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“Never Go Out Alone”: An Analysis of College Rape Prevention Tips
Abstract
The role of women in college sexual assault prevention and risk reduction has been controversial as movements for men’s participation become more popular. Research on college sexual assault prevention and risk reduction has largely focused on individual programs or universities. Previous research has largely avoided larger studies of the messages many colleges give their students regarding who is responsible for rape prevention on campus. This article attempts to fill that gap by examining rape prevention and risk reduction tips posted on 40 college websites. Each tip was analyzed for frequency and intended audience and the women’s tips as a group were analyzed for common themes. Researchers found that most tips are still directed at women and that they convey four main messages: there are no safe places for women, women can’t trust anyone, women should never be alone, and women are vulnerable. Findings imply that the burden of college sexual assault prevention still falls primarily on female students.
... These parental sexual messages seem to mirror identified shortcomings with university prevention programs, which put the onus and responsibility on women to avoid sexual assault and transmit messages of fear (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015;Senn, 2011). Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) analyzed rape prevention tips posted to 40 college websites. ...
... These parental sexual messages seem to mirror identified shortcomings with university prevention programs, which put the onus and responsibility on women to avoid sexual assault and transmit messages of fear (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015;Senn, 2011). Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) analyzed rape prevention tips posted to 40 college websites. The authors found most tips were specifically directed toward women and communicated four messages: (a) there are no safe places for women, (b) women cannot trust anyone, (c) women should never be alone, and (d) women are vulnerable. ...
... These tips mainly engender a culture of fear and provide little practical guidance to reduce sexual violence. Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) argued that these tips placed minimal responsibility on men but rather focused on actions women should undertake to mitigate their risk. It is possible that parent communication about sexual and relationship violence also send these gendered and fear-inducing messages. ...
Objective
Drawing on a feminist framework and social cognitive theory, we examine parental communications about sexual and relationship violence and gendered patterns of communication.
Background
Limited research has examined parental communication about sexual and relationship violence, a concern given that parental communication influences children's sexual beliefs in other domains.
Method
Participants were 438 university students who responded to three prompts about parental communication regarding sexual and relationship violence (n = 368 who provided responses). A content analysis was performed to categorize responses. Participants also responded to four subscales about parental communication.
Results
Most participants reported parent communication about consent, sexual assault, and unhealthy relationships. Women and men reported receiving similar, accurate definitions of consent. Women received messages about monitoring behaviors, help-seeking, and how to give consent as well as messages that encouraged bodily autonomy, emphasized that sexual assault is not the victim's fault, and deemed physical and emotional abuse unacceptable. Men received messages that sexual assault is wrong, that consent is important, and about how to obtain consent.
Conclusions
Collectively, these findings highlight that although parents are communicating important messages about consent, many are also reinforcing gendered sexual scripts.
Implications
Implications for education about parental communication and future directions for research are discussed.
... A common response to high levels of sex-and gender-based violence on University campuses that is identified in international research literature has been the development of approaches that aim at risk reduction strategies for potential victims (Potter, Moynihan, Stapleton & Banyard, 2009;Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). This approach may go hand-in-hand with increased security on and around campuses (e.g. ...
... security cameras, secure walking routes, panic buttons, campus security personnel, student transport, etc.), as well as the investing of resources into reporting and support structures (often under the broad umbrella of student wellness and healthcare support). These are, in and of themselves, not necessarily inherently poor responses, but as interventions, they tend to focus responsibility for risk management on female students; to reproduce stereotypical notions of who perpetrators and victims are that render some cases of sexual violence invisible (e.g. the victimisation of male students, sexual violence committed in same-sex relationships, so-called date rape); to restrict institutional responses to the provision of after the fact support for victims/survivors; and to fail to address broader community attitudes and beliefs that underpin sexual violence (Banyard, Plante & Moynihan, 2004;Banyard, Moynihan & Plante, 2007;Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015;Potter et al., 2009). ...
... Of particular importance are the observations by Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015), that preventative responses focused on risk reduction strategies for potential victims, in the form of 'safety tips', are usually highly gendered, do not focus on engaging potential perpetrators about problematic behaviours and attitudes, and send problematic messages about people's vulnerability to victimisation in both public and private spaces. Additionally, such risk reduction strategies may also unwittingly reproduce social representations concerning rape and other forms of sexual violence as 'stranger danger', which may render violence by acquaintances and within relationships invisible. ...
Note: author order should be alphabetical; Researchgate insisted on putting me first because I uploaded the book.
In April 2016, a Sexual Violence Task Team (SVTT) was set up to explore how a counter culture to rape culture may be implemented at the University. The task team and its terms of reference were set up in a participatory process outlined in Appendix 1 of this report. Six major issues were identified for consideration: creation of safe spaces for complainants; review of policies and procedures; curriculum issues; systemic issues; local and national dialogues; and monitoring and evaluation of implementation of recommendations.
The SVTT consisted of various sub task teams and a steering committee. Each sub task team produced a report that was consolidated by the steering committee. Names of the members of the task team are included in Appendix 2. Draft reports were sent out to all members of the University community for comment. Comments were incorporated or responded to. In addition, the advice of external legal experts from Wits University and the University of Cape Town was sought, and discussions were held with Advocate Turner of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
... The contention that a female complainant should have "known better" seems plausible due to the suggestion that because women are at a higher risk of sexual assault by men (Department of Justice, 2019), women are consistently taught how to avoid being sexually assaulted in the form of prevention tips such as (a) only walk during the day or well-lit places, (b) wear nonrevealing clothing to avoid sending the wrong message, (c) do not talk to male strangers, and (d) keep an eye on your beverage at all times to avoid the unwanted consumption of drugs (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). Researchers suggest these prevention strategies are rooted in rape myths (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). ...
... The contention that a female complainant should have "known better" seems plausible due to the suggestion that because women are at a higher risk of sexual assault by men (Department of Justice, 2019), women are consistently taught how to avoid being sexually assaulted in the form of prevention tips such as (a) only walk during the day or well-lit places, (b) wear nonrevealing clothing to avoid sending the wrong message, (c) do not talk to male strangers, and (d) keep an eye on your beverage at all times to avoid the unwanted consumption of drugs (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). Researchers suggest these prevention strategies are rooted in rape myths (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). For instance, Bedra and Nordemeyer (2015) note that the strategy to "avoid wearing revealing clothing" has a strong resemblance to the rape myth that "when girls go to parties wearing slutty clothes, they are asking for trouble" (Burt, 1991;McMahon & Farmer, 2011). ...
