Surviving the blame: Resisting secondary victimization in trials for male violence against women

Abstract

The present work aims to contribute to the secondary victimization debate, specifically analyzing how secondary victimization is produced through the language of public prosecutors and defense attorney in examinations and cross-examinations, respectively. This paper is divided into two parts. In the first one, early CA studies on secondary victimization will be presented from a critical perspective, highlighting the results of such research and, more importantly, how said studies have contributed to defining and analyzing the phenomenon of secondary victimization in criminal trials. In the second part, in line with the approach, court transcripts will be analyzed, from a wider collection of real-life trials from Italian and U.S. courts. This will allow us to show how the victims become an active part during the cross-examinations, that is, instead of passively enduring the invasive and derogatory questions of public and defense attorneys, victims begin to resist the harmful implications of such questions.

Keywords: secondary victimization, victim, rape trial, violence against women, conversation analysis.