Reporting Sexual Assaults to the Police: the Israeli BDSM Community

This article explores what considerations members of the sadomasochistic community in Israel take into account in deciding whether to report sexual offenses and victimization to the police. This research is a qualitative study that included 20 interviews with members (men and women) of the BDSM community during 2012–2013 in Israel. The study found that members of the BDSM community in Israel have experienced sexual assault in the context of BDSM play. Respondents mentioned several reasons for not reporting this assault to the police. These reasons included fear of the victim’s being blamed, a desire to be discreet and not out themselves or others as having an interest in BDSM, shame about the practices that may have been part of the consensual part of the scene, difficulty explaining BDSM, and difficulty proving assault specifically when it requires explaining distinctions between play violence and assault. Respondents mentioned several ways that the Israeli BDSM community attempts to deal with assault and help victims, including a submissive women’s forum, a hotline that offered emotional support to victims, an informal list of people accused of assault, gossip as a way of sharing information, outing people who commit assault, and banning people from the community. Many of these considerations are common to victims of sexual assault and rape in non-BDSM contexts as well. What is different here is a layer of stigma specific to public perception of BDSM sexual interests as “deviant” or “perverse.”