Responding to Self-Defense Critics

Before Charlene Senn and colleagues had the opportunity to bask in the positive attention that their rigorous and important study[1] was receiving, the naysayers started:

• Self-defense is an individual solution to a social problem.[2] 
• Self-defense places the responsibility for prevention on potential victims not on perpetrators.[3]
• If a woman defends herself, then the perpetrator will just rape someone else.[4] 

Wondering how to respond to these naysayers? Check out these thoughtful responses from empowerment self-defense instructors and supporters.

Include empowerment self-defense in a multi-pronged strategy to stop sexual assault.
“The CDC has steadfastly refused to consider self-defense training as part of its approach to preventing sexual violence. And because other major organizations - including the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and a large number of universities and colleges - rely on the CDC for their research, self-defense training has been completely left out of the current rush to develop effective prevention strategies, especially on college campuses.” Jocelyn Hollander. “Why Isn’t Self-Defense Training Available to Every Woman Who Wants It? Huffington Post.

Self-defense training can help stop sexual assault
[In response to Senn’s research] “Dr. Sarah DeGue [CDC] stated skeptically that a man who finds himself thwarted by a woman who defends herself against his aggression could move on to a woman who is untrained or otherwise more vulnerable. Thank goodness public health officials didn’t see the polio vaccination that way. Not everyone has to be vaccinated to make a major dent in a public health problem.” Martha McCaughey. “Hey, CDC: Friends Don’t Let Friends Deny the Effectiveness of Self-Defense Training."

Follow the $
“Who takes issue with a program that cuts assault in half, you ask? The federal government, as it turns out….The two researchers [who cast] doubt on the value of Senn’s findings are both employed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), whose sexual assault prevention budget in 2014 was close to $50 million.” Susan Shorn. “Show Us the Money.” Bitchslap: A Column About Women and fighting.

Stop either/or thinking and funding
“We agree that men should stop raping! We agree there needs to be a systemic challenge to culture. We are squarely behind third party interveners, female and male. However, sexual predators are canny about attacking when no "good guys or gals" are around. What then? Write the CDC and tell them to stop their either/or thinking and funding.”Ellen Snortland. “A Deadly Double Standard." Huffington Post.

[1] Charlene Y. Senn et al. “Efficacy of a Sexual Assault Resistance Program for University Women.” New England Journal of Medicine. 2015
[2] Dana Bolger “Smart study finds “resistance program” helps women avoid rape—but at what cost?” Feministing June 11, 2015.
[3] Melissa Healy “Sexual assault prevention program cuts risk of rape nearly 50%, study says.” Science Now June 10, 2015.
[4] Jan Hoffman “College Rape Prevention Program Proves a Rare Success.” New York Times June 10, 2015.

Martha Thompson, IMPACT Chicago Instructor

Teaching Women to Defend Themselves Stops Rape

The New England Journal of Medicine just published the results of a rigorous study of first-year female students at three universities in Canada. About half (451) took a self-defense course and the other half (442) received the more common method of brochures about sexual assault. Participation in the self-defense course significantly reduced the risk of rape.

These findings are consistent with earlier studies that have found that girls and women who take self-defense are less likely to experience sexual assault. Jocelyn Hollander, University of Oregon, studied approximately 300 college students, about half of whom took a self-defense course and about half who didn’t, following up with them a year later. Stanford School of Medicine along with Lurie Packard Children’s Hospital and NO Means No Worldwide studied over 400 girls in Kenya before and 10 months after taking a self-defense course. In both cases, women and girls who had self-defense training experienced substantially lower rates of sexual assault. These findings are consistent with Sarah Ullman’s review of a decade of self-defense research that active resistance is effective in interrupting sexual assault.

