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Jacquelyn White, Emerita professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, spoke before a crowd of over 100 people at SPSSI’s Congressional Lunch Seminar on Capitol Hill on November 10, 2015. Her talk was titled “Focus on Campus Sexual Assault: What We Know, How We Know It, and What to Do about It.”
White began by noting that after a period of relative calm, sexual assault on campus has become a major nation-wide issue. That makes it particularly important that whatever researchers, activists, and policymakers do next be done right: “This is our window of opportunity,” she said. There are numerous initiatives underway: There is a White House Task Force, there are legislative proposals to mandate campus climate surveys, there are other programs at the state level, and there are a variety of prevention efforts of varying quality. The challenge remains, however, to develop policy that is informed by research and practice. “Too often we work in silos,” said White, “with the researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on their own. We need to spend time talking with each other.”
The policies and programs that these groups develop should have three goals, said White:
1) Prevention of traumatic events, by reducing risk factors for perpetration and reducing risk factors for victimization.
2) Prevention of traumatic reactions to sex assault victimization, by focusing on services for victims to prevent long-term adverse effects, and on programs that build resilience.
3) Treatment of perpetrators, through the establishment of legal and procedural consequences that support justice and attend to survivors’ concerns, as well as interventions to reduce future violence.
There have been literally thousands of studies of sexual assault on campus, noted White, so researchers have a very good idea about the nature of the problem. One study White herself participated in found that 20 percent of incoming first-year women had been raped or suffered an attempted rape before their arrival at college. Another 20 percent suffered coercive sexual behavior in their freshman year. By the time they graduate, one third of women have been raped or suffered an attempted raped, and another 30 percent had endured unwanted sexual conduct. “So we see that unwanted sexual contact has become almost normative for young women on campus,” said White.
The consequences of sexual assault are severe. The victims are at risk to suffer from mental and physical health problems. They may have impaired academic performance, and an increased likelihood of dropping courses and leaving or transferring schools. These consequences incur increased costs: According to one survey, sexual assault costs nearly $2 billion for students in a single national graduating class. Institutions, too, suffer, as they come to be perceived as unsafe and inhospitable environments for learning. University officials perceived to be denying or minimizing the problem may create distrust among parents and alumni and damage an institution’s standing in the community.
Most victims do not report their victimization. Indeed, perhaps as few as 1 to 13 percent do. (And minority women are even less likely than white women to report.) Approximately 60 percent of victims eventually disclose to family and/or friends; however, most do so more to be validated and believed in rather than to seek intervention and assistance. Victims give various reasons why they are so reluctant to report their attack. First is fear—a belief that they may become the subject of humiliation, retaliation or ostracism. They may also fear the subsequent investigation will be re-traumatizing and futile. Indeed, 90 percent of women who have post-assault contact with formal systems such as police experience at least one highly distressing secondary victimization behavior.
The profile of the campus sexual predator is also varied. Today’s