My thesis serves as a first examination of participants' perceived prototypicality of a SA (sexual assault) scenario to ascertain if SA prototypes are one of the mechanisms behind participants' decisions. My thesis offers an initial examination of the impact of the SA form and complainant (tied to defendant) gender on participants' SA prototypes and, in turn, their decisions. The results suggest that because the male complainant-female defendant was perceived as counter-prototypical, the male complainant was blamed more and seen as less credible, and the female defendant was perceived more favourably, resulting in fewer guilty verdicts. Simultaneously, for fixed levels of prototypicality, the female complainant was blamed more and seen as less credible, and the male defendant was perceived more favourably, resulting in fewer guilty verdicts. My results suggest that participants' SA prototypes are one of the mechanisms behind their decisions; accounting for this bias can help ensure fairer SA trials.
... Interviewing cisgender white male college students about the #MeToo movement, for example, Sumerau (2020) shows how such students define claims of sexism, sexual harassment, and other gendered inequalities as an attack on what it means to be a man, and mobilize opposition to such claims in their own behaviors and political beliefs. At the same time, Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) examine college administration attempts to combat sexism via examples of sex and gender bias, harassment, and violence, and find that such efforts often reinforce male privilege and work, regardless of intentions, against the needs of women on campus. In such cases, researchers have begun to examine broader societal conflicts about gender inequalities within the context of college campuses, classrooms, and experiences. ...
... When Adams (2010), Smith-Tran (2020), Pittman (2010), and others (see Nowakowski & Sumerau, 2017;Whitaker & Grollman, 2019 for more examples) report issues experiencing and managing problematic student behavior in specific classrooms, for example, they are illuminating a broader pattern of sexism occurring among college instructors in many settings. Likewise, when researchers report deeply gendered and racialized impressions of faculty, political concerns, and institutional norms on the part of student populations (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015;Miller & Lucal, 2009;Sumerau, 2020), they are illuminating patterns of thought and behavior that will show up, and need to be managed, in college classrooms. The combination of these case studies and our analysis here suggests an important line of future research involves systematically examining college instructor experiences in a wide variety of settings, contexts, and situations over time. ...
The #Me Too movement has called attention to the importance of sexism in experiencing mistreatment in a number of professions. In this paper, we explore the experiences of female college instructors navigating problematic student behaviors, such as interruptions and challenges to classroom management. Drawing on a survey of instructors at U.S. colleges and universities, we outline patterns in problematic student behaviors reported by instructors. Specifically, we demonstrate that instructors who self-identify as female experience a variety of behaviors that are hostile and problematic from students in their delivery of course content. Further, we suggest some strategies for mitigating these issues based on the female faculty surveyed, and areas for further research concerning college instructors' experiences. In so doing, our work draws attention to the importance of examining and comparing how gender and influences instructors' classroom experience. ARTICLE HISTORY
... However, this study also found that safety efficacy, for both men and women, was associated with higher gun skills competence in the multivariate analysis. In general, many recommendations about increasing personal safety focus on ways to avoid victimization such as not going out alone or avoiding certain places or areas (Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015;Gidycz et al. 2002;Ullman 2007). These messages may feel constraining and victim blaming (Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015). ...
... In general, many recommendations about increasing personal safety focus on ways to avoid victimization such as not going out alone or avoiding certain places or areas (Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015;Gidycz et al. 2002;Ullman 2007). These messages may feel constraining and victim blaming (Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015). On the contrary, gun rights activists and marketing strategies focus on the messages that guns are a good self-protection strategy (Arrigo and Acheson 2016;Bouffard et al. 2012;Carlson 2013). ...
... Another category of commonly offered prevention programs aims to train primarily women on how to avoid being sexually assaulted, such as avoiding heavy drinking and other risky behaviors (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015); however, these programs have largely caused no decrease in participants' victimization (Gidycz, Rich, Orchowski, King, & Miller, 2006) and have resulted in participants' increased fear and anxiety, which reduce their academic performance (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). The final, most prevalent type of prevention program trains primarily men on the definition of consent, to identify and discredit rape myths, and to identify and avoid situations in which perpetration is likely to occur (Foubert, Tatum, & Godin, 2010). ...
... Another category of commonly offered prevention programs aims to train primarily women on how to avoid being sexually assaulted, such as avoiding heavy drinking and other risky behaviors (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015); however, these programs have largely caused no decrease in participants' victimization (Gidycz, Rich, Orchowski, King, & Miller, 2006) and have resulted in participants' increased fear and anxiety, which reduce their academic performance (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). The final, most prevalent type of prevention program trains primarily men on the definition of consent, to identify and discredit rape myths, and to identify and avoid situations in which perpetration is likely to occur (Foubert, Tatum, & Godin, 2010). ...
Sexual assault on college campuses is a global issue, with women’s victimization rates ranging from 13.8% in Nigeria to 77.6% in Turkey. Although the vast majority of studies on this particular form of violence against women have been conducted in the United States, studies from throughout the world have revealed the epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses. This chapter surveys the prominence of sexual victimization on college campus and discusses college subcultures, diversity considerations, endorsement of rape culture, prevention programming, and current political policy debates that impact a solution for college sexual assault predation. Global incidence is discussed, but this discussion is framed within the US college culture. The chapter concludes with a discussion of current advocacy efforts and some recommendations for change within prevention programming.
... We situate this work in literatures on the creation and perpetuation of rape myths and rape culture (Berger et al. 1986;Burt 1980;Deming et al. 2013;Fonow, Richardson, andWemmerus 1992, McMahon 2010), survivorcentered feminist approaches to sexual violence (Alcoff and Gray 1993;Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015;Butler 2004;Gilson 2016;Hollander and Rodgers 2014;Mardorossian 2002;Naples 2003), institutional betrayal (Freyd 2014;Smith and Freyd 2014), and institutional logics (Edelman 2017;Vaughan 1998). Scholars in these fields highlight the potency and endurance of myths, misconceptions, and reluctance of institutions to address sexual violence. ...
... The construction of vulnerable subjects is often based in hegemonic conceptions of gender and sexuality, which means that survivors are simultaneously cast as powerless, weak, immature, and lacking agency as well as wholly responsible for their behavior and the behavior of others. For example, Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) argue that prevention tips aimed at survivors ultimately tell women that they are always vulnerable to attack and, paradoxically, are expected to prevent sexual violence. This characterization of vulnerable subjects allows institutions to elide the ways in which they create vulnerabilities and promote the privatization of responsibilities (Gilson 2016). ...
