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Fostering men's responsibility for preventing sexual assault
Abstract
Even though only a minority of men may commit sexual assault, all men can have an influence on the culture and environment that allows other men to be perpetrators. The author believes that effective sexual assault prevention requires that men look at their own potential for violence as well as take a stand against the violence of other men. This chapter provides an overview of the issues involved in men taking responsibility for sexual assault prevention, suggests a philosophy and pedagogy for rape prevention, provides a developmental model for prevention programs, makes recommendations for advancing the field, and reviews promising interventions and strategies. The chapter's primary focus is the prevention of sexual assault perpetrated by young men against young women who know each other in college or high school settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Results showed that these campaigns were confusing because bystanders often could not identify if the situation was an emergency that required intervention (Cismaru et al., 2010). Nonetheless, Berkowitz (2002) noted that bystander intervention messaging has a potentially positive impact on violence prevention. ...
... As new codes emerged, previously analyzed data was reanalyzed to incorporate the new code. In the end, six codes related to visual and textual elements emerged: (a) country/the country where the PSA was created and where it ran in media; (b) actions to be taken/the actions the PSAs recommend such as denouncing or reporting VAW, addressing VAW as a crime, demonstrating the effects of VAW on children, and encouraging men to reject VAW, and to show men as the perpetrators of VAW (Berkowitz, 2002;Cismaru et al., 2010;El-Khoury & Shafer, 2016;Potter et al., 2009;Ramírez, 2015); (c) narrative elements/showcasing narrative elements such as stories, personal experiences, or quotes from women who had suffered VAW (Belotti et al., 2020;McQueen et al., 2011;Morgan et al., 2009;Muralidharan & Kim, 2019;Palazzi et al., 2014;Ramírez, 2015); (d) non-narrative elements/highlighting factual, non-narrative elements such as percentages or number of deaths within the country (Bekalu et al., 2018;Li, 2021); (e) contact information/information related to helping victims or contacting authorities including a phone number or helpline for reporting VAW (Cismaru et al., 2010;Muralidharan et al., 2018); and (f) portrayals/portrayals of women as either victims, reinforcing gender stereotypes, or as survivors, reinforcing empowerment and breaking gender stereotypes (Mensa & Bittner, 2020;Plakoyiannaki et al., 2008). Finally, the codes were numerically tallied using the statistical program SPSS. ...
This study considers the role that public service announcements (PSAs) play in addressing violence against women (VAW) in Latin America. Using content analysis, the study examines 407 PSAs about VAW from 20 Latin American countries. The results show that 62.3% of the PSAs encourage bystanders to denounce violence while portraying women as victims in 48.8% of the PSAs. However, 71.7% of PSAs did not include a helpline or how to report the crime, only 11.8% of the PSAs have non-narrative, or factual information, about VAW, and just 6.4% engage in compelling narrative messaging or storytelling.
... Based on the low likelihood that individuals in this study were having conversations conducted by someone with research-based knowledge in the area of sexual assault, the first policy suggestion presented is the implementation of male support groups hosted by a qualified advocate/professional, allowing males the opportunity to voice their fears and confidently discuss them with others, in a safe environment. Programming of this nature, facilitated by trained individuals, has shown promise in addressing rape supportive attitudes and myths regarding sexual assault (Barone et al., 2007;Smith et al., 2016), with participants feeling more comfortable sharing and learning in an all-male environment (Berkowitz, 2002). Ideally, males would attend these groups with individuals in their social circles to decrease both their own fears of being falsely accused and fears for their friends. ...
The rise in highly publicized cases of sexual assault, along with offenders in these cases alluding that those alleged victims were being untruthful about their claims, has fostered myths about false reporting of sexual assault, increasing discussions over fears of being falsely accused. This study uses an exploratory approach to identify the prevalence of and variables that are related to fear of false accusations amongst college students. Gender, acceptance of rape myths, and decreased programming were associated with fears of being falsely accused of sexual assault. Further, a relationship was found between fears of false allegations and affirmative consent-seeking. Policies are suggested that directly correlate with promoting consent and decreasing fear of being falsely accused. Individuals acquiring knowledge of consent and discussing the effects of fear of false accusations, aims to decrease fear, while emphasizing the importance of healthy relationships and responses when engaging in sexual intimacy.
... Such efforts may reduce sexually violent behavior, while increasing gender-specific bystander behavior by those who witness sexual violence (Amar and Gennaro, 2005). Treating men as "allies" to prevent sexual violence (Deitz et al., 1982) may attenuate the barriers to engaging young men in prevention efforts (Payne et al., 1999;Rich et al., 2010) while promoting attitudinal and behavioral change (Amar et al., 2015;Berkowitz, 2002). ...
