Using Epistemic Injustice to Examine Scholarship About Sexual Violence Among Students With Minoritized Identities

Violence Against Women. 2024 Apr 23:10778012241247191. doi: 10.1177/10778012241247191. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

We engaged in a content analysis of 10 years of scholarship about students of color, students with disabilities, and queer and/or trans students and sexual violence (SV). Our findings indicate that most of the scholarship centering students with minoritized identities focuses on prevalence and risk factors associated with SV and lacks theoretical frameworks relevant to the populations being studied. Employing epistemic injustice as a framework, we argue the implications of excluding students with minoritized identities in the scholarship about SV results in ineffective research and practice, which ultimately results in continued high rates of SV for all students.

Keywords: college students; epistemic injustice; sexual assault; sexual violence.