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What is Currently Understood About the Impact of Sexual Violence Activism for Higher Education Student Sexual Violence Survivors?
Abstract
Objective: This systematic literature review maps the landscape of higher education and student sexual violence survivors who become involved in sexual violence activism. It was undertaken to understand what drives student sexual violence survivors to become activists, the negative and positive impacts of this activism on the students, how higher education institutions might work with sexual violence activists to foster effective prevention and response, and how activism has been negotiated by and within practice, policy and research. Method: A qualitative evidence synthesis methodology was used to identify research which examines drivers to and consequences of sexual violence activism for student activists. Searches across seven databases were conducted using six keywords combined in various ways, with further inclusion criteria of published in English between 2010 and 2020. Searches of grey literature were also carried out. Results: 28 sources met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis, conducted in NVivo, resulted in identification of four themes: survival from harm, community, labour in the personal made public and power between activists and institutions. Conclusions/Recommendations/Limitations: Inadequate institutional response was a key driver of student sexual violence activism. Activism had positive and negative impacts on the activists. Recommendations are that activists, institutions, researchers and policy makers work as coalitions to bring about enduring cultural change. Review limitations were the small number of studies in this field; additionally, they were dominated by US and UK perspectives.
... Sexual harassment in higher education environments is a phenomenon that elicits varied responses from both academics and students (Bovill & Podpadec, 2023;Mujahidin et al., 2023). For academics, sexual harassment is often viewed as a structural challenge requiring more systematic policy intervention and management programs. ...
... Academic offices (such as heads of department, faculty deans, and even the President's Office) might represent a source of IB when these offices fail to meet the needs of stakeholders that depend on them (Bedera, 2023;Cruz, 2021). Conversely, IS is supported via physically accessible campus resources (Atreyi et al., 2022), spaces that are conducive to advocacy and activism (Bloom et al., 2023;Bovill & Podpadec, 2022;Javorka & Campbell, 2019), and reliable online tools and resources (Eno et al., 2023;Voth et al., 2022). IS might also look like campus counseling offices that are fully equipped to handle the complex needs of survivors (Karunaratne, 2021), or if that is not possible, protocols for referral to relevant external resources (Lorenz et al., 2022;Moschella et al., 2021). ...
Recently, post-secondary institutions have been under increased public and academic scrutiny regarding their ability to prevent and respond to instances of campus sexual violence. Emerging research has explored institutional betrayal (IB), which is a theoretical framework that states that actions and inactions on the part of the institution can cause further harm to survivors of violence. The goals of this review were, using an ecological systems lens, to identify what specific behaviors, policies, responses, and other factors constitute IB or institutional support (IS) as defined by the existing literature. A search of 16 databases across 8 disciplines led to the identification of 100 articles that mentioned either IB or IS verbatim. Factors that can be categorized as IB and IS were identified across nine levels: (1) the individual level, (2) the interpersonal level, (3) within institutional spaces, (4) within institutional procedures, (5) within institutional policies, (6) at the institutional structural level, (7) at the institutional culture level, (8) at a government and public policy level, and (9) within greater societal cultural values and established social norms. IB itself manifests across all levels of the institution and is, in fact, quite insidious—it is largely invisible and deeply rooted in systemic oppression, woven into the structure of institutions of higher education. IB remains a looming, almost inevitable outcome of the structural violence that occurs in post-secondary settings. Yet, IS and the related concept of institutional courage are emerging fields of study that pose important implications for institutional change.
This study aims to optimize communication strategies for preventing sexual harassment in higher education institutions. Amid rising incidents of sexual harassment that threaten the safety and well-being of students, especially women aged 18-24, there is an urgent need for more effective interventions. Employing a descriptive qualitative approach, this research analyzes data from various scientific publications, official documents, and journals using content analysis techniques to identify main themes and categorize relevant information. The findings suggest that effective counseling communication strategies are crucial in preventing sexual harassment within higher education institutions. The study highlights the importance of education and awareness, development of interpersonal communication skills, provision of support resources, specialized training for facilitators, integration of a comprehensive sexual education curriculum, and the use of media and technology in counseling. These approaches aim to deepen understanding, enhance support for victims, and develop inclusive and effective prevention strategies. The discussion emphasizes the need for adapting communication strategies to match the cultural context and policies of each institution to enhance their effectiveness. Recommendations from this research include a holistic integration of approaches focusing on training, advocacy, and clear policies, as well as ongoing evaluation to assess and improve existing strategies, ensuring their effectiveness in preventing sexual harassment in university environments.
Background
The purpose of the present study is to showcase the image of Sexual Violence (SV) temporal trends through exploring differences in its prevalence rates during 1990–2017 across 195 countries and territories.