Sexual violence remains a global problem that disproportionately affects women. Though sexual violence interventions exist, few have been implemented in low- or middle-income countries, and none in Vietnam for young men. We adapted a sexual violence prevention intervention (RealConsent) developed for college men in the U.S. and conducted a randomized controlled trial of the adapted intervention (GlobalConsent) with college men in Vietnam. We assessed the effects of GlobalConsent on sexually violent behavior and prosocial bystander behavior, directly and through theoretically targeted mediators. The study design entailed a double-blind, parallel intervention-control-group design in two universities. Consenting heterosexual or bisexual men 18–24 years starting university in September 2019 (n = 793) completed a baseline survey and were assigned with 1:1 randomization to GlobalConsent or attention control. Both programs were web-based and lasted 12 weeks. Path analysis was performed to study the mediating effects of cognition/knowledge, beliefs/attitudes, affect, and efficacy/intention variables measured at six months on sexually violent behavior and prosocial bystander behavior measured at 12 months. In parallel multiple-mediator models, initiating GlobalConsent lowered the odds of sexually violent behavior mainly indirectly, via knowledge of sexual violence legality and harm and victim empathy and increased the odds of prosocial bystander behavior directly and indirectly, through knowledge of sexual violence legality and harm and bystander capacities. The efficacious direct and indirect effects of GlobalConsent support the cross-cultural applicability of its underlying theory of change and findings from mediation analyses of its sister program RealConsent, suggesting GlobalConsent's national scalability and adaptability across Southeast Asia.
... Second, although our models were better at explaining men's violence, until we have better measures of women's violence, secondary prevention programs should target both men and women, since both may be violent. However, research suggests prevention programming works best when provided separately for men and women (Anicha et al., 2015;Berkowitz, 1994Berkowitz, , 2002. Given the shared risk factors across forms of violence, and legislation (e.g., Title IX, Campus SaVE Act) requiring educational institutions respond to several forms of interpersonal violence, consolidated programs aimed at the prevention of multiple forms of interpersonal violence would be most efficient. ...
This study examines the moderating effects of gender, child abuse, and pathological nar-cissism on self-reported stalking, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence, and sexual aggression in undergraduate men and women. Child abuse was positively associated with engaging in all forms of interpersonal violence for both genders. For women, pathological narcissism moderated this association such that higher levels of pathological narcissism reduced the association between child abuse and engaging in stalking, sexual harassment , sexual aggression. For men. pathological narcissism exhibited independent positive associations with engagement in sexual harassment and sexual aggression and a negative association with engagement in intimate partner violence, but no moderating effects. These gender differences have important implications for the assessment of women's violence, and university violence prevention and advocacy programs.
Background
Sexual violence against women is prevalent worldwide. Prevention programs that treat men as allies and integrate a bystander framework are emerging in lower income settings, but evidence of their effectiveness is conflicting.
Objective
This study aimed to test the impact of GlobalConsent on sexually violent behavior and prosocial bystander behavior among university men in Vietnam.
Methods
We used a double-blind, parallel intervention versus control group design with 1:1 randomization at 2 universities. A total of 793 consenting heterosexual or bisexual men aged 18-24 years who matriculated in September 2019 were enrolled and assigned randomly to GlobalConsent or an attention-control adolescent health education (AHEAD) program. GlobalConsent is an adapted, theory-based, 6-module web-based intervention with diverse behavior change techniques and a locally produced serial drama. AHEAD is a customized, 6-module attention-control program on adolescent health. Both the programs were delivered to computers and smartphones over 12 weeks. Self-reported sexually violent behaviors toward women in the prior 6 months and prosocial bystander behaviors in the prior year were measured at 0, 6, and 12 months.
Results
More than 92.7% (735/793) of men in both study arms completed at least 1 program module, and >90.2% (715/793) of men completed all 6 modules. At baseline, a notable percentage of men reported any sexually violent behavior (GlobalConsent: 123/396, 31.1%; AHEAD: 103/397, 25.9%) in the prior 6 months. Among men receiving GlobalConsent, the odds of reporting a high level (at least 2 acts) of sexually violent behavior at the endline were 1.3 times the odds at baseline. Among men receiving AHEAD, the corresponding odds ratio was higher at 2.7. The odds of reporting any bystander behavior at endline were 0.7 times the odds at baseline for GlobalConsent, and the corresponding odds ratio for AHEAD was lower at 0.5.
