[5] The term is receiving increased attention based on recent White House statements about sexual assault on college campuses.
Recent debate about how colleges respond to sexual assault by students has brought this issue renewed media attention.
Although sharing accounts of trauma can be helpful in reducing a sense of aloneness, reinforcement via social media may cause an increase in reported PTSD symptoms linked to institutional betrayal.
[12] Therefore, these individuals may experience feelings of institutional betrayal due to a perceived failure of the police to prevent further revictimization.
It is hypothesized that institutional betrayal in the medical system will explain symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety above and beyond the effects of general tendencies to trust others or the patient satisfaction with the care received.
[17] Instructors and students have expressed feelings of betrayal incurred from university administration due to microaggressions and racial stress.
[18][19] Women in particular are at risk of experiencing institutional betrayal due in part to gender-based biases and microaggressions, as well as experience of campus sexual violence.
[28][29] In the summer of 2020, protests around the murder of George Floyd was a large-scale public outcry against police brutality which in part was due to a noted[29] sense of institutional betrayal.
[32][33] Moral injury is a form of trauma that refers to the impact of perpetrating, witnessing, or being a victim of an act that goes against the subject's worldview or set of personal values.
[41] Institutional cowardice can be due to policy (e.g., a company not providing sick leave to workers dealing with mental health issues) or as a way for an individual to fall back on a supposed guideline or rule (e.g., someone refusing to offer concessions and stating that they are "just doing [their] job").