Methods
The SV prevalence rates were derived from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database during 1990–2017, worldwide. First, the Latent Growth Model (LGM) was employed for assessing the change in SV prevalence rate over time in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia & Oceania, for men and women separately. Then, the change in SV prevalence rate over time was determined within countries with high and low Human Development Index (HDI). Finally, the Latent Growth Mixture Models (LGMM) were applied for identifying classes where countries within each class have similar trend of SV prevalence rate over time.
Results
The SV prevalence was higher among women than men and decreased in both genders over time across the world. The declining trend in SV prevalence against men is visible in both countries with high and low HDI, but SV prevalence against women in countries with low HDI shows an increase. The findings of LGMM identified six classes of SV prevalence trajectories. LGMM allocated Bermuda into the class with the highest decrease in SV prevalence against men, and Equatorial Guinea and Luxembourg into the class with the highest increase. Other countries had very slow declining trends. In terms of SV prevalence against women, LGMM allocated China, North Korea, and Taiwan into the class with the most increase among the countries in the world. Bermuda, Guyana, Mexico, Nigeria, and Saint Lucia were placed into the class which witnessed the largest decline and Angola, Congo, and Equatorial Guinea were ranked next. The trend in other countries was mostly decreasing.
Conclusion
Given the high economic and social burden that SV has on victims and societies, the rate of SV in most countries does not seem to have dropped remarkably and requires special attention by relevant policymakers. The SV prevalence rate is highly heterogeneous among world countries which may be due to the definitions and tools used, and more importantly, the culture norms.
The internet has profoundly changed how we produce, use and collect research and information for public policy and practice, with grey literature playing an increasingly important role. The authors argue that grey literature (i.e. material produced and published by organisations without recourse to the commercial or scholarly publishing industry) is a key part of the evidence produced and used for public policy and practice. Through surveys of users, producing organisations and collecting services a detailed picture is provided of the importance and economic value of grey literature. However, finding and accessing policy information is a time-consuming task made harder by poor production and management of resources and a lack of large-scale collection services able to host and make available relevant, high-quality resources quickly and efficiently. The paper makes recommendations for changes that would maximise the benefits of grey literature in the public interest and seeks feedback from readers to inform the final report of the research project.
This article reports on a U.K. research study encompassing two surveys which used evidence-based scales of awareness, confidence to intervene, and intervention opportunities and action regarding sexual and domestic abuse on campus. They were sent to all first-year incoming undergraduates (>n = 7,000) at one post-1992 U.K. university and received n = 1,604 responses. The study finds that survey respondents demonstrated low awareness of sexual and domestic abuse as a problem on campus. In the analysis of Survey 2, respondents were divided into three groups, those receiving active intervention, passive intervention, and no intervention from a university social norms marketing campaign challenging abuse on campus. The study drives the field forward by considering how confidence to act mediates the relationship between awareness and positive action. It finds associations between active intervention and raised awareness that is not noted in passive or no intervention. Active intervention potentially brings together the mediating variable of confidence where awareness + confidence = positive action. This article makes recommendations for first-year incoming undergraduates to receive awareness raising information about sexual and domestic abuse, prior to coming to university. Universities may also consider working with schools to counter a lack of awareness, which may emanate from normalization discourses learnt prior to coming to university and perpetuated once there. Managing low awareness of sexual and domestic abuse should be a priority of bystander programs and some form of active intervention is potentially beneficial as early as possible in university student journeys.
Given the social importance of political activism, it is critical to understand what motivates individuals to engage in it. Past research has predominantly focused on individual and collective frustrations as factors that motivate political actions. At the same time, the role of the positive experiences that activists gain from their political engagement was largely neglected. Drawing on quest for significance theory, we proposed that when people engage in political actions on behalf of important social values, they gain a sense of personal significance, and as a result of these positive feelings, they are more willing to self‐sacrifice for the cause in the future. We tested that hypothesis in six studies, which included both online and offline samples of political activists engaged in different forms of activism that challenge the neoliberal order: activism for a radical left‐wing party (N = 84), a pro‐democratic social movement (N = 1,409), feminist activism (N = 158, N = 258), environmental activism (N = 396), and activism for labor and healthcare rights (N = 156). The results we obtained were in line with our hypothesized model. We discuss the implications of our findings for individuals who want to mobilize support for political movements.
