Miller Karen-Lee
Violence Vict. 2014;29(5):797-813. doi: 10.1891/0886-6708.vv-d-13-00056.
The victim impact statement (VIS) is a written account of harms experienced as a result of crime. This study investigates VIS use by sexually assaulted women through interviews with Canadian victims, victim services workers, and feminist advocates (N = 35). Findings suggest that victims use the VIS to express relational caring. Relational caring is an ethic of care that prioritizes others through privileging the harms experienced by others because of witnessing the sexual assault or coping with the victim's postassault sequelae, protecting future or hypothetical victims, and promoting the interests of intimate partner offenders. Relational caring challenges traditional conceptions of victim agency and VIS use for instrumental purposes, as well as the targets and temporalities of sexual assault harms that are detailed in the statement. Relational caring has unique implications for victims who are mothers, especially those abused as minors, and for intimate partners. Legal, therapeutic, and social service consequences are discussed.
受害者影响陈述（VIS）是一份关于犯罪造成的伤害的书面记录。本研究通过对加拿大受害者、受害者服务工作者和女权倡导者（N = 35）进行访谈，调查了遭受性侵犯的女性对受害者影响陈述的使用情况。研究结果表明，受害者利用受害者影响陈述来表达关系关怀。关系关怀是一种关怀伦理，它通过优先考虑他人因目睹性侵犯或应对受害者性侵后后遗症而遭受的伤害、保护未来或假设的受害者以及促进亲密伴侣犯罪者的利益来优先考虑他人。关系关怀挑战了受害者能动性的传统观念以及将受害者影响陈述用于工具性目的的做法，也挑战了陈述中详细描述的性侵犯伤害的目标和时间范围。关系关怀对身为母亲的受害者，尤其是那些在未成年时遭受虐待的母亲以及亲密伴侣具有独特的影响。文中还讨论了其在法律、治疗和社会服务方面的后果。
