Sexual Assault Prevention on College Campuses

Matt Gray, Christina Hassija, Sarah Steinmetz, Matt J. Gray, Christina M. Hassija, Sarah E. Steinmetz

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138940802
• eBook ISBN: 9781317378013
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Sexual assault continues to be a problem on college campuses despite greater attention to reducing rates of assault and an increased presence in the public discourse. Programming has been historically directed towards women by providing them with information about how to keep themselves safe rather than confronting a climate conducive to sexual violence. This important volume illuminates the urgency of combating sexual violence on college campuses. The authors depict in detail empirically supported approaches to combating climates conducive to sexual violence and ways to empower all members of the campus community to actively prevent sexual violence.

1 Introduction

Preventing Sexual Assault on College Campuses

10.4324/9781315674056-1

It is no exaggeration to say that sexual assault is endemic to college campuses and, despite a long overdue recent uptick in visibility and public discourse, it is a scourge that remains unabated. Best estimates place the prevalence rate of sexual assault among women during their college years at one in five (e.g., Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2007), with nearly 5% of college males also reporting unwanted sexual contact through force or incapacitation (Cantor et al., 2015). Of those individuals who have experienced rape, approximately one-third currently meet diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and approximately half met criteria for the disorder at some point in their lives following the trauma—to say nothing of significantly elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders that also occur at elevated rates following sexual assault (Zinzow et al., 2012).

The college years are often mischaracterized as an extended period of adolescence when one is protected from the hardships and stressors of the “real world.” This depiction is not easily reconciled with the realities of nearly a quarter of college students who experience an act of violence capable of yielding such long-term, deleterious consequences. Given the true scope and impact of sexual violence among college students, no hyperbole should be required to mobilize concerned students, faculty, and administrators to act. And yet, until quite recently, very little has been done to combat the problem. As will be reviewed in the chapters ahead, recent years have witnessed the development of a number of encouraging programmatic prevention efforts, and these advances are to be lauded as they are beginning to lay the foundation for effective solutions to end sexual violence on college campuses. To date, however, the sine qua non of effective sexual assault prevention—a demonstrable, replicable reduction in sexual assault prevalence stemming from a particular program—has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. Certainly, there are practical constraints and logistical barriers to developing, implementing, and evaluating programs that, on the one hand, need to be substantive, persuasive, and enduring—and, on the other hand, need to be efficiently delivered in a cost-effective manner to thousands of students on a particular campus each year. These very legitimate obstacles understandably hinder the efforts of even the most ambitious, committed, and innovative prevention program developers, and they will be reviewed in detail in the ensuing chapters. Few would disagree, however, that the import of the problem is too significant and the cost of failure is too great to be daunted by these barriers, legitimate though they may be.

Accordingly, after a review of the magnitude, scope, and costs of sexual violence, this book critiques historical and emerging sexual violence prevention efforts—noting the considerable conceptual advances that have been made, while being candid about limitations characterizing the evidentiary base for even the most promising efforts to date. Concluding chapters advance suggestions for enhancing current programming efforts and, perhaps more importantly, offer methodological and practice suggestions for future sexual violence prevention efforts.

This book is not intended to advocate for a particular type of sexual assault prevention program or category of approaches. By design, we stop shy of making “best practice” recommendations for those hoping to begin administering the optimal prevention strategy in the very near future. Though it should be apparent from our review which emerging programs are most promising, we necessarily refrain from such advocacy for two important reasons. First, and most importantly, truly effective sexual assault prevention programming is very much in its infancy and, encouraging emerging trends aside, an objective view of the research simply does not allow for a particular approach to be advocated above all others at the present time. Second, in our view, a “best practice” moniker often serves as an unfortunate, if unintended, moratorium on intervention development efforts. Because of the fact that even the best programs to date have demonstrated a capacity to reduce rape-supportive beliefs and increase intentions to intervene on behalf of victims in the future despite not yet demonstrating actual reductions in sexual violence rates, it would be unwise to exalt any specific program at the expense of what we believe to be the only currently legitimate call to action based on a disimpassioned view of the data—and that is a call to innovate.

We offer some specific ideas in this regard which have been culled from effective attitude and behavior change strategies in diverse social justice and behavioral domains. These strategies, when combined with existing approaches, may prove to be wholly inert despite being effective for other problems and contexts. The specific approaches that fall or stand on their empirical merits in the years ahead, however, does not change the pressing mandate before us. Researchers, advocates, and campus stakeholders must approach the problem of sexual violence from a place of commitment and passion, innovation, and, importantly, shared methodological clarity. The proliferation of sexual violence prevention programs in recent years amply attests to growing commitment, passion, and innovation. Progress in coming years will be expedited considerably through candor about limitations in the evidentiary base and a commitment to methodologies and research plans to overcome them. In that sense, then, although program content cannot be definitively advanced or advocated at present, methodological recommendations certainly can be, and this book aspires to do so. In the end, what we know depends greatly on how we come to know it, and a commitment to enhanced methodologies and evaluation strategies will be essential if we are to make appreciable reductions in the prevalence of sexual violence in the years ahead.

