Rape Work: Victims, Gender, and Emotions in Organization and Community Context (review)

Pathways to justice for rape victims have not been the easiest trails. Victims choosing to pursue rape charges have confronted multiple obstacles, not the least of which is the "second rape." Rape Work is about the victim's pursuit of justice and those who could help or hinder her pursuit. Rape workers are those who can make the search for justice difficult at best, make the victim feel degraded, humiliated and victimized once again. Martin points out that rape workers do their work in the confines of organizations that are seldom placing the victim center stage in what is, without doubt, the biggest drama of her life. Martin draws on two primary conceptual tools, frames and networks, to highlight the plight of rape victims and workers. She defines the concept of frames as "cognitive schemata through which individuals interpret and give meaning to concrete events, and activities are practices that are appropriate to given situations." (40) Organizational structures provide goals and guidelines that members try to achieve, while simultaneously generating conduct norms that constrain members. Thus in the end it becomes important just how those frames are defined, operationalized and ultimately put into practice by rape workers.

Patricia Martin elaborates on how the various individuals practice their profession within that set of frames (goals, policies, scripts, vocabularies, etc.), which may be counterintuitive to the interests of victims. Her conceptual model of organizational frames and networks has much to offer. Rather than seeing rape crimes entering and working their way through a system with an imagined set of integrated parts seeking a common goal of legal truths, or as sifting through a criminal justice sieve with ever decreasing holes, eliminating cases until only those with the proper characteristics are left to face the whims of juries, she envisions distinct groups networked together with distinct primary goals and often no strong central tie. The reality is that only one organization, the Rape Crisis Center (RCC), has at the center of its mission the interests of the rape victim. Perhaps because members tend to be activists they expect to be involved in highly emotional streams, and are prepared to work for and support the victim in every arena . It helps that RCCs are not tied in any formal sense to the legal system, leaving their frames completely unadulterated. In all the other organizations, rape and rape victims are only a small part of what agents confront and consequently they have little concern for the victim as the primary hub of their activities. Martin talks about this as "owning rape."

The key organizations involved with rape victims are emergency rooms, law enforcement, prosecutors, judges (courts) and defense attorneys. RCCs, although the latest group to be involved, have been around long enough to access their impact and as it turns out might just be the missing link that can bring all of these organizations into a network that is optimal for the victim. It is a major task and seems to require ramping down some of the more overt political tones of its activist roots.

As mentioned, each organization comes with its set of frames that are not necessarily victim friendly. Hospital ERs are dominated by male physicians and typically female nurses. Authority clearly resides with the physicians. Many workers in this setting do not see the rape victim as a medical emergency placing other trauma victims before her. Performing duties more related to evidence collection and becoming unwitting participants in legal cases is outside their frame; they resent it, and to a degree, resist it. Although many ERs are now approaching rape victims in a more positive way, it is interesting to note that alternatives such as SANE programs seem to work better as a viable alternative simply because they have victims as the center of their attention. Law enforcement's frame stresses social control and order maintenance and focuses on investigating crimes and collecting evidence. Again, primarily a...