This article is a discourse analysis of a large Northwestern research university’s official communications regarding sexual violence for a 15-month time frame. Through close reading of these communications, we found that concurrent with high levels of criticism in the spring of 2014 over the university’s handling of a high-profile rape case, the university advanced dissonant discourses of risk and responsibility in its communications regarding sexual violence. At both the institutional and individual levels, these dissonant discourses work to construct who is at risk of committing or experiencing sexual violence, and who is responsible for preventing and responding to it. In conclusion, we discuss possible implications for these dissonant discourses on the future of campus sexual violence prevention and university response.
... Figure 1 illustrates common approaches to sexual violence communication used on many college campuses. Educational and policy materials such as this continue to inform not just who experiences sexual violence, since they are often gendered, but shifts the responsibility for safety to individuals who have or who are most likely to experience violence (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). Another example of how college campuses share safety tips about sexual violence suggests that sexual violence is something that just happens -and generally to women. ...
... This also suggests that sexual assault is still viewed as a crime upon which the onus is on women to avoid, rather than men to control their sexual urges. Indeed, this is often the case in contemporary rape prevention programs, which teach women strategies like how to identify signs of danger and avoid situations that can lead to rape or sexual assault (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). Moreover, despite there starting to be more emphasis on programs that educate men about ways to avoid assaulting women, men report being uninterested in them and view them as not relevant to their lives (Rich et al., 2010). ...
The current research examined the interactions between various factors that contribute to perceptions of a woman's sexual assault. Participants read a vignette about an assault in which we varied eight factors. We assessed the impact of these factors and their interactions on participants’ perceptions of the assault. Participants’ perceptions were more driven by the characteristics of the victim rather than the perpetrator. The factor that had the most overall impact on perceptions of the sexual assault was whether the victim explicitly agreed to go to the perpetrator's home. Implications of our results are discussed in various contexts.
... Other studies demonstrated that survivors often did not reach out to campus support services, with reporting rates as low as 6.9 to 11% (Fisher et al., 2016;Holland & Cortina, 2018), but gave conflicting answers on what deterred survivors from reporting. Other researchers looked at inconsistencies in sexual assault policies from institution to institution and how schools and school staff talked to their students about sexual assault prevention (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015;Holland & Bedera, 2020;Streng & Kamimura, 2015), but generally without talking to students who were not complainants in Title IX processes. ...
Students at United States colleges and universities increasingly turn to campus Title IX processes to address sexual violence, but little research exists on the emotional fallout of Title IX processes and student perceptions of process bias. This paper presents an analysis of 72 responses to a 2021 survey of Title IX process complainants and respondents at higher education institutions. While students on both sides of Title IX processes experienced negative emotions, complainants often minimized these experiences while respondents emphasized them. This form of comparative secondary victimization risks further marginalizing complainant voices at higher education institutions.
... However, the current study differs from other notable findings. Iverson's (2015, p. 23) "discourse of risk" constructs women as physically vulnerable victims, and Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) note that sexual violence prevention information typically advises women of their vulnerability. As a range of research has found that sexuality or gender diverse college students are at a similar or greater risk of sexual victimisation than their heterosexual cisgender counterparts (Coulter et al., 2017;Edwards et al., 2015;Griner et al., 2020;McCauley et al., 2020), it is essential for university sexual violence policies to acknowledge the needs and realities of sexuality and gender diverse students. ...
Introduction
Sexual violence is often positioned as a heterosexual experience, perpetrated by men against women. Research from the USA has revealed university sexual violence policies are typically heteronormatively framed and ignore the sexual victimisation of men and sexuality and gender diverse people (DeLong et al. in Journal of Interpersonal Violence 33:3315–3343, 2018; Enke in Journal of College Student Development 59:479–485, 2016; Worthen & Wallace in Family Relations 66:180–196, 2017). In Australia, there has been little examination of university sexual violence policies in terms of inclusivity and language used in relation to gender, sexuality or the framing of sexual violence. Positioned within a feminist perspective, which seeks to promote equitable consideration of all sexual and gender identities, the current study starts to fill this gap.
Methods
A summative content analysis of 17 sexual violence policies, collected in December 2020 from ten Australian universities, identified and explored the extent of assumptive concepts in language related to gender, sexuality and inclusivity.
Results
This preliminary study found that sexual violence policies within Australian universities typically reject traditional gendered narratives of sexual violence and use gender-neutral language that is inclusive of all genders and sexualities.
Conclusions
This finding provides the foundation for further research which expands the sample and examines the actual experiences of sexuality and gender diverse victim-survivors when navigating university sexual violence policies.
Policy Implications
University policymakers may draw from this sample of policies when developing or revising their sexual violence policies.
... For example, an analysis of 40 4-year colleges' online sexual assault prevention tips revealed that strategies are primarily directed towards women and perpetuate the notions that women are vulnerable and should never be alone. This messaging effectively places the burden of sexual assault prevention on women, focusing on decreasing women's "vulnerability" rather than focusing on deterring perpetrators (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). Calls for change in campus sexual assault prevention programming have led to structural change through the creation of a national guide for university administration in preventing and addressing campus sexual assault (White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, 2017). ...
Prevalence of sexual assault remains high on American college campuses, and sexual consent education is lacking within school-based sexual health education programming. Much empirical research has aimed to reduce sexual violence through a deeper understanding of college students' perceptions of sexual consent. However, researchers have not yet examined the impact of broader social discourse, such as that initiated by the #MeToo movement, on emerging adults' conceptualizations of sexual consent. Gendered focus groups were conducted with 34 college students at a large midwestern university in spring of 2019. Qualitative analyses using a phenomenological framework revealed a developmental process of consent education shaped by socialized sexual scripts and public discourse of the #MeToo movement. Four distinct themes emerged: (1) Introductions to Consent in Childhood, (2) Lack of Sexual Consent Education in Adolescence, (3) The Nuanced College Context, and (4) Consent in the Era of #MeToo. Findings reveal that consent is introduced in childhood, outside the context of sexuality, but is generally not revisited within the context of sexual consent by parents or educators during adolescence, leaving media messaging and socialized sexual scripts to serve as guides for sexual consent. This lack of sexual consent education in adolescence then leaves emerging adults unprepared for nuanced sexual experiences in the college context and unable to critically engage with public discourse surrounding consent such as the #MeToo movement, which has caused both fearful and positive outcomes. Findings support the need for earlier and more comprehensive education about sexual consent in childhood and adolescence and the need for college sexual assault prevention programs to include further instruction on navigating ambiguous sexual consent experiences.
... The underlying message of risk reduction incorrectly assumes women's agency in society. While individuals can utilise these risk reduction techniques and potentially feel a sense of safety, the culture of sexual violence is not confronted or critiqued, and the instigators of violence are not held accountable (Bedera & Nordmeyer 2015). Sexual violence is taken as an inevitability, particularly for women. ...
