Unwilling trust:Unpacking the assumption of trust between sexual misconduct reporters and their institutions in UK higher education

This article explores trust in organisations by analysing interview data from students and staff who have disclosed or reported gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) to their higher education institution (HEI) in the UK since 2016. GBVH contributes to gender inequality in higher education (HE), and increased reporting of it may not only help prevent GBVH, but also improve gender equality by helping to retain women and gender minorities within HE. Around half of the interviewees in this study (n=12) expressed distrust in their institution, yet despite this they still reported or disclosed their experiences to their institution. Existing literature in this area, particularly Smith and Freyd’s (2013) concept of institutional betrayal, assumes that survivors of GBVH trust their institutions—including higher education institutions—because they are dependent upon said institutions. Our data challenges this assumption, and in this article, we analyse participants’ trust orientations in the context of their reasons for reporting. We argue that dependence on and trust in institutions are separate phenomena, in that members of an organisation may be dependent upon the organisation in various ways, but their trust in the organisation reflects their structural positioning within it. To develop the theorisation of trust in institutional betrayal, we draw on and extend Luhmann’s concept of “system trust” as well as other sociological theories of trust. Finally, the article introduces the concept of “unwilling trust” – a contradiction between an individual acting in trusting ways despite feeling a lack of trust – to explain this disconnect between dispositions and actions.