Beyond Bystander Intervention: Therapeutic Communalism as a Feminist Framework for Addressing the Structural Roots of Campus Sexual Harassment

Abstract

. This theoretical paper argues that this stagnation stems from the fundamentally individualistic and depoliticized nature of current approaches, which frame harassment as discrete acts by problematic individuals rather than as symptoms of deeper structural and cultural pathologies within academic institutions. This paper advances Therapeutic Communalism as a comprehensive feminist framework that shifts the locus of intervention from atomized individuals to community responsibility and institutional transformation. Building upon feminist critiques of neoliberal university governance, carceral feminism, and restorative justice principles, we deconstruct how bystander intervention models maintain a liberal feminist orientation that fails to challenge underlying power hierarchies. Therapeutic Communalism reconceptualizes prevention through three core feminist principles: the collectivization of responsibility, moving beyond heroic individual bystanders to cultivate shared ethical accountability; the decentering of formal punitive power, creating alternative communicative spaces that challenge institutional reporting mechanisms rooted in carceral logics; and the integration of restorative praxis, addressing harm through processes emphasizing community healing rather than administrative punishment. Through analysis of institutional case studies and existing communal practice models, we demonstrate how this framework addresses four critical limitations of current approaches: the pervasive reporting gap, institutional betrayal dynamics, normalization of low level harassment, and the reinforcement of carceral systems that disproportionately harm marginalized communities. The paper concludes that sustainable harassment prevention requires moving beyond training individuals toward fundamentally restructuring how academic communities communicate about power, boundaries, and collective care, positioning Therapeutic Communalism as both practical framework and radical political project..