Sexual consent has become a hot topic in discussions of sexual violence on university campuses. Individualised consent standards, interpersonal violence prevention and bystander intervention are promoted and emphasised by neoliberal universities in some of the most globally powerful neo-colonial states. However, little research has been done on the impact of neoliberal ideology and university structures on the development and evolution of sexual consent discourses. This thesis aims to address this gap in academic study by problematising the notion of affirmative consent, critiquing the neoliberal structure of academic institutions and exploring the decolonial politics embodied in Salsa dancing.
Salsa dancing can facilitate an environment that values exploration of femininities and masculinities, as well as active nonverbal communication between dancing partners. While a neoliberal feminist lens may criticise the patriarchal nature of gender roles within some Latin dance styles, a more comprehensive understanding of Salsa through a decolonial feminist perspective challenges the biases from a limited Western standpoint which work to undermine embodied knowledge practices.
This research collected data on various sexual consent programs, events and workshops from universities in different country contexts with special attention paid to creative methods of teaching consent. A total of 29 universities were contacted about potential sexual consent programs, events or workshops. Of these universities 11 confirmed that they had such a program, event or workshop or the university website had visible content online about such a program, event or workshop. The data was organised through descriptive analysis and noticeable similarities and differences were discovered. Neo-colonial states like the U.S., U.K. and Australia had the most institutionalised sexual consent discourses with consistent overlaps in contextual language, euphemism and metaphor. These commonalities were further analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis to delve into the hidden neoliberal politics behind specific messaging in institutionalised sexual consent education.
Neoliberal individualism, disembodiment and universalised definitions of consent are currently being utilised by neo-colonial governments and their academic institutions as a way to avoid accountability for the structural violence implicated in acts of interpersonal sexual violence on campus. Salsa dancing is one embodied knowledge practice which could assist students in their experiential learning of sexuality and sexual communication. However, Salsa cannot fix the rapid privatisation of public universities which is happening globally. This research points to a problematic trend in neoliberal university politics dictating student and public discourses on key social issues.
... It is consistent with the many prevention programs in the United States and Canada that promote communication of sexual consent. Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) have identified the different prevention tips that are addressed to college students, most common sexual violence prevention tip being to "communicate sexual limits." Although it seems to help some women in labeling their experience as sexual violence, the fact that these interventions place the emphasis on communication (and, more specifically, on a victim's role in that communication) leads some of them to blame themselves by implying that they were not clear enough in their rejection of sex, and therefore are responsible for being a victim of sexual violence. ...
... In general, many recommendations about increasing personal safety focus on ways to avoid victimization, which are often constraining and disempowering such as the common advice to women not to go out alone at night or to always being around others (Bedera and Nordmeyer, 2015;Gidycz et al. 2002;Ullman, 2007). Gun rights advocates suggest that guns are a good self-protection strategy (Arrigo and Acheson, 2015;Bouffard et al. 2011;Carlson, 2014;Logan and Lynch, 2018). ...
... One of the most pressing concerns in higher education today continues to be the frequency of sexual assault and the harm it poses to students in terms of health, well-being, and future achievements (Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015;Ortiz and Shafer 2017;Hirsch et al. 2019). Approximately one in five undergraduate women and one in twenty undergraduate men are sexually assaulted while in college, often by acquaintances (AAU 2015;Muehlenhard et al. 2017). 1 Although these startling statistics have remained consistent across decades (Adams- Curtis and Forbes 2004;Jozkowski and Peterson 2013;Sinozich and Langton 2014), politicians, legislators, and campus administrators have failed to respond appropriately and, to this day, there is little agreement on how to address the problem. ...
In recent years, sexual consent has become a central element in both the prevention and the resolution of sexual assault on American college campuses. Due to these developments, sexual consent has become a catchall term that appears in multiple programs from freshman orientations to student organization events, from human resources meetings to sexual assault investigations. While the word is omnipresent, its meaning remains ambiguous to many. To understand the root of this ambiguity, we use qualitative interviews and observations to investigate how administrators, educators, and staff of a small private university understand and implement consent education. From our analysis, we find that administrators, faculty and staff hold a great deal of influence in shaping the culture of consent. However, in the process of translating concept into practice, this influence, far from delivering a coherent and well-developed educational platform, splinters into a multiplicity of often contradictory messages. Ultimately, this leaves students and the community at large to draw from individual pre-existing understandings of gender and sexuality to form their own definitions or seek answers from campus community members who are trusted or aligned in worldviews.
... od life' in institutional branding and marketing of Australian universities,Gottschall and Saltmarsh (2017) point out the implicit 'racialised appeal' of these constructs which promote not only making good choices based on future employment prospects but also in terms of life-style and leisure choices consistent with the concept of white privilege.Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) for instance criticise existing college rape prevention tips in the USA as only directed to women, conveying the messages that there are no safe spaces for them and promoting mistrust and constructing them as vulnerable.Collinson et al. (2012) criticise the representation of disability and dyslexia on university websites in the UK, by p ...
This article discusses the possible ways in which visual research methodologies can be extended and applied to study similarities and differences in higher education institutions (and systems) in the context of the visual and digital turn in social science methodologies. The article focuses on the methodological potential of the institutional website analysis as a fruitful approach in comparative higher education research. The article futher focuses on two specific comparative methodological issues: different purposes of comparisons and different organisational aspects which can be compared.
The review of the current state of research based on university websites found that the analyses are largely cross-sectional and focused on issues related to institutional identities and positioning of individual self-identities towards institutions as well as on representations of different types of students. Organisational aspects of structure and hierarchies, disciplinary differences, leadership and management cultures, organisational aesthetics as well studies which focus on the representation of non-student groups of university members, are rare and represent potential research frontiers. Most of the reviewed articles are guided by linear causal explanation logic, while other comparative purposes like a better description, critique and provision of alternative explanations are less present and potentially could lead to a better understanding of higher education.
... The data from this study can provide useful considerations for professionals working in the field of education and prevention. Specifically, these insights can be used in developing programs to increase knowledge of sexual violence and de-construct rape myths, in line with recent projects that operate on an ecological model of sexual violence (Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015;Powers et al. 2015). Interventions and gender violence prevention programs should consider the key role of hostility toward women and benevolence toward men, that reinforces and enhances the support of rape myths. ...