This article examines the movement organizing and media activist work university students do to address sexual violence, the problem of faculty/student relationships, and the failures of some institutional response. It notes, in particular, how students make sexual violence public through the use of open letters; how they create anonymous and informal online reporting platforms for students to disclose sexual violence; and how they model practices of accountability and survivor-centred care. This article notes the essential work student activists do to address, and redress, the problem of sexual assault on university campuses, and how they make their work visible. Students bear a lot of the burden for addressing the problem of sexual assault and faculty sexual misconduct on our campuses; it is a burden many faculty bear too as those who support and advocate for this change. We see how this burden gets articulated in the stories many students are telling and sharing with each other via blogs and social media posts, and the work they do drafting policy and building cross-campus student movements. Contemporary student activism, I suggest , models what responsibility and accountability for sexual violence might look like. With students Ayesha Vemuri and Arianne Kent, I am conducting a research project that examines how student This article examines the movement organizing and media activist work university stu-
dents do to address sexual violence, the problem of faculty/student relationships, and
the failures of some institutional response. It notes, in particular, how students make
sexual violence public through the use of open letters; how they create anonymous and
informal online reporting platforms for students to disclose sexual violence; and how
they model practices of accountability and survivor-centred care.
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a methodological approach where community–academic teams build equitable relationships throughout the research process. In the domestic violence (DV) field, CBPR may be particularly important when conducting research with racial and ethnic minority DV survivors, as this group faces concurrent oppressions that inform their lived experiences. To our knowledge, no systematic review has synthesized articles using a CBPR approach to explore the needs and lived experiences of racial and ethnic minority DV survivors. Using PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of the literature, retrieving articles that used a CBPR approach to understand the needs and/or lived experiences of female racial and ethnic minority DV survivors residing in the United States. Articles were identified from peer-reviewed databases, bibliographies, and experts. Thirteen of the 185 articles assessed for eligibility were included. Articles focused on a variety of racial and ethnic minority groups, the majority identifying as African American or Latina. Collaboration occurred in multiple ways, primarily through equitable decision-making and building team members’ strengths. Several needs and lived experiences emerged including gender identity and patriarchal attitudes, racism and discrimination, the immigrant experience informing DV, poverty, shame and stigma, and the need for social support. This is the first systematic review of articles using a CBPR approach to explore the needs and lived experiences of racial and ethnic minority survivors. Implications include promoting community-based dissemination, conducting quantitative studies with larger sample sizes of DV survivors, and encouraging culturally specific services that address DV survivors’ intersectional needs.
The differential contexts that ethnic minorities face as a result of lower societal status impact outcomes of trauma. Cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT) is a contextualized framework that was created to examine trauma in minority populations. According to CBTT, due to societal inequality, within-group trauma in minority populations is a cultural betrayal that contributes to outcomes. In addition to looking at typically studied abuse outcomes (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder), CBTT also predicts cultural outcomes, such as internalized prejudice, changes in ethnic identity, and (intra)cultural pressure (e.g., silencing victims of intraracial trauma to protect the minority ingroup from discriminatory individuals and systems of the dominant culture). No prior studies have examined cultural outcomes in CBTT. It was hypothesized that intraracial trauma (aka, cultural betrayal trauma) would be associated with cultural outcomes in a sample of ethnic minority college students. Participants (N = 296; 60.5% female; age: M = 20.12, SD = 2.81) were ethnic minority college students (35.0% Asian, 24.7% Hispanic−Latino American, 14.2% Other, 13.2% Black−African American, 5.7% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, 3.4% American Indian−Alaska Native, and 3.4% Middle Eastern) attending a predominantly White university. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing trauma and outcomes online. Separate hierarchical linear regression analyses suggested that when controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, and interracial trauma, intraracial trauma predicted internalized prejudice, (intra)cultural pressure, and changes in identification with ethnic identity. These findings have implications for cultural competency in clinical interventions for minority victims of trauma.
This case study discusses the Survivor-Centered Advocacy (SCA) Project, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that convened anti-violence advocates from culturally specific communities to design and implement research. The project used a unique approach to build grassroots research capacity and center survivors of intimate partner violence from historically marginalized communities. This approach coalesced into the creation of an exploratory Community-Led Research (CLR) framework that incorporated trauma-informed, research justice and language justice principles. The CLR framework responded to community members’ desire to lead, rather than simply participate in, the research process. As a result, five studies were designed and executed by practitioners turned community-based researchers, most of whom had never before engaged in research, except as subjects. The CLR framework integrated the skills and experiences of community-based and external researchers, and led to high levels of engagement, rich data, more equitable research processes and innovative research projects.
Employing a power-conscious, intersectional framework (Crenshaw, 1991; Dill & Zambrana, 2009), I argue educators must understand power, privilege, and oppression to effectively support and guide learning and development among student activists. Students from minoritized groups, including students of Color, women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, frequently engage in activism because of their experiences with marginalization and face different consequences for their activist engagement than do White, male, cisgender, and heterosexual students. Recommendations for educators striving to support student activists include connecting student activism to student learning and development, developing strategies for managing multiple and conflicting roles on campus, and developing a power-conscious framework for engaging with students.
