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The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a grant of €2,858,000 to the T@CKLE project, a transdisciplinary research project on sexually transgressive behaviour and sexual violence (STBSV). From Utrecht University, researchers Jenneke van Ditzhuijzen and John de Wit are involved in the project. Van Ditzhuijzen: "I am extremely pleased and proud that we can contribute to this project, within a strong consortium with a lot of knowledge and expertise on this topic. We have worked very hard on a wonderful proposal that we now get to implement together with the field."

T@CKLE (Transdisciplinary Analysis and Co-creation of Knowledge to Lead Efforts against Online and Offline Sexually Transgressive Behaviour and Sexual Violence) thoroughly tackles both online and offline STBSV. With an integrated and transdisciplinary approach T@CKLE brings together experts, organisations and initiatives in a new national STBSV network. With this, the collaboration across disciplines is consolidated and the strengths of existing initiatives are combined.

Culture change

The project is committed to a five-pronged approach at different socio-ecological levels, targeting both individuals and social contexts. One of the five subprojects will be hosted at Utrecht University. Van Ditzhuijzen: “Our subproject explicitly focuses on culture change to explore and change deeply embedded norms and narratives around victim blaming, masculinity and alcohol use. This is because these norms and narratives perpetuate a culture in which transgressive behaviour is seen as normal, as something that is simply common. We want to know why this is so and how it can be changed.”

STBSV is a multi-headed problem that we can only address if we look beyond the individual.

Multi-headed problem

With their project, the researchers want to remove the responsibility for sexually transgressive behaviour from the victim. "Instead, we should focus on preventing perpetration and the context in which STBSV occurs. STBSV is a multi-headed problem that we can only address if we look beyond the individual. We must also challenge the culture that promotes STBSV."