Rape myths are false beliefs about sexual violence that encourage blaming the victim and exonerating the offender. Within the framework of the Ambivalent Sexism Theory, we tested a model investigating the effect of each dimension of ambivalent sexism on the endorsement of each rape myth, and in turn the effect of each myth on the attribution of responsibility (to the perpetrator vs. to the victim) in case of sexual violence. Participants were 264 students (54.9% females). Results showed that hostile sexism toward women fostered the endorsement of each myth, whereas benevolence toward men enhanced the myth ‘He didn’t mean to’ and this increased the perception of the victim’s responsibility. Implications in developing interventions to de-construct rape myths are discussed. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
... • Proscrire les stratégies se limitant à inviter les « victimes potentielles » à mieux affirmer leur non-consentement. Ces stratégies risquent de nuire, dans l'éventualité où ces personnes subissent par la suite une VSMU, en alimentant la peur, la honte et la culpabilité de ces groupes et leur communiquer le sentiment d'avoir « échoué » à se protéger (Bedera et Nordmeyer, 2015). À l'image du slogan Yes means Yes, privilégier des approches dites « positives », qui ne placent pas tout le fardeau de la sensibilisation sur les groupes les plus à risque d'être victimisés et qui abordent aussi la prévention en matière de désir et de plaisir (Conseil du statut de la femme, 2016) ; • Favoriser un travail de concertation pour la mise en place des actions en milieu universitaire, notamment par l'implication des étudiant.es ...
... Others added additional security measures to their residence. It is not surprising that following assault, it was instinctual for many survivors to make precautionary modifications to their daily routines, as these changes align with the prescriptive norms women are socialized to adhere to in order to avoid being victimized (Bedera & Nordmeyer, 2015). Thus, many survivors in this sample, similar to many women in society, internalize the victim-centered prevention strategies. ...
Interview data from 45 matched pairs of survivors disclosing sexual assaults and their primary informal support provider (friend, family, significant other) were used to explore survivor-support provider perspectives on self-protective behaviors survivors and those close to them take to protect themselves from future assaults. Strategies for reducing risk taken by survivors included behavioral changes, security measures, self-defense strategies, avoiding alcohol or drugs, and protecting others. Support providers play critical roles by encouraging survivors to pursue risk avoidance strategies, and employing these strategies themselves. Counseling and prevention implications are drawn in the context of risks facing survivors trying to avoid further sexual victimization.
... Searches were also conducted in the Communication & Mass Media Complete database, yielding 67 results using the search terms Brape^and Bcollege or universities.Ô ne study focused on the new campaign, BNever Go Out Alone,^helping prevent college students from being on campus alone at late hours, and offered an analysis of college rape prevention tips (Bedera and Nordmeyer 2015). An additional study by Suran (2014) addressed improvements to Title IX on college campuses. ...
Campus rape culture abstract
Abstract
A community structure analysis compared community characteristics and newspaper coverage of rape and rape culture on college campuses in a nationwide cross-section sample of 21 leading metropolitan newspapers, sampling all 250+ word articles over more than three years between 03/13/06 and 06/02/16, yielding 426 articles. Coded for both “prominence” (measuring editorial decisions about “placement”, “headline size”, “article length”, and presence/absence of “photos/graphics) and “direction” (“authoritative responsibility,” “non-authoritative responsibility,” or “balanced/neutral”), article codes were combined into a single “Media Vector” score for each newspaper, spanning +.7639 to -.0330, or a range of .7969. A majority of 17 of 21 Media Vectors (81%) emphasized authoritative (formal, official) responsibility for rape and rape culture on campuses.
Pearson Correlations yielded six significant results, the three strongest, confirmed by regression analysis -- regarding measures of public health, women’s empowerment, and public safety— linked to coverage emphasizing authoritative responsibility for addressing campus rape and rape culture.
Keywords: rape, rape culture, community structure theory, Media Vector, content analysis, newspapers
... Although we may expect that attitudes towards victims of CSA have somewhat changed with increased awareness, according to the Traumagenic Dynamic of Stigmatization model (Finkelhor & Browne, 1985), negative reactions and lack of support from family and peers have a strong impact on the victims. Bedera and Nordmeyer (2015) also pointed out that rape prevention may be presented by some as an easy task: don't walk alone at night, don't trust strangers, trust your instincts, be aware of surroundings, and say "no." As such, sexually abused girls who were told avoiding rape is easy may be likely to feel ashamed for not being able to avoid or escape the situation. ...
Sexual abuse is associated with a host of negative repercussions in
adolescence. Yet the possible mechanisms linking sexual abuse
and negative outcomes are understudied. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the relationships among self-blame,
shame, coping strategies, posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive
symptoms, and suicidal ideation. The sample included 147 sexually
abused adolescent girls between 14 and 18 years of age. A total of
66% of girls reached clinical score for posttraumatic stress disorder,
and 53% reached clinical score for depressive symptoms. Close to
half (46%) reported suicidal thoughts in the past 3 months. Shame
was found to partiallymediate the relationship between self-blame
and posttraumatic stress disorder. Shame and depressive symptoms
were also found to partiallymediate the relationship between
self-blame and suicidal ideation. Results suggest that shame is a
crucial target in interventions designed for sexually abused adolescent
girls.
... • Proscrire les stratégies se limitant à inviter les « victimes potentielles » à mieux affirmer leur non-consentement. Ces stratégies risquent de nuire, dans l'éventualité où ces personnes subissent par la suite une VSMU, en alimentant la peur, la honte et la culpabilité de ces groupes et leur communiquer le sentiment d'avoir « échoué » à se protéger (Bedera et Nordmeyer, 2015). À l'image du slogan Yes means Yes, privilégier des approches dites « positives », qui ne placent pas tout le fardeau de la sensibilisation sur les groupes les plus à risque d'être victimisés et qui abordent aussi la prévention en matière de désir et de plaisir (Conseil du statut de la femme, 2016) ; • Favoriser un travail de concertation pour la mise en place des actions en milieu universitaire, notamment par l'implication des étudiant.es ...
BERGERON, M., HÉBERT, M., RICCI, S., GOYER, M.-F., DUHAMEL, N., KURTZMAN, L., AUCLAIR, I.,
CLENNETT-SIROIS, L., DAIGNEAULT, I., DAMANT, D., DEMERS, S., DION, J., LAVOIE, F., PAQUETTE, G.
et S. PARENT (2016). Violences sexuelles en milieu universitaire au Québec : Rapport de recherche de
l’enquête ESSIMU. Montréal : Université du Québec à Montréal.
... • Proscrire les stratégies se limitant à inviter les « victimes potentielles » à mieux affirmer leur non-consentement. Ces stratégies risquent de nuire, dans l'éventualité où ces personnes subissent par la suite une VSMU, en alimentant la peur, la honte et la culpabilité de ces groupes et leur communiquer le sentiment d'avoir « échoué » à se protéger (Bedera et Nordmeyer, 2015). À l'image du slogan Yes means Yes, privilégier des approches dites « positives », qui ne placent pas tout le fardeau de la sensibilisation sur les groupes les plus à risque d'être victimisés et qui abordent aussi la prévention en matière de désir et de plaisir (Conseil du statut de la femme, 2016) ; • Favoriser un travail de concertation pour la mise en place des actions en milieu universitaire, notamment par l'implication des étudiant.es ...
