Not a Cool Girl: Exploring Projective Mechanisms in Incidents of Sexual Violence

Projective mechanisms are used to dispose the unwanted aspects of human psyche. This paper aims at exploring these mechanisms in the perpetrators of sexual violence. Additionally, it explores the impact of these mechanisms when used onto the victims. For this study, qualitative analysis of the interviews with survivors of sexual violence is carried out. Themes on the perception of the perpetrators, as well as the narratives of the survivors showed feelings of shame, anger, and violation in the survivor. Lack of accountability from the perpetrators is also a common theme. Delayed expression of anger from the survivors is expressed.