Conclusions
Compared with a health attention-control condition, GlobalConsent has sustained favorable impacts on sexually violent behavior and prosocial bystander behavior among matriculating university men in Vietnam, who would otherwise face increasing risks of sexually violent behavior. GlobalConsent shows promise for national scale-up and regional adaptations.
Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04147455; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04147455
International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)
RR2-10.1186/s12889-020-09454-2
Between 50% and 70% of campus sexual assaults (SA) involve alcohol and campuses frequently promote bystander intervention strategies to prevent SA in student party contexts. This systematic review evaluates the measurement and outcomes of quantitative studies on how alcohol affects campus SA bystander outcomes. Using four search strategies and rigorous systematic review methods, we conducted a review of 36 studies. We included studies published after 2,000 conducted with college students in the United States, its territories, and Canada which contained information on alcohol use and SA bystander outcomes (behaviors and upstream proxies). Only a third of included studies measured bystander behavior directly, the majority measured upstream proxies (e.g., intentions, self-efficacy). Most studies considered the influence of victim intoxication on bystander outcomes. No studies assessed the pharmacological or physiological effects of alcohol on bystander outcomes. A single study examined hypothetical bystander responses when intoxicated, one-third examined bystander?s typical alcohol use in relation to bystander outcomes. Many findings are contradictory, including fundamental details such as how often students encounter SA involving alcohol or whether bystanders? alcohol use predicts outcomes. Findings suggest that students are less likely help intoxicated victims compared to sober victims, but there are clear moderating factors. Perpetrator intoxication was not studied in relation to bystander behavior and did not influence any upstream proxies. Evaluations of interventions on alcohol and bystander topics are promising yet more research is required. This review illuminates key gaps in the literature, including the need for validated measures and scenarios, event-level studies, and alcohol administration trials.
While consent forms part of the Health, Wellbeing and Relationships strand of the New South Wales (NSW) Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) curriculum in Australia, it is not consistently or effectively delivered within schools. The recent e-campaign, Teach Us Consent in NSW, drew attention to the alarmingly high rates of sexual assault experienced by young women during their school years or shortly after. The campaign called for mandatory, inclusive and comprehensive consent education in schools. This paper presents research from a case study of an elite, same-sex, Catholic boys’ school in NSW, Australia, examining the types of knowledge and attitudes young men and their PDHPE teachers had about sexual consent and the types of consent pedagogies mobilised. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the five male PDHPE teachers, and a focus group was conducted with five Year 11 male students (aged 16–17). The findings highlight that while participants recognised the importance of sexual consent in intimate relationships, consent pedagogies were grounded in individualising discourses of risk, responsibility and care, which rearticulated hegemonic gender norms. Findings from this study contribute to discussions of how schools approach consent education, and the limitations presented by outsourcing relationships and sex education.
The purpose of this study was to examine and compare sexual violence (SV) victimization among sorority women and unaffiliated counterparts. Results showed sorority women were more likely than unaffiliated women to report experiencing some types of SV, consuming alcohol prior to victimization, and to identify their perpetrator as a hookup/casual partner. More women, regardless of affiliation, informally disclosed their victimization compared to formally reporting; many did not tell anyone because they did not think it was serious enough. The findings point to implications for harm reduction, bystander intervention, and primary prevention programming, as well as institutional policy to address SV.
College students can use bystander intervention tactics to prevent sexual assault within their communities. One's group memberships and group identification—conceptualized within social identity theory—could influence attitudes and behaviors related to bystander intervention. College students ( n = 1,170) participated in an online survey measuring group membership with student subgroups, identification, and bystander intervention perceptions. Subgroups in this study included fraternities/sororities, student organizations, National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes, club/intramural sports, and spiritual/faith-based organizations. For various student subgroups, group identification was significantly correlated with individuals’ perceived willingness and likelihood to engage in bystander intervention and their perceptions about the helpfulness of bystander intervention tactics.
Objective: Male allies play an important role in sexual assault prevention, yet many college sexual assault prevention programs struggle to recruit and retain men. This study aims to identify barriers to recruitment and retention of male sexual assault prevention peer educators. Participants: Seventeen undergraduate male student leaders participated in this study during summer 2018. Methods: Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted, recorded, and transcribed. Response data were thematically analyzed. Results: Barriers to recruitment include perceived gender norms and discomfort with the topic of sexual assault. Barriers to retention include male peer educators' perception that women are resistant to men discussing sexual assault. Suggestions for improving recruitment and retention efforts are also identified. Conclusions: Recruitment and retention of male sexual assault prevention peer educators may require recruitment approaches that are tailored to men and programmatic changes that position men as allies in sexual assault prevention.