BERGERON, M., HÉBERT, M., RICCI, S., GOYER, M.-F., DUHAMEL, N., KURTZMAN, L., AUCLAIR, I.,
CLENNETT-SIROIS, L., DAIGNEAULT, I., DAMANT, D., DEMERS, S., DION, J., LAVOIE, F., PAQUETTE, G.
et S. PARENT (2016). Violences sexuelles en milieu universitaire au Québec : Rapport de recherche de
l’enquête ESSIMU. Montréal : Université du Québec à Montréal.
... • Proscrire les stratégies se limitant à inviter les « victimes potentielles » à mieux affirmer leur non-consentement. Ces stratégies risquent de nuire, dans l'éventualité où ces personnes subissent par la suite une VSMU, en alimentant la peur, la honte et la culpabilité de ces groupes et leur communiquer le sentiment d'avoir « échoué » à se protéger (Bedera et Nordmeyer, 2015). À l'image du slogan Yes means Yes, privilégier des approches dites « positives », qui ne placent pas tout le fardeau de la sensibilisation sur les groupes les plus à risque d'être victimisés et qui abordent aussi la prévention en matière de désir et de plaisir (Conseil du statut de la femme, 2016) ; • Favoriser un travail de concertation pour la mise en place des actions en milieu universitaire, notamment par l'implication des étudiant.es ...
BERGERON, M., HÉBERT, M., RICCI, S., GOYER, M.-F., DUHAMEL, N., KURTZMAN, L., AUCLAIR, I.,
CLENNETT-SIROIS, L., DAIGNEAULT, I., DAMANT, D., DEMERS, S., DION, J., LAVOIE, F., PAQUETTE, G.
et S. PARENT (2016). Violences sexuelles en milieu universitaire au Québec : Rapport de recherche de
l’enquête ESSIMU. Montréal : Université du Québec à Montréal.
Drawing on the concept of feminist respair, this paper takes up fanfiction written in response to two young adult (YA) sexual assault narratives and considers how the trauma in each is transformed through romantic retellings. This surfaces discursively, including but not limited to respectful relationships built on friend/ally/ship, familial support, desire and love, and sometimes, consensual sexual pleasure.
Landmark research from before the 2010s shows that college women rarely held institutions responsible for allowing rape-prone party contexts to persist and failing to support survivors. Yet the college landscape has changed profoundly since these studies were published, with prominent anti-rape campaigns and new guidelines to Title IX policy. To update a research stream that has provided the basis for theorizing about sexual violence in college peer cultures, we examine 121 intensive interviews with 68 women who are at heightened risk of party rape because of their involvement in historically White sororities. Several key findings emerged. First, women were highly invested in the Greek party circuit. Second, participants blamed institutions for failing to do more to keep them safe. Reflecting their focus on institutions, women also proposed that institutional authorities change their policies so sororities could move parties out of fraternity houses and into sorority houses. Third, women took on the labor of trying to protect themselves and other women at parties by designating monitors. However, they reported that with this system, other women could be deemed responsible, not for being assaulted but for failing to prevent rape. Finally, women found ways to identify and exclude men they deemed “rapey” from Greek gatherings. However, boycotting an entire fraternity was more controversial and harder to sustain. Overall, women’s preferred prevention strategies reflect a strong desire to avoid disturbing the Greek party scene. Implications for research and policy on gender and sexual violence prevention in higher education are discussed.
In this article, we explore smart deterrents and their historical precedents marketed to women and girls for the purpose of preventing harassment, sexual abuse and violence. Rape deterrents, as we define them, encompass customs, architectures, fashions, surveillant infrastructures, apps and devices conceived to manage and protect the body. Online searches reveal an array of technologies, and we engage with their prevention narratives and cultural construction discourses of the gendered body. Our critical analysis places recent rape deterrents in conversation with earlier technologies to untangle the persistent logics. These are articulated with reference to the ways that proto-digital technologies have been imported into the realm of ubiquitous computing and networks. Our conceptual framework offers novel pathways for discussing feminine bodies and their messy navigation of everyday life that include both threats to corporeal safety and collective imaginings of empowerment.
In recent years, there has been increasing pressure on men to prevent sexual violence. This study uses data from 25 semi-structured interviews to explore how heterosexual undergraduate men have responded to cultural and organizational pressure to seek consent. Participants answered questions about their recent sexual experiences and attitudes toward campus sexual consent policies. Findings indicate that while participants condone key elements of sexual consent, they do not consistently apply reliable strategies to seek consent. Instead, they use ambiguous social cues that are common in both consensual and nonconsensual sexual interactions, which reinforce the notion that consent is unclear.
From August to November 2016, scary clowns captured the consciousness of much of the Western world. Driven by panic on an international scale, these clown sightings spread too quickly and broadly to conform to any existing genre classifications. This article situates the creepy clown phenomenon as a response to broad social anxieties surrounding the 2016 US presidential election.
Common sexual assault prevention strategies emphasize individuals’ responsibility to protect themselves from victimization. Using a feminist theoretical approach, the present study was the first to assess the unintended, negative consequences that result when taking a victimization-focused approach to sexual assault prevention. Participants ( N = 321) were primarily heterosexual, Caucasian undergraduate students from a Western postsecondary institution. A between-participants experimental design was employed, whereby participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) victimization-focused prevention tips ( n = 114; e.g., “Be alert and aware of your surroundings”); (b) perpetration-focused prevention tips ( n = 103; e.g., “Don’t slip any unwanted substances into drinks at bars or parties”); or (c) study tips for control purposes ( n = 104; e.g., “Take a ten-minute break every hour”). Following prevention tip exposure, participants read a sexual assault vignette and completed measures of victim culpability and several related constructs (i.e., ambivalent sexism, belief in a just world, and rape myth acceptance). Results indicated that participants who received victimization-focused prevention tips attributed significantly more blame to the victimized woman in the vignette than participants in both the control condition and perpetration-focused condition. Based on these results, it is recommended that social institutions further evaluate the efficacy and unintended consequences of prevalent victimization-focused sexual assault prevention strategies. Specifically, institutions should consider the implications of endorsing strategies that are evidenced to enhance victim blame, thereby perpetuating rape culture. Prevention strategies that engage bystanders and seek to prevent perpetration should be considered as an alternative approach.
