Almost € 3 million of funding for research on sexually transgressive behaviour
Grant
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a grant of €2,858,000 from the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA) for tackling sexually transgressive behaviour and sexual violence (SGOG). Mischa Dekker, assistant professor and member of the Violence and Violence Prevention research group, is a co-applicant and researcher in the T@CKLE project.
The research project T@CKLE (Transdisciplinary Analysis and Co-creation of Knowledge to Lead Efforts against Online and Offline Sexually Transgressive Behaviour and Sexual Violence) addresses both online and offline sexually transgressive behaviour. Led by pedagogue and sociologist Dr. Daphne van de Bongardt (Erasmus University Rotterdam), the T@CKLE project consists of an extensive consortium of academic institutions and social partners.
This national project brings together knowledge and expertise from various disciplines to investigate SGOG on five socio-ecological levels:
- More effective prevention of transgressive behaviour by perpetrators,
- More tailored support for victims,
- A more structured professional approach within organizations,
- Tackling harmful narratives such as victim blaming and reducing societal acceptance of SGOG,
- Ensuring a long-term, integrated approach.
In addition to scientific research, a new national SGOG network will be established to bring stakeholders together.
Culture shift
Co-applicant Mischa Dekker (Leiden University) is involved in the fourth sub-study, which explicitly focuses on cultural change around SGOG. He collaborates with Jenneke van Ditzhuijzen (Utrecht University) and John de Wit (Utrecht University). The aim of the project is to shift the responsibility for sexually transgressive behaviour away from victims and to examine and change norms surrounding victim blaming, masculinity, and alcohol use. Their approach goes beyond the individual to challenge the culture that enables SGOG.
According to Dekker, ‘harmful norms and narratives about gender relations and masculinity play a major role in facilitating gender-based violence. Series like Adolescence and Blauwe Ballen painfully illustrate that these myths still persist: sexual violence is usually committed by someone you don't know, men can’t be forced to have sex against their will, or if you don’t physically resist, it isn’t rape.’
Dekker hopes ‘that through the T@CKLE project, we’ll gain a clearer picture of how widespread these norms and narratives are in the Netherlands. What can we do to change this? I’m proud and honored to contribute to this.’