Feminism has made a resurgence in the last several years, especially on college campuses [Davies. 2011. “Feminism is back, and we want to finish the revolution, say activists.” The Guardian, August 5. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/05/feminism-resurgent-activists]. Actions to address sexual violence and other forms of ‘lad culture’ are growing in visibility, as young feminists come together to challenge patriarchal norms on campuses. Little is known about how feminist community functions to solidify individuals’ commitment to liberatory action. The meaning-making process of college-age feminists in the US/UK is relevant to the ongoing question of how social change movements function and flourish. This study chronicled 33 college feminists in the US and UK, describing how feminist communities on campus served to foster stronger commitment to feminism and greater confidence in advocating for feminist values and viewpoints. Community forged through consciousness of one’s differential power and privilege and productive engagement with identity difference was notably absent in these narratives, signaling incomplete encounters with cross-coalitional alliance [Rowe. 2008. Power Lines. On the Subject of Feminist Alliances. Durham: Duke University Press].
Using Internet-related ethnography (Postill and Pink, 2012), we examined the role of social media in campus sexual violence activism. Based on observations of online activist communities and interviews with 23 activists, we highlight raising awareness, community building, and interrupting power dynamics as activism strategies enhanced by social media. Further, we provide implications and recommendations for administrators, educators, and student activists. © 2016 National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.
Contemporary alarm about ‘laddism’ reveals what feminist research and activism has long-recognised; universities, like other social institutions, can be dangerous places for women. Research in the US and, more recently, the UK reveals alarming rates of violence, against women, the cultural and institutional norms which support violence and gaps in institutional responses. In the midst of this contemporary alarm about the university as a hotbed of laddism, there is a risk that the university – a site of potential empowerment and liberation for women (and men) – becomes re-positioned as a danger zone. The limited focus on danger and safety belies the potential of universities to enhance human freedoms through intellectual endeavour. We argue this progressive potential should remain centre-stage, as should university-based resistance to everyday sexism and laddism. This paper analyses accounts of young women feminists (n = 33) in UK and US universities. It explores their use of feminism and features of the university environment to resist and challenge oppressive cultures and practices. It argues that, despite encroaching neoliberalism and enduring sexism, universities continue to provide environments for engagements with feminism, enabling young women students to use feminism to resist and challenge sexism and to envision their feminist futures.
This paper suggests how the 'grey literature', the diverse and heterogeneous body of material that is made public outside, and not subject to, traditional academic peer-review processes, can be used to increase the relevance and impact of management and organization studies (MOS). The authors clarify the possibilities by reviewing 140 systematic reviews published in academic and practitioner outlets to answer the following three questions: (i) Why is grey literature excluded from/included in systematic reviews in MOS? (ii) What types of grey material have been included in systematic reviews since guidelines for practice were first established in this discipline? (iii) How is the grey literature treated currently to advance management and organization scholarship and knowledge? This investigation updates previous guidelines for more inclusive systematic reviews that respond to criticisms of current review practices and the needs of evidence-based management. © 2016 British Academy of Management and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
The first research conducted on violence against women in the university context in Spain reveals that 62% of the students know of or have experienced situations of this kind within the university institutions, but only 13% identify these situations in the first place. Two main interrelated aspects arise from the data analysis: not identifying and acknowledging violent situations, and the lack of reporting them. Policies and actions developed by Spanish universities need to be grounded in two goals: intransigence toward any kind of violence against women, and bystander intervention, support, and solidarity with the victims and with the people supporting the victims.
Reviews of primary research are becoming more common as evidence-based practice gains recognition as the benchmark for care, and the number of, and access to, primary research sources has grown. One of the newer review types is the 'scoping review'. In general, scoping reviews are commonly used for 'reconnaissance' - to clarify working definitions and conceptual boundaries of a topic or field. Scoping reviews are therefore particularly useful when a body of literature has not yet been comprehensively reviewed, or exhibits a complex or heterogeneous nature not amenable to a more precise systematic review of the evidence. While scoping reviews may be conducted to determine the value and probable scope of a full systematic review, they may also be undertaken as exercises in and of themselves to summarize and disseminate research findings, to identify research gaps, and to make recommendations for the future research. This article briefly introduces the reader to scoping reviews, how they are different to systematic reviews, and why they might be conducted. The methodology and guidance for the conduct of systematic scoping reviews outlined below was developed by members of the Joanna Briggs Institute and members of five Joanna Briggs Collaborating Centres.