Through a case study including focus groups with 32 cisgender women and document analysis of campus newspaper and websites, we highlight ways college women navigate multiple and conflicting messages about campus safety and sexual violence on campus. Although students are aware of statistics indicating most sexual violence happens between two people who know each other, they still engage in safety strategies related to stranger danger. We highlight implications related to messaging about campus safety and sexual violence on campuses.
In the context of expanding preventative strategies for addressing sexual violence, we are witnessing the emergence of an array of new anti-rape technologies targeted at women. These tools, promoted primarily through the Internet, include a variety of apps for mobile phones, signal- and alarm-emitting wearable technologies, and internal and external body devices. Based on analyses of websites promoting such instruments, we critically examine these devices with respect to their possible benefits, limitations, and unintended physical, social, and legal consequences for women. We suggest that unanticipated outcomes may undermine both victims and their cases, those the technologies are ostensibly designed to help.
This article addresses the question of whether there is a legitimate role for rape avoidance advice for women as part of a larger suite of efforts aimed at reducing the prevalence of men's sexual violence. It highlights an apparent dilemma between acknowledging women's agency and placing the blame for sexual violence on perpetrators rather than victims. The article builds upon analysis of the phenomenon of responsibility by moral and political philosophers to suggest a clearer way of thinking about this dilemma. I argue that because causal responsibility is a necessary but not sufficient element of moral responsibility, it is logically possible to hold that some victims could have prevented their rape and at the same time hold they are not blameworthy. I go on to argue that this poses a dilemma for feminists concerned to end rape, in that the practical interests of individual women in avoiding rape might at times be in conflict with women's strategic interests in ensuring that the burden (task responsibility) for ending rape rests with men (as potential perpetrators). I argue that while it is logically possible that some rape avoidance advice could help some women reduce their likelihood of being raped, the legitimate role for rape avoidance advice is circumscribed by its impact on women's strategic interests. The worth of rape avoidance advice in general should not be dismissed out of hand. However, the legitimacy of particular pieces of advice need to be assessed in terms of their impact on women's strategic and practical interests and this will vary depending on the quality and source of the advice.
Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Kadın, Kadının Yaşam Evreleri, Politika ve Kadın, Profesyonel Meslekler ve Kadın, Sağlık Politikaları ve Kadın, Kültür ve Kadın, Kadın Hakları, Kadına Yönelik Şiddet, Kadın Sığınma Evleri, Kadın Sünneti, Namus Cinayetleri, Medya ve Kadın,
To better understand what and how institutions of higher education (IHEs) communicate information about sexual assault (SA) on their websites, the current cross-sectional descriptive exploratory study analyzed a stratified sample representing 15% of the IHE websites in the United States. Findings show the availability, location, and type of SA information posted on IHE websites differ based on student population and residential character. Large and primarily residential schools are more likely to include SA information, across multiple pages, with a wider informational span than other categories. However, informational gaps are apparent across all websites. Implications for policy and practice are highlighted.
This study includes research, data, and expert opinions regarding sexual assaults on college campuses, in particular California Polytechnic State University. The information presented in this study includes topics such as sexual assault rates, reports, cultural factors, policies, and prevention strategies.
This paper examines two ways to use visual images while teaching about sexual violence. We first present and critique the conventional approach, which employs images of men doing violence to women. We then discuss our approach, which employs images of women confronting and violently attacking men. We discuss our success in using these images in our rape prevention lectures over the past three years. Our analysis of students' reactions to the presentations reveals that showing images of aggressive women radically destabilizes men's sense of physical power over women.
This article argues that many anti-violence prevention strategies have been shaped by unarticulated discourses of sexuality that focus primarily on women managing the risk and danger of unethical behaviour of men. Sexual intimacy has therefore been dominated by discourses of fear and danger and women’s pleasure is once again invisible. An alternative conception of sexual ethics is presented based on Foucault’s work on ethics, and sexuality. The findings from in-depth qualitative interviews with 26 Australian women and men of diverse sexualities indicate that women and men regardless of erotic choice of partner have found multiple ways to explore sexual pleasure that is ethical, non-violent and where danger is reduced. This suggests a need to develop alternative ways of shaping violence prevention strategies that acknowledge both pleasure and danger.
Backlash critics of campus rape research have claimed that researchers exaggerate their figures by labeling as rape victims those women who experience bad dates. Although researchers have compared stranger with acquaintance rape victims, they have not compared women raped while too drunk to resist and those raped by force. This study of 65 rape victims (in a sample of 388 college seniors) found no evidence for critics' claims. Women raped by intoxication are not less emotionally affected and do not blame themselves more. Most women did not classify their experiences as rape, although all were victims under criminal law. This lack of recognition is what causes hidden victims, who do not report or seek help.
This is a study consisting of in-depth interviews with 12 women who were victims/survivors of acquaintance rape while attending a university in the Northeast. The interviews focused on research questions concerning actions taken by the victim/survivor after the assault, reactions to her disclosure of the assault, and the impact of assault. It was found that a majority of the women did not seek professional services (medical, legal, counseling). All of the women had disclosed prior to participation, and had received varied reactions to disclosure, ranging from very supportive to complete disbelief. The rape had impacted all of the women quite dramatically; all cited consequential negative effects, while a few noted some positive effects as well. Implications for colleges and universities are discussed.
An experimental study evaluated the efficacy of a sexual assault risk-reduction program on 279 college women that focused on learning characteristics of male perpetrators and teaching bystander intervention techniques. After seeing The Women's Program, participants reported significantly greater bystander efficacy and significantly greater willingness to help than before seeing the program. Participants outperformed a control group. Rape myth acceptance also declined among program participants. Implications for rape awareness programming are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The present study investigated the effects of an acquaintance-rape prevention program on college students' attitudes toward rape and attitudes toward women, perceptions of acquaintance-rape scenarios, and rape empathy. Participants were led to believe that they were participating in two separate experiments in order to decrease demand characteristics. Results indicated that intervention group men and women became more empathic toward the victim than the control group, postintervention. Within the intervention group, men changed more in their attitudes toward women postintervention than did women. In addition to positive attitude change, results with the date-rape scenarios suggested that intervention-group men became more certain of their definitions of rape situations postintervention. Prior to the intervention, women were generally more certain of their definitions than were men, with intervention-group men approximating women's responses postintervention.
