Book Review: Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence

Professor Joanna Bourke's new book, Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence , seeks to provide an overview of the contours and complexities of sexual violence across different social, historical, geopolitical, and cultural settings. While it would be challenging for any author to achieve depth in one regular-length volume, the book succeeds at conveying the scale and scope of sexual violence faced primarily by girls and women across the world. The description of specific incidents of violence and abuse may, unfortunately, not come as a surprise and are not “unknown” to those working within this area, particularly those working internationally within the fields of social work and gender-based violence. Reading example after example of how acts of sexual violence were, and continue to be, refuted, rejected, and disbelieved can feel punishing. Bourke intertwines specific individual cases within the chapters, reporting on how—even when abuse and harm are recognized and, in some cases, admitted by the perpetrator—the violence continues to be justified, minimized, and normalized with both victims and survivors held ultimately responsible. There is something particularly disturbing in reading quotes from, what one can presume, are perceived to be some of the best legal minds who address gender-based violence. The justices in the highest court in Italy, in discussing the rape of a student, concluded that “it is impossible to take off jeans. … Without the active cooperation of the person who is wearing them” (p. 40). Or in Taiwan, Congress members argued against the right to sexual autonomy between spouses as “marital spats are quickly solved in bed” (p.98).

Within the limited page count, Bourke seeks to highlight the lesser-discussed areas of sexual violence. These areas include the “corrective” rape of lesbians in South Africa and sexual violence against boys and men in contexts of both peace and conflict. Bourke also dedicates a whole chapter to discussing female perpetrators of sexual violence, which, while critical to underscore, feels slightly uneven in such a relatively short book.

Readers are led across time and space, from the “comfort stations” of the Japanese Imperial Army in the 1930s to the campaigning efforts of feminists to eradicate the marital rape exemption in Australia in the 1980s, to the recent #MeToo movement. In covering such an array of different cultural and historical contexts, the book allows the reader to understand not only the commonalities of, but specificities related to, the different forms of sexual violence in which they are situated. Such a broad remit can make it challenging to clearly identify the thread weaving through each chapter, and the reader may be left wanting more—more on the range of factors and complexities that contribute to each specific form of sexual violence that is introduced.

Throughout, Bourke touches on important issues that continue to be debated within the sector: the need to situate and decolonize knowledge; the importance of reframing our attention from individual, episodic acts of violence to structural violence; the need to develop better understandings of constrained choice and agency; and the importance of moving beyond the victim-survivor/perpetrator binary. Bourke dedicates a chapter specifically to examining the concept of trauma, highlighting the importance of working with cultural understandings of healing and recovery. This emphasis feels particularly relevant given the current attention on trauma-informed practice.

As a counter-balance to what may feel like a sense of bleakness as one moves through the pages, Bourke attempts to create a sense of hope. Throughout, she interweaves powerful and creative examples of local, grassroots acts of resilience, resistance, and solidarity.

The final chapter seeks to present ideas and solutions for the future. Here, Bourke introduces the concept of “transversalism”: bringing together those who harbor different beliefs and perspectives but share the goal of ending sexual violence.

The book will be of particular interest to social work practitioners seeking to broaden and deepen their knowledge and understanding of sexual violence. It should enable them to see how their work fits within the global context. The text will also be of interest to students and scholars working in international social work, welfare, and gender-based violence.