Background
The scoping review has become an increasingly popular approach for synthesizing research evidence. It is a relatively new approach for which a universal study definition or definitive procedure has not been established. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide an overview of scoping reviews in the literature.MethodsA scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley framework. A search was conducted in four bibliographic databases and the gray literature to identify scoping review studies. Review selection and characterization were performed by two independent reviewers using pretested forms.ResultsThe search identified 344 scoping reviews published from 1999 to October 2012. The reviews varied in terms of purpose, methodology, and detail of reporting. Nearly three-quarter of reviews (74.1%) addressed a health topic. Study completion times varied from 2 weeks to 20 months, and 51% utilized a published methodological framework. Quality assessment of included studies was infrequently performed (22.38%).Conclusions
Scoping reviews are a relatively new but increasingly common approach for mapping broad topics. Because of variability in their conduct, there is a need for their methodological standardization to ensure the utility and strength of evidence. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In 2007, the journal Qualitative Research published a review on qualitative evidence syntheses conducted between 1988 and 2004. It reported on the lack of explicit detail regarding methods for searching, appraisal and synthesis, and a lack of emerging consensus on these issues. We present an update of this review for the period 2005–8. Not only has the amount of published qualitative evidence syntheses doubled, but authors have also become more transparent about their searching and critical appraisal procedures. Nevertheless, for the synthesis component of the qualitative reviews, a black box remains between what people claim to use as a synthesis approach and what is actually done in practice. A detailed evaluation of how well authors master their chosen approach could provide important information for developers of particular methods, who seem to succeed in playing the game according to the rules. Clear methodological instructions need to be developed to assist others in applying these synthesis methods.
Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology.
In the midst of unprecedented attention to gender-based violence (GBV) globally, prompted in part by the #MeToo movement, this book provides a new analysis of how higher education cultures can be transformed. It offers reflections from faculty, staff, and students about how change has happened and could happen on their campuses in ways that go beyond implementation of programs and policies. Building on what is already known from decades of scholarship and practice in the United States, and more recent attention elsewhere, this book provides an interdisciplinary, international overview of attempts to transform higher education cultures to eradicate GBV. Change happens because people act, usually with others. At the heart of transformative efforts lie collaborations between faculty, staff, students, activists, and community organizations. The contributors to the book reflect on what makes for constructive, effective collaborations and how to avoid the common mistakes in working with others to end GBV. They consider what has worked to challenge the reluctance—or outright hostility—they have encountered in their work against GBV and how their collaborations have succeeded in transforming the ways GBV is considered and dealt with. The chapters focus on experiences in Canada, the United States, England, Scotland, France, and India to examine different approaches to tackling GBV in higher education. They reveal the cultural variations in which GBV occurs as well as the similarities across cultures. Together, they demonstrate that, to make higher education a safe environment for all, nothing short of a transformation is required.
This chapter critically discusses the importance of coalition-building in challenging gender-based violence (GBV) in universities and for laying the groundwork to facilitate and support cultural transformation in the complex and risk-averse environment of higher education. Drawing on the example of a cross-institutional, multipartner coalition initiated by student organizations in collaboration with security, service, and academic staff in two Scottish universities, local service providers, and police, this chapter critically discusses the tensions encountered and challenges posed in creating a “whole-university” approach to preventing and responding to GBV. In so doing, it highlights the centrality of student leadership for developing an informed response and driving forward meaningful change and the importance of internal/external partnerships for prevention work, root and branch reform of university policies and practices, the provision of training and awareness-raising, and the delivery of a thorough institutionalized response to tackling GBV.
Three ingredients underpin feminist campaigns against violence against women in universities: research, public activism, and political lobbying. Often discussed as if they are separate activities, this chapter demonstrates that conducting research constitutes activism resulting in and/or requiring lobbying and other activist activities. The chapter analyzes qualitative data collected in a UK national multimethod study exploring barriers and facilitators to implementing the recommendations of the 2016 Universities UK report on violence against women. Interviews with academics reveal how, in becoming cognizant of the power structures within their universities, participants identified how power operated to stall or block the gender-based violence agenda and pointed to transformative measures to circumvent barriers. These measures involve the three ingredients listed here. Collective action is apparent throughout their accounts with alliances being developed with students, external partners, and key individuals, as well as committees and services within their institutions. Cumulatively, the activism of these participants can be seen as transformative.
Using policy frameworks and author expertise to identify relevant literature, four academics and two student-activist-authors, critically review literature upon student activist responses to sexual violence on campus. We conclude, student activism is pivotal to campus cultural change. In the UK, we review how student activism challenges outdated policy; in the US, how this has elevated the issue to national policy agendas. We apply theoretical frameworks of policy windows, policy entrepreneurs, campus readiness models and embodied intersectional citizenship. This article recommends universities work collaboratively with student activists, rather than viewing collaboration as a reputational risk. Further, we recommend developing Campus Community Readiness Models to include measures of collaboration. We contend, student activism can incur costs. Connecting activists online may help manage the transience of student activism. Collaboration and connection with and between student activists may represent a cultural shift toward sustainability stages of readiness characterised by community ownership.