We explore the paths related to college men’s involvement in all-male antirape prevention groups using in-depth interviews conducted with twenty-five male college students who are active members of such groups from eleven campuses located on the East Coast of the United States. Major themes deriving from analysis of the interviews were all related to the engagement of the participants with the programs on four different levels. These themes, which are developmentally related, are (1) a disclosure which makes sexual assault a personal issue at the same time that it reveals a lack of knowledge and skills on the part of the respondents, (2) the evaluation of the approach of individual programs, (3) the evaluation of the relative effectiveness of the approacher, and (4) the creation of a social context which the engagement facilitates. Overall, we find that when the men in our study were approached in a nonconfrontational, alliance-building fashion by other men, they reported that their knowledge related to sexual assault, their empathy toward sexual assault survivors, and their motivation to actively engage in the prevention of sexual violence all increased. Thus, we see evidence of a pathway to behavioral change represented by the recruitment and participation of men to these programs.
A Resources section has been included to help readers with a variety of interests, from learning more about the dynamics of acquaintance rape to setting up a campus or community program for prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Sexual assault continues to be a salient health concern, especially among college women. Because assault is often defined in terms of consent, prevention efforts hinge on promoting the definition and the obtainment of consent as a mechanism to reduce assault. Despite the focus on consent promotion, research specifically examining consent in general and among college students specifically is limited. College students (n = 185) were recruited to participate in an open-ended survey in which they were asked to report how they indicated consent and interpreted their partners' consent to engage in a range of sexual behaviors. Content analysis was utilized to qualitatively analyze responses. In the current study, data were assessed for emerging themes across all items. In examining participants' responses, four distinct themes emerged: (a) endorsement of the traditional sexual script; (b) women are responsible for performing oral sex; (c) men's consent to sex can be aggressive; and (d) men utilize deception to obtain consent to sex. Findings suggest that men are conceptualized as sexual initiators and women as sexual gatekeepers, and that men's sexual pleasure is primary whereas women's experience of pleasure is secondary. Findings articulate the need for more pointed research aimed at assessing sexual consent among college students.
The current study extends the development and evaluation of an existing and previously evaluated sexual assault risk reduction program with a self-defense component for college women (N= 300). The program protocol was revised to address psychological barriers to responding assertively to risky dating situations, and a placebo-control group was utilized rather than a wait-list control group. Relative to the placebo-control group, the program was effective in increasing levels of self-protective behaviors, self-efficacy in resisting against potential attackers, and use of assertive sexual communication over a 4-month interim. Results also suggested reduction of incidence of rape among program participants over the 2-month follow-up. Implications for future development and evaluation of sexual assault risk reduction programming are presented.
This essay provides a critical analysis of rape prevention since the 1980s. I argue that we must challenge rape prevention's habitual reinforcement of the notion that fear is a woman's best line of defense. 1 suggest changes that must be made in the anti-rape movement if we are to move past fear. Ultimately, I raise the question of what, if not vague threats and scare tactics, constitutes prevention.
This study examined the relationship between alcohol, sex-related alcohol expectancies, and sexual assaults among women college
students. Participants completed measures of sexual behaviors, sexual victimization experiences, sex related alcohol expectancies,
and drinking habits. Based on participants’ responses women were categorized as having experienced no assault, unwanted sexual
contact, sexual coercion, attempted rape, and rape. It was observed across groups that relative to controls, women reporting
attempted rape and rape consumed higher levels of alcohol. Within group comparisons revealed that relative to controls, victimized
women endorsed higher levels of sex-related alcohol expectancies. In the prediction of severity of sexual victimization, regression
analyses revealed an interaction between alcohol consumption and expectancy of vulnerability to sexual coercion. At higher
levels of alcohol consumption women endorsing high vulnerability to sexual coercion experienced more severe victimatization.
Implications of the findings are discussed.
The literature on college women's experiences with sexual coercion is reviewed, with an emphasis on work published since 1990. Sexual coercion is defined as any situation in which one person uses verbal or physical means (including the administration of drugs or alcohol, with or without the other person's consent) to obtain sexual activity against consent. We argue that coercive sexual behavior among college students can best be understood within the context of other sexual behaviors and values on college campuses. Significant definitional and methodological problems are identified and discussed. Important victim, perpetrator, and situational variables are identified and discussed. These include attitudes toward women, beliefs about sexual behavior (including rape-supporting beliefs and values), communication problems, coercion-supporting peer groups (including fraternities and athletics), concepts of masculinity and femininity, sexual promiscuity, and alcohol.
Self-defense classes aim to prevent violence against women by strengthening women's capacity to defend themselves; however, little research has examined the effects of self-defense training on women's attempts to fight back during actual attacks. This study investigated the relationship of self-defense or assertiveness training and women's physical and psychological responses to subsequent rape attacks (N = 1,623). Multivariate analyses showed that victims with preassault training were more likely to say that their resistance stopped the offender or made him less aggressive than victims without training. Women with training before their assaults were angrier and less scared during the incident than women without training, consistent with the teachings of self-defense training. Preassault training participants rated their degree of non-consent or resistance as lower than did nonparticipants, perhaps because they held themselves to a higher standard. Suggestions for future research on women's self-defense training and rape prevention are offered.
This article examines the effectiveness of persuasive fear appeals in motivating women to enroll in self-defense classes to take protective action against rape. Witte's extended parallel process model is used as a framework to examine the relations between perceived invulnerability, perceived fear, and fear control processes. Because women may perceive invulnerability to rape, persuasive fear appeals targeted toward them may be ineffective in achieving attitude, intention, and behavioral change toward protecting themselves. One possible solution is to persuade men to talk with women about whom they care. Results indicated that women did not perceive invulnerability to rape, and although there was no differential impact between high- and low-threat messages, women did report positive intention and behaviors in response to direct fear appeals. Moreover, men reported positive intention and behaviors in response to indirect fear appeals.
Waking up from the nightmare of rape
- S Marine
College women’s experiences of sexual coercion: A review of cultural, perpetrator, victim, and situational variables. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse
- L E Adams-Curtis
- G B Forbes
- LE Adams-Curtis
Sexual violence: Facts at a glance Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention
- Disease Center
- Control
Assessing the impact of acquaintance rape: Interview with women who are victims/survivors of sexual assault while in college
- S M Gurette
- S L Caron
- SM Gurette
Offensive feminism: The conservative gender norms that perpetuate rape culture, and how feminists can fight back
- J Filipovic
Hooking up with healthy sexuality: The lessons boys learn (and don’t learn) about sexuality, and why a sex-positive rape prevention paradigm can benefit everyone involved
- B Perry
Acquaintance rape of college students: Problem-oriented guides for police series
- R Sampson
An acquaintance rape prevention program: Effects of attitudes toward women, rape-related attitudes, and perceptions of rape scenarios
- H A Pinzone-Glover
- C A Gidycz
- C D Jacobs
- HA Pinzone-Glover