Legislative and Executive Actions Regarding Sexual Violence on College Campuses

Before reviewing the literature on sexual violence prevalence, impact, and prevention efforts, it is worth briefly introducing the central legislative and executive actions bearing on sexual assault reporting, education, and programming among institutions of higher learning. A comprehensive examination of relevant legislation is well beyond the scope of this book, but understanding current campus education and prevention efforts in context requires a brief discussion of the legislative acts that spawned them as well as more recent actions that continue to inform universities’ obligations and responses to sexual violence.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires any institution of higher learning that receives financial assistance from the federal government to provide education and prevention efforts to address sexual assault on their campuses and to respond promptly and effectively when it is reported. As outlined by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in a 2011 policy statement, schools must take immediate steps to address any gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, or sexual violence. If an incident of sexual violence, harassment, or discrimination creates a hostile environment for any student, the institution must act to eliminate it, provide support and remedy for those harmed, and act immediately to prevent its recurrence. Every school is required to have a Title IX coordinator who is responsible for handling complaints and coordinating institutional response to the complaint. In addition to investigating the allegations and determining if the preponderance of evidence supports the likelihood that an act of discrimination or harassment of violence has occurred, the Title IX office is typically charged with providing support and referral information for affected individuals. Schools must implement reasonable changes to a complainant’s residence, class or extracurricular activities, and campus employment in order to ensure that he or she can continue to pursue an education free from ongoing sexual violence, harassment, or discrimination. These accommodations and supports are to be provided immediately as opposed to being deferred until a legal verdict has been reached or an internal investigation has been completed. They should not unduly burden the complainant, and schools are required to prevent retaliation directed toward the individual making a complaint. In order to do so, “no contact” orders are routine, and they require that the accused individual may not initiate contact with the complainant, nor may he or she do so via a third party. Finally, if accommodations are needed to support affected individuals in their pursuit of an education, the institution should provide them at no cost to the student. Stated differently, victims should not incur additional expenses in order to recover from acts of sexual violence or to prevent ongoing difficulties stemming from an assault.

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (i.e., the “Clery Act,” 1990) is a federal statue requiring all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about campus crime, including sexual assault. Compliance is monitored by the US Department of Education, which can impose civil monetary penalties against institutions for infractions and can suspend institutions from participating in federal student financial aid programs. Expanded in 2013 via the Campus SaVE Act, it broadens coverage to domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, and it also requires that universities develop and disseminate prevention policies and programs.

Certainly, these legislative acts are crucial in establishing a formal responsibility and set of obligations that institutions of higher learning are required to heed in an effort to protect students from sexual violence. Importantly, these pieces of legislation are more than toothless, aspirational standards, as institutions in violation can incur significant financial penalties and, ultimately, loss of federal funding. As such, there is ample motivation to comply with their provisions and mandates. Nevertheless, they offer precious little guidance as to what should be included in awareness and prevention programs, how they should be structured and disseminated, and how they might be evaluated. It should come as no surprise then, that the modal “program” on most college campuses is a single-session (i.e., “one-shot”) informational overview that lasts approximately one hour (e.g., DeGue et al., 2014). The legislative mandate to provide unspecified education and programming has been met with the perhaps predictable institutional response to such mandates—a very brief overview of the most basic information about sexual violence, typically delivered en masse to a captive audience. This, in turn, has resulted in a most predictable outcome—i.e., no clearly evident or demonstrable reduction in sexual violence rates whatsoever since such legislation has been enacted. Again, this is not to say that promising approaches have not been developed—only that they are not the norm nationwide, and, further, that they have not been rigorously evaluated with respect to reductions in actual rates of sexual violence. Given the complexity of sexual violence, its origins in long-standing societal assumptions and misperceptions about gendered sexual behavior, global misconceptions about causes and consequences of sexual assault, and the unique characteristics of college campuses that are associated with sexual violence (e.g., binge drinking and incapacitation, a prevailing “hookup” culture, and developmentally emergent sexual exploration), it would be very surprising indeed if an hour-long informational program could possibly be expected to stem the tide of sexual violence.

