The Adult Survivors Act and the Culture of Violence

On November 24, the Adult Survivors Act (ASA) went into effect in New York with the goal of addressing sexual misconduct. The legislation gives victims of sexual abuse a one-time opportunity to file civil suits long after the statute of limitations for most criminal cases has expired. 

Proponents argue that the Adult Survivors Act could significantly impact the legal rights of survivors of sexual abuse; not only does it provide them greater access to justice and enable them to seek compensation for damages resulting from their abuse, it potentially deters potential abusers. The passage of the ASA could also have a positive ripple effect, increasing awareness of the prevalence of sexual abuse and leading to improved prevention efforts.

Accordingly, the ASA has been generally well-received by the public. The New York Times reports that at least 755 formerly incarcerated women are prepared to file suit. Lawmakers anticipated that current and former prisoners would sue the state since the State Corrections Department has a long history of sexual abuse inside its prisons, but some legislators and lawyers were surprised by the dramatic surge of cases, perhaps because women who served time are often an overlooked group due to the stigma that prison carries.

The stigma associated with having been imprisoned can come from multiple sources, such as the language used in news media, popular culture, and even the criminal justice system itself. It may be further perpetuated by employers who are reluctant to hire those with criminal records. But as we’ve seen with the #MeToo movement, breaking the stigma doesn’t necessarily break the cycle of violence. Despite the movement’s success in bringing increased awareness of sexual violence into the mainstream, the underlying culture of violence persists.

The culture of violence refers to the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that normalize, excuse, or even promote physical or sexual violence. This includes attitudes such as victim blaming, minimizing the severity of abuse, and normalizing coercive control. It includes behaviors such as tolerating the use of violence, excusing perpetrators, and not intervening when witnessing abuse. But overall, it’s a bit more complex

Historically, violence has been used to control populations and maintain the status quo, especially by the West. This has included colonization, wars, and other forms of subjugation. Additionally, the media, popular culture, and the proliferation of guns in some countries have also contributed to the mass desensitization to and acceptance of violent acts.

In The Culture of Violence, Francis Barker explores the various ways in which violence is normalized and accepted in contemporary society. He argues that violence is interwoven into many aspects of our lives, from films and television to sports, the military, and even our language. 

Ocean Vuong, poet and Professor of Creative Writing at NYU, explains in an interview with Out Magazine that “in the English language, words of destruction are used to define success, particularly from the male perspective.” He lists “‘you're killing it,’ ‘you’re making a killing,’ ‘smash them,’ ‘blow them up,’ [and] ‘you went into that game guns blazing,’” as a few examples and then raises the question of “what happens to our men and boys when the only way they can evaluate themselves is through the lexicon of death and destruction?”

Barker believes that this phenomenon is what allows violence to continue without consequence, as society has become desensitized and accepting of it. His work provides a critical analysis of how violence has become entrenched in our culture and the need for us to challenge and disrupt this normalization. According to the University of Chicago Press, “His argument is the contention that, contrary to post-Enlightenment humanist, liberal and conservative thought, ’culture’ does not necessarily stand in opposition to political inequality and social injustice, but may be complicit with the oppressive exercise of power.” In other words, personal violence cannot be fully understood if it is viewed as solely individual behavior.

“For four decades, the U.S. has been engaged in a globally unprecedented experiment to make every part of its criminal justice system more expansive and more punitive,” writes Emily Widra and Tiara Herring as part of the Prison Policy Initiative. In New York, the incarceration rate is 376 per 100,000, and people of color are grossly overrepresented, aligning the state with federal incarceration trends. The incremental reforms that have been made over the past several decades have failed to erase mass incarceration; instead, dozens of states continue to increase their prison populations annually. Although many prison reform initiatives are usually designed to make prisons more humane, their implementation often reinforces the notion that prisons are necessary for safety and order, further solidifying the legitimacy of the underlying systems into our legal system and collective psyche.

Staff sexual misconduct in New York prisons is the primary complaint among the people affected by the Adult Survivors Act, with over 58% of all allegations made in 2017 falling under this category. But even this data is likely to be underreported. Not only has the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) failed to release its 2020 data, but according to the New York Focus, “Incarcerated people and those who represent them say that retaliation remains commonplace” despite the requirement that “prison officials conduct retaliation monitoring, including by reviewing disciplinary charges that follow reports of assault.”

Thomas Kearney, the statewide organizer for the New York State Jails Justice Network and former Prison Rape Elimination Act outreach director for the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault says that “when you have any situation where there’s an agency investigating itself for causing harm, they’re not really encouraged to do a thorough investigation. The largest barrier to reporting is DOCCS itself.”

Moreover, “correctional facilities represent a unique context in which people can experience sexual violence,” according to a 2021 research brief on behalf of the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center. “The closed community, the inability for incarcerated people to have freedom of movement, and the inherent power structures in correctional facilities contribute to increased vulnerability to sexual violence.” Because of this, incarcerated people do not have the legal ability to consent to sex with correctional staff. 

Hopefully, the Adult Survivors Act will aid legal institutions to meet the increasing number of allegations of sexual victimization by staff in adult correctional facilities. It’s unlikely, however, that this legislation will solve the widespread cultural issue and prevent acts of violence itself.

Lex Perspectives