Although research has found that sexual violence is a serious issue on college campuses, the lack of diversity in previous samples calls into question the findings’ generalizability to non-White populations. Consequently, little is known about how Students of Color conceptualize sexual violence. Using an intersectional and phenomenological approach, we examined how Black/African American university women understand sexual violence, as well as their perceptions of cultural barriers to help-seeking and reporting this violence. Seven themes emerged: (a) Historical Legacy of Racialized Trauma Against Black Women, (b) Stereotypes of Hypersexualized Black Women, (c) Silence and Community Protection, (d) Duality of Black Spirituality and/or Religiosity, (e) Racial Injustice and Systemic Barriers to Help-Seeking and Reporting, (f) Stereotypes of Strong Black Women, and (g) Grassroots Healing and Empowerment of Black Communities. We provide recommendations for counselors and university staff to develop culturally grounded campus prevention initiatives for Black women.
Students with minoritized identities have been engaged in campus activism as a way to hold institutional leaders accountable for addressing oppression. What is particularly unique about these activists is that they often advocate for change as a way to survive in their minoritized bodies. Because these activists are working to address institutional oppression, they are not able to engage in the activities that historically lead to educationally-beneficial college experiences. The purpose of this study was to explore the extra labor in which 25 student activists engaged, including the costs and consequences of their activism. © 2019 Association for the Study of Higher Education All Rights Reserved (ISSN 0162–5748).
This chapter synthesizes the strategies provided throughout this monograph for educators working with student activists as leaders. Interrupting the false dichotomy of leader and activist allows educators to support student leader‐activists in learning, growth, and development.
Campus sexual violence activists (CSVAs) work to challenge their campuses by actively opposing rape culture, changing policies and practices, and educating their peers to prevent sexual violence. Despite renewed activism on campuses, little is known about how CSVAs conceive of their identities, and how their identities change through the experience of activism. In this qualitative interview study of 11 CSVAs we explored the ways that activism transformed both their category-based and role-based identities (Horowitz, 2017), particularly with respect to race, gender, and social justice. Implications for student affairs administrators working alongside CSVAs are discussed.
It is estimated that 30-50% of all childhood sexual abuse involves other young people as perpetrators. The treatment of harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) in young people has evolved from interventions developed for use with adult perpetrators of sexual offenses. Increasingly these approaches were not seen as appropriate for use with young people. The purpose of this qualitative systematic review was to establish what intervention components are viewed as acceptable or useful by young people and their families in order to inform the development of interventions for young people with HSB. We conducted searches across 14 electronic databases, as well as contacting experts to identify relevant studies. Thirteen qualitative studies were included in the analysis, reporting findings from intervention studies from the UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. Thematic analysis was used to combine findings from the studies of young people and parent/carers views. Five key themes were identified as critical components of successful interventions for young people with HSB. These included the key role of the relationship between the young person and practitioner, the significance of the role of parents and carers, the importance of considering the wider context in which the abuse has occurred, the role of disclosure in interventions and the need to equip young people with skills as well as knowledge. The evidence was limited by the small number of studies which were mainly from the perspectives of adolescent males.
Institutional betrayal, feelings of treason that occur when an institution fails to prevent or respond appropriately to wrongdoings committed within the context of an institution, contributes to exacerbated trauma for survivors of sexual violence (Smith & Freyd, 2014). Through a qualitative research study, we examine experiences of 10 sexual violence activist-survivors related to institutional betrayal. Participants describe individual, departmental, and systemic institutional betrayal. Additionally, we explore institutional betrayal as a motivator for campus activism and provide implications for student affairs educators striving to prevent and effectively respond to sexual violence on their campuses.
Addressing sexual assault on university and college campuses in the United States is a national priority. To date, research on campus sexual assault overwhelmingly focuses on students as objects of study: as survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders of sexual assault. This focus has largely overlooked students who act as agents of change, mobilizing to alter campus norms around consent, prevention, survivor support, and institutional response. In this article, we encourage feminist scholars to incorporate students as advocates against sexual assault and to invite students to be collaborators in research. We discuss a student-led organization and our ongoing collaborative study with the organization to illustrate how feminist researchers can feature student engagement with campus sexual assault at the grass roots. We conclude with recommendations to expand the national research agenda on campus sexual assault.