The Neurobiology of Sexual Assault and What It Means for First Responders

Rebecca Campbell, Professor of Psychology and Program Evaluation, Michigan State University, has extensively studied the neurobiology of trauma and the criminal justice system response to sexual assault. She has found that emotional and physical manifestations of trauma can be misinterpreted, resulting in “secondary victimization” whereby treatment by law enforcement is experienced by victims as blaming and insensitive. Her goal is to educate first responders so that understand victims’ behavior (the neurobiology of trauma) and to change how the system responds to victims.

Hear her full presentation online.

Self-Defense Training: The Feminist Thing to Do

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett argues that providing self-defense classes for women is the feminist thing to do. In the May 21, 2015 issue of The Guardian, Cosslett reflects on how connected self-defense training was to the late 20th century feminist movement and questions why in some contemporary feminist circles the mantra is anti-self-defense. She critiques the commonly heard phrase: “Don’t teach women how not to get raped, teach men not to rape.”



Go to the full article.

The Ability to Defend Oneself Affects All Aspects of Life

Avital Zeisler asks: In a culture of rape, how can we not insist that women learn self-defense? In her April 2015 Huffington Post blog, Zeisler shares her own experience of violence, the role self-defense training played in her healing from an attack by someone she loved, and her call to action for schools and governments.

Read the full blog post.

Please encourage every woman you know to register for one of our summer programs.

Off to College: Defensive Literacy

"What if preparing for violence is just as responsible as acknowledging the possibility of a car accident or fire? When we use seatbelts, we are not inviting car accidents. We are simply being accountable for the possibility that car accidents happen. We have fire drills so we don't have to figure out what to do when the fire is happening. Drilling for violence actually makes one less of a target." Ellen Snortland and Gavin de Becker (2011) 

How parents can support defensive literacy
1. Does your daughter's high school have self-defense training? 
2. When you visit a campus in the spring, or even the fall when you leave your student, insist that the campus NOT depend solely on "rescue" strategies for safety. 
3. Ask your student to promise they will find a designated sober party-person.
4. Does the school have adrenalin based, realistic scenario self-defense training? 

For the full blog, go to Ellen Snortland and Gavin de Becker. 2011.  "Rites of Spring" Huffington Post, November 17.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-snortland-and-gavin-de-becker/rites-of-spring_b_210154.html

Voice and Community: Take Back The Night

Having events like Take Back The Night usually give me some sense of conflict – very glad that we are recognizing their importance in our society, but also horrified that they are necessary.  Having an epidemic of domestic and sexual violence perpetrated against women is bad enough; the fact that not enough attention is paid to finding remedies and solutions to this problem that we need wonderful and purposeful events like this to publicize the need for action is, at times, beyond comprehension.

In IMPACT courses, I regularly meet female survivors of gender-based violence.  As I listen to their stories and work with these individuals, I’m always impressed with their tenacity, courage, and strength.  Other things become apparent as well, such as the pervasiveness of this problem in our world, and the unconscionable depths of human behavior seen in the perpetration of these crimes.

From the stories I hear and read, two things of note rise to the front for me in regard to those who commit these crimes.  They rely heavily on two things – silence and isolation.  Sexual predators use these tools to maximum advantage.  That is why events such as Take Back The Night are so powerful and so necessary.  Take Back The Night emphasizes the opposite: voice and community.  Voice to acknowledge and call our attention to these issues, and community to set a standard where human dignity and respect are at such a level that we can someday no longer have to worry about sexual predatory violence.  It is my sincere hope that we can give voice to those who need and desire it, and role model a community that no longer tolerates the commission of these types of crimes.

There are many people who can give you, in far greater detail and context than I, why men commit acts of rape, sexual harassment, and violence against women.  But I will offer one thought on this subject:  they do it because they think they can.  And if we create an environment where voice is used to call out inappropriate behavior, to name bias when it is apparent, to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, and community is used to give strength to the individual, to end the behavior of male sexual entitlement, and constantly strive for the greater good, perhaps we can make a difference.  Starting here, starting now, we can make a difference.

Rob Babcock, IMPACT Chicago Suited Instructor