The College Date Rape Attitude Survey (CDRAS), a measure intended to assess attitudes related to risk for committing rape in adolescents and young adults, was examined to determine the principal component structure of rape-related attitudes in data collected on an undergraduate college sample. Results provide evidence that responses to the instrument are reliable with regard to internal consistency, and that the CDRAS measures four rape-related attitudes: Entitlement, Blame Shifting, Traditional Roles, and Overwhelming Sexual Arousal. The CDRAS could be used to elicit information about student's attitudes , which could then be used to develop, implement, and evaluate an intervention specific to the needs of that population.
This study provides empirical support for a theoretical model previously developed by Abbey and colleagues (Abbey, 1991; Abbey Ross, & McDuffie, 1994; Abbey, Ross, McDuffie, & McAuslan, 1996) to explain one set of pathways through which alcohol and sexual assault are linked. It was hypothesized that the mutual effects of beliefs and experiences with regard to dating, sexuality, and alcohol increase the likelihood that a man would misperceive a female companion's sexual intentions, and that this misperception would lead to sexual assault. Self-administered, anonymous surveys were conducted with a representative sample of 814 men at a large urban university. Twenty-six percent of these men reported perpetrating sexual assault. The results of structural equation modeling analyses provided support for the model. Suggestions are made for a more dyadic and dynamic mode of research on this problem, as well as for the development of sexual assault prevention and treatment programs for men.
In this book, Joseph Pleck examines and analyzes the full body of research literature on the male role that has appeared since the 1930s and subjects it to a devastating critique. He identifies the components of the "male sex role paradigm" which has been the basis of research for the past forty years, and notes numerous instances of blatant misrepresentation of data, twisted reinterpretations of disconfirming results, misogyny, homophobia, and class bias. He proposes a new theory, the "sex role strain paradigm," offers a reinterpretation of sex role stereotyping, and a critique of research by sociobiologists that allegedly demonstrates a biological basis for male aggression.
The purpose of this research report is twofold: First, we analyze a complex of attitudes about rape myths, adversarial sexual beliefs, and gender-role conservatism; and second, we evaluate the impact of rape-education intervention strategies on American college students' attitudes. Using the Solomon four-group design, we randomly assigned 14 classes of Sociology 101 students (total N = 582) to three different treatment conditions: a live rape-education workshop, a video of the workshop, and a control group. We found significant gender differences in students' attitudes on all the scales, with women being more knowledgeable about rape, less likely to blame the victim, and less accepting of adversarial sexual beliefs and gender-role conservatism. Most important, we found that within the limits of the study, rape-education intervention works in changing some attitudes about rape for both men and women students. We examine the impact of the different educational strategies and explore curricular implications, including the need to teach about rape within a feminist context.
This study tested whether individuals possessing traditional sex role attitudes could have their rape-related attitudes influenced by a psychoeducational intervention that has been effective with less traditional individuals. Male and female undergraduates (N = 245) were classified on the basis of their sex role traditionality and received the intervention or served as no-treatment controls. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that intervention recipients adhered less to rape myths and expressed less rape-supportive attitudes than did controls. Participants were subsequently contacted with a phone appeal regarding women's safety projects that they thought was unrelated to the experiment. On 1 phone appeal measure, experimental participants' responses were significantly less rape-supportive than were control participants' responses.
Few violence prevention programs of any kind foreground discussions of masculinity. In his work with college athletes, Jackson Katz positions the sociocultural construction of manhood as central to the problem of men's violence against women, as well as the basis of potential sources of prevention. Through the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Project at Northeastern University in Boston, Katz and his colleagues seek to reduce men's violence against women by inspiring athletes and other models of traditional masculine success to challenge and reconstruct predominant male norms that equate strength in men with dominance over women. The Project specifically encourages participants to use their stature among their peers on campus to promote healthier attitudes and behaviors towards women.
This study supports the contention that certain features of acquaintance rape prevention programs are more effective than others in changing the attitudes of first year college men about the sexual assault of women.
This investigation examined performance of texts as a method of modifying sexual attitudes and assertiveness in a dating context in order to prevent date rape or unwanted sexual aggression. The study focused on the impact of three training modalities (live performance, performance plus discussion, and discussion) and aggressive sexual experience on sexual attitudes and assertive behavior. Results suggest that live performance alone and live performance plus discussion have the capacity to modify sexual attitudes and increase awareness of the issues.