The present study explored the prevalence of myths about male sexual assault, assault by penetration, and rape in a male general population sample (N = 98; mean age = 26.17 years), with the aim of determining potential barriers to the reporting of incidents of male sexual victimization and reasons for reluctance to report. In addition, the impacts of prior experience of male sexual victimization, both direct and indirect, on rape and sexual assault myth acceptance and on attitudes to reporting were evaluated. Participants completed an online survey indicating their levels of agreement with a range of statements reflecting different rape and sexual assault myths identified within the previous literature. Overall, there were high levels of disagreement (>90%) with the majority of the statements. The only items generating higher agreement ratings were those suggesting that the police are unlikely to take male sexual victimization seriously and—where the offence in question was sexual assault or assault by penetration and the perpetrator female—that men should be able to defend themselves against such crimes. Those without any prior experience of male sexual victimization tended to disagree more with the rape myths than those with previous experience. When asked whether they would report these offences if they were to happen to them, participants said that they were more likely to report each of the types of offences when the perpetrator was male than when they were female. Potential implications of the findings, for male sex offence investigations and for the criminal justice system more generally, are discussed.
Sexual assault is a pervasive problem on university and college campuses in the United States that has garnered growing national attention, particularly in the past year. This is the first study to systematically review and synthesize prevalence findings from studies on campus sexual assault (CSA) published since 2000 (n = 34). The range of prevalence findings for specific forms of sexual victimization on college campuses (i.e., forcible rape, unwanted sexual contact, incapacitated rape, sexual coercion, and studies' broad definitions of CSA/rape) is provided, and methodological strengths and limitations in the empirical body of research on CSA are discussed. Prevalence findings, research design, methodology, sampling techniques, and measures, including the forms of sexual victimization measured, are presented and evaluated across studies. Findings suggest that unwanted sexual contact appears to be most prevalent on college campuses, including sexual coercion, followed by incapacitated rape, and completed or attempted forcible rape. Additionally, several studies measured broad constructs of sexual assault that typically include combined forms of college-based sexual victimization (i.e., forcible completed or attempted rape, unwanted sexual contact, and/or sexual coercion). Extensive variability exists within findings for each type of sexual victimization measured, including those that broadly measure sexual assault, which is largely explained by differences in sampling strategies and overall study designs as well as measures of sexual assault used in studies. Implications for findings and recommendations for future research on the prevalence of college-based sexual victimization are provided.
'"It Takes Six People to Make a Mattress Feel Light...": Materializing Pain in Carry That Weight and Sexual Assault Activism' uses Elaine Scarry's theorization of pain as 'anterior to language,' to examine how performance is used in sexual assault activism on American university campuses. The article discusses Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz's graduating art thesis Carry That Weight or the Mattress Performance and the First National Day of Action for Carry That Weight Together on 29 October 2014, bringing together various student and sexual assault awareness activist groups. The author is concerned with the ways in which the inadequacy of language in describing the pain of sexual assault is overcome through the production of material objects, a process Scarry describes as analogical substantiation. Here the lapse of consent, the void around which the speech act of asserting rape is constructed, is beset with a burden of evidence. While the juridical language is fraught and contestable, the assault survivor as performer can represent her imperfect memory of violation as and through objects. Such objects themselves need gesture to animate them; here the mattress must be carried. Further, in the repertoire of feminist and activist performance practices such materialization is linked with a production of waste, an effigian excess as Joseph Roach points out. 'It Takes Six People to Make a Mattress Feel Light. . ..' explores the ways in which such waste is ultimately generative of a range of performance strategies that are citational and reproducible within the larger context of social movements for gender justice.
Although collective action has psychological benefits in non-gendered contexts (Drury et al., 2005, Br. J. Soc. Psychol., 44, 309), the benefits for women taking action against gender discrimination are unclear. This study examined how a popular, yet unexplored potential form of collective action, namely tweeting about sexism, affects women's well-being. Women read about sexism and were randomly assigned to tweet or to one of three control groups. Content analyses showed tweets exhibited collective intent and action. Analyses of linguistic markers suggested public tweeters used more cognitive complexity in their language than private tweeters. Profile analyses showed that compared to controls, only public tweeters showed decreasing negative affect and increasing psychological well-being, suggesting tweeting about sexism may serve as a collective action that can enhance women's well-being.
The feminist social work and related literature on abused women has focused on women's processes of empowerment but has overlooked the question of women's movement from individual survival to collective resistance. In this feminist qualitative study, I explore the processes through which survivors of abuse by male partners become involved in collective action for social change. Using story telling as a research method, I interviewed 11 women about the processes, factors, insights, and events that prompted them to act collectively to address violence against women. I found that women's movement from individual survival to collective action entails significant changes in consciousness and subjectivity. Women's processes of conscientization are complex, contradictory and often painful because they involve political and psychic dimensions of subjectivity, protracted struggles with contradictions and conflict, and resistance to knowledge that threatens to unsettle relatively stable notions of identity. I suggest that feminist social work theory and practice must take into account three interrelated elements of women's transformative journeys: the discursive and material conditions that facilitate women's movement to collective action; the social, material and psychic costs of women's growth; and the multifaceted and difficult nature of women's journey in recognizing and naming abuse, making sense of their experiences, and acting on this knowledge to work for change. I recommend that feminist social work practice with survivors recognize that survivors can and do contribute to social change, and develop new, more inclusive liberatory models of working with survivors of abuse.
