Article
Masculinity and Sexual Violence: Assessing the State of the Field
Anjuli Fahlberg,
Mollie Pepper,
Corresponding Author
Anjuli Fahlberg
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Equal Authorship.Correspondence address: Anjuli Fahlberg and Mollie Pepper, Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Mollie Pepper
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Equal Authorship.Correspondence address: Anjuli Fahlberg and Mollie Pepper, Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAnjuli Fahlberg,
Mollie Pepper,
Corresponding Author
Anjuli Fahlberg
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Equal Authorship.Correspondence address: Anjuli Fahlberg and Mollie Pepper, Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Mollie Pepper
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Equal Authorship.Correspondence address: Anjuli Fahlberg and Mollie Pepper, Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Despite strong evidence that men perpetrate most acts of sexual violence, little is known about the factors that lead some men to commit such harmful acts. A growing body of feminist scholarship has begun to explore this question, although the disciplinary and geographic breadth of these studies has prevented the development of a cohesive research agenda. This literature review contributes to this task by reviewing the major theoretical contributions to the study of masculinity and sexual violence, detailing some of the ways in which sexual violence aids in the production of masculine individuals, groups, and states. Taken as a whole, we argue that this body of scholarship views sexual violence as a mechanism through which social constructions of masculinity are produced and reproduced, although the forms that this violence takes vary by context. We conclude with a discussion of some of the theoretical and empirical limitations of this research and consider the implications of these findings for public policy.
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