Description:
It is an interesting contrast. On the one hand society has never been so aware and conscious of child sexual abuse and sexual violence against women and children, but despite this awareness the degree of denial, victim blaming, prejudice and ignorance around sexual abuse continues to pose challenges for those affected by such violence and those who work and research in this field (Taylor, 2002). This paper is concerned with identifying and articulating some of these ongoing challenges within a rural domain. Given both the author’s grass-roots involvement, activism and professional work in the field of sexual assault against women and children, this paper draws on relevant research literature concerned with sexual violence and rural communities, before utilising a case study and vignettes obtained either directly from victim/ survivors1 or from the author’s research in issues of sexual assault. It is my intention to bring together a small sample of experiences relating to sexual violence within rural domains to elucidate the very real and ongoing challenges that face those victim/survivors.