Document Type
Honors Project
Abstract
Sociologists understand law as constitutive order that expresses solidarity and contributes to structural inequality. Yet, some communities seek to change existing orders and as Kathryne Young argues, cultivate a resistant collective identity. Drawing on legal consciousness theories, I examine the Bay Area DIY music scene as it addresses community members’ experiences with sexual violence without involving the legal system. I interviewed 28 community members and found that although they aim to resist law in favor of transformative justice, their resistant collective identity leads them to reproduce legalistic punishment through their response to sexual violence. Scene members told three intertwined cultural narratives about accountability: 1) scene members invoke the legal system to distance themselves from sexual violence; 2) they utilize punitive tactics that provide catharsis and solidarity; 3) they invoke reified images of law to legitimize an individualistic approach and create an illusion of order.
Recommended Citation
Kaufmann, Sophia R., "Un-Scene: How Responses to Sexual Violence Reproduce Legal Hegemony in the Bay Area’s Punk and DIY Community" (2023). Sociology Honors Projects. 71.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/soci_honors/71
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