Interest in the outcomes of flexible working arrangements (FWAs) dates from the mid‐1970s, when researchers attempted to assess the impact of flexitime on worker performance. This paper reviews the literature on the link between FWAs and performance‐related outcomes. Taken together, the evidence fails to demonstrate a business case for the use of FWAs. This paper attempts to explain the findings by analysing the theoretical and methodological perspectives adopted, as well as the measurements and designs used. In doing so, gaps in this vast and disparate literature are identified, and a research agenda is developed.
Do activists lead happier and more fulfilled lives than the average person? Two online surveys using a sample of college students (N = 341) and a national sample of activists matched with a control group (N = 718) demonstrated that several indicators of activism were positively associated with measures of hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well-being. Furthermore, in both studies, activists were more likely to be “flourishing” (Keyes, 2002) than were nonactivists. A third study of college students (N = 296) explored the possible causal role of activism by measuring well-being after subjects either engaged in a brief activist behavior, a brief nonactivist behavior, or no behavior. Although well-being did not differ substantially between these three groups, the subjects who did the brief activist behavior reported significantly higher levels of subjective vitality than did the subjects who engaged in the nonactivist behavior. Potential mediators of the relationship between activism and well-being and the usefulness of these findings are discussed.
Understanding firms’ interfaces with the community has become a familiar strategic concern for both firms and non-profit organizations.
However, it is still not clear when different community engagement strategies are appropriate or how such strategies might
benefit the firm and community. In this review, we examine when, how and why firms benefit from community engagement strategies
through a systematic review of over 200 academic and practitioner knowledge sources on the antecedents and consequences of
community engagement strategy. We analytically describe evidence on the rise of the community engagement strategy literature
over time, its geographical spread and methodological evolution. A foundational concept underlying many studies is the ‘continuum
of community engagement’. We build on this continuum to develop a typology of three engagement strategies: transactional,
transitional and transformational engagement. By identifying the antecedents and outcomes of the three strategies, we find
that the payoffs from engagement are largely longer-term enhanced firm legitimacy, rather than immediate cost–benefit improvements.
We use our systematic review to draw implications for future research and managerial practice.
Keywordscitizens-community engagement-community groups-corporate philanthropy-social partnerships-social strategy-stakeholder engagement-systematic review
Utilizing latent growth modeling, the long-term development of worries among peace movement supporters is examined. Data originate from a seven-wave German longitudinal study started in 1985 with on average 14-year-olds. Waves were interspersed 3 and a half years each. Activists are assumed to have lower (self-related) microworries (Hypothesis 1) and higher macroworries (concerned with larger entities; Hypothesis 2) than nonactivists at the onset of the study. Nonactivists who appraised the threat of nuclear war as high in 1985 are assumed to report worse mental health than their activist age-mates 21 years later (Hypothesis 3). Activists are assumed to express relatively more macroworries than nonactivists in midadulthood (Hypothesis 4). All four hypotheses were confirmed. Results are interpreted in a stress-coping (Lazarus) and resource (Elder) framework, suggesting that refraining from acting out against a perceived sociopolitical threat is a long-term risk for a positive mental health trajectory.
The hunting ground: ‘Like climate change deniers, there is an industry of rape deniers
- J Witt
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2021)
Collaborating for change: Transforming cultures to end gender-based violence in higher education
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Report on the AAU campus climate survey on sexual assault and misconduct
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Meet the college women who have started a revolution against campus sexual assault
- V Grigoriadis
* Grigoriadis, V. (2014). Meet the college women who have started a
revolution against campus sexual assault. The Cut 21
Ending rape on campus: Activism takes several forms
- E Grinberg
* Grinberg, E. (2014). Ending rape on campus: Activism takes
several forms. CNN 12 February. https://edition.cnn.com/2014/
02/09/living/campus-sexual-violence-students-schools/index.
html (accessed 5 November 2020)
I've been told I'm a survivor, not a victim
- K Harding
Harding, K. (2020). I've been told I'm a survivor, not a victim. But
what's wrong with being a victim? Time 27 february. https://
time.com/5789032/victim-survivor-sexual-assault/ (accessed 11
March 2021)
I'm a campus sexual assault activist. It's time to reimagine how we punish sex crimes
- S Karasek
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February.
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