Because the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses has not appreciably diminished despite well-intentioned and important legislation designed—in part—to do so, President Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum on January 22, 2014, which formally established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. The Task Force—still in the formative stages of its work—established a new website NotAlone.gov—to support sexual assault survivors and to provide clarity to colleges and universities about their specific obligations in preventing and responding to sexual violence. In April of 2014, the Task Force issued a set of action steps and recommendations as follows. First, schools were provided with a tool kit to develop and conduct campus climate surveys. Because the great majority of sexual assaults are not reported to campus or law enforcement personnel, formal crime statistics grossly underestimate the scope of the problem. In order to appreciate fully the local frequency and impacts of sexual violence, institution-specific data that do not rely on campus crime reports are needed. Second, the Task Force wisely recommended engaging the broader campus community—including men—to combat sexual violence. For too long, prevention efforts have been directed toward potential victims and potential perpetrators, which, by definition, excludes the majority of the campus. By recognizing that, although most males are not perpetrators, all males can be allies and potentially intervene when someone is at risk, this recommendation can mobilize more individuals to act and to take personal responsibility for promoting campus safety. Third, recommendations were advanced for responding effectively and appropriately when a student is sexually assaulted. In brief, these recommendations include provisions for confidential reporting as well as clarity about who on campus can maintain a victim’s confidentiality in order to give the survivor more control over the reporting experience, a checklist for developing a comprehensive sexual misconduct policy, trauma-informed training for school officials, development and dissemination of school investigatory and disciplinary systems, and a call to increase optimal partnerships with the community. Fourth, the Task Force recommends and attempts—via the NotAlone.gov website—to provide greater transparency and information for victims in layperson-friendly language so that victims can better understand their rights and their institution’s obligations and responsibilities. It is, of course, much too early to know whether this renewed emphasis on sexual violence prevention and the corresponding efforts to increase transparency and access to information will improve outcomes, but it is encouraging that there is heightened executive-level recognition of the problem and a concentrated effort to bring greater visibility and recognition to campus sexual violence.

References

• Cantor, D. , Fisher, B. , Chibnall, S. , Townsend, R. , Lee, H. , Bruce, C. , & Thomas, G. (2015). Report on the AAU campus climate survey on sexual assault and sexual misconduct. Rockville, MD: Association of American Universities.
• DeGue, S. , Valle, L. A. , Holt, M. K. , Massetti, G. M. , Matjasko, J. L. , & Tharp, A. T. (2014). A systematic review of primary prevention strategies for sexual violence perpetration. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 19, 346–362. doi:10.1016/ j.avb.2014.05.004
• Krebs, C. P. , Lindquist, C. H. , Warner, T. D. , Fisher, B. S. , & Martin, S. L. (2007). The campus sexual assault (CSA) study. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
• Zinzow, H. M. , Resnick, H. S. , McCauley, J. L. , Amstadter, A. B. , Ruggiero, K. J. , & Kilpatrick, D. G. (2012). Prevalence and risk of psychiatric disorders as a function of variant rape histories: Results from a national survey of women. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47(6), 893–902. doi:10.1007/s00127–011–0397–1

2 Prevalence and Institutional and Economic Costs of Campus Sexual Assault

10.4324/9781315674056-2

Sexual victimization is a significant public-health concern in the United States, and in recent years, it has gained substantial attention in the media. While estimates vary depending on the methodology employed, findings from national investigations indicate that the rate of sexual victimization is high, particularly among college-aged women (Black et al., 2011; Cantor et al., 2015; Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000; Krebs et al., 2007; Sinozich & Langton, 2014). The present chapter provides an introduction to the problem and significance of sexual assault. Estimates of the prevalence of sexual assault among males and females within the general and college population in the United States are reported. Additionally, information regarding the characteristics of sexual victimization and issues with victim reporting behavior are described. Then, the institutional and economic impacts of sexual assault on college campuses are presented and discussed.

Prevalence of Sexual Assault

A number of national and regional studies have been conducted in an effort to quantify the prevalence and impact of sexual victimization among general and college populations. In 2010, with support from the Department of Justice and Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control conducted the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) to assess the prevalence, characteristics, and consequences of sexual violence (Black et al., 2011). The NISVS was part of an ongoing, nationally representative random digit dial telephone survey that collected information about sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence among English or Spanish-speaking women and men aged 18 or older in the United States. Rape was defined as any completed or attempted unwanted vaginal, oral, or anal penetration through the use of physical force or threats to physically harm the victim. The definition included instances when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent. Findings from the NISVS indicated that a startling 1 in 5 women (18.3%) and 1 in 71 men (1.4%) report having been raped at some time in their lives, including completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, or alcohol/drug facilitated completed penetration. Additionally, an estimated 13% of women and 6% of men have experienced sexual coercion (i.e., unwanted sexual penetration after being pressured in a nonphysical way), and 27.2% of women and 11.7% of men have experienced unwanted sexual contact (i.e., sexual experiences involving tough but not sexual penetration, such as being kissed in a sexual way, or having sexual body parts fondled or grabbed) in their lifetime. In view of that, rates of sexual victimization within the general population are disturbingly high.

With respect to age, the majority of female rape victims (79.6%) reported being raped prior to their twenty-fifth birthday, with 42.2% of participants indicating that they had experienced a rape prior to age 18 (Black et al., ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Researching Social Psychology
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table Of Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Preventing Sexual Assault on College Campuses
• 2 Prevalence and Institutional and Economic Costs of Campus Sexual Assault
• 3 Emotional and Psychological Consequences of Sexual Violence
• 4 Etiology of Sexual Assault Perpetration
• 5 Evaluation of Prior Efforts to Address Campus Violence
• 6 Bystander Prevention and Education Programs
• 7 Broader Impacts of Challenging Rape-Supportive Beliefs: Support for Survivors
• 8 Social Psychological Theory to Inform Sexual Assault Prevention Programming
• Index