Representing Sexual Violence and Sexual Violence on Campus: Institutional Constructions, Student and Staff Perceptions, and Their Effects

Abstract

Universities have increasingly been positioned as key sites of sexual violence prevention and response, yet little attention has been paid to how they construct and represent sexual violence through the institutional texts they produce. This study examines how sexual violence and sexual violence prevention are represented within university polices and prevention materials, and how these representations are perceived and understood by students and staff. This qualitative study draws on a textual analysis of 130 institutional documents and semi-structured interviews with 10 students and staff at a Southwestern Ontario university (referred to as Z University). Guided by Bacchi’s (2009) What’s the Problem Represented to Be? approach, and drawing on theoretical insights from Dorothy Smith (2005) and Patirica Hill Collins (2019), the analysis examines how sexual violence is represented, the assumptions that underpin these representations, what is left unspoken, and how these representations are taken up in practice. The findings demonstrate that sexual violence is predominately framed as a matter of legal compliance, public health education, and individual responsibility. Participants describe tensions between institutional representations and lived experience, particularly among those who feel excluded or misrepresented within dominant framings. Rather than producing generalizable claims, this study offers a critical, context-specific analysis of how sexual violence and sexual violence prevention are constructed within institutional settings and how these constructions are perceived and negotiated by students and staff.