative Work, the book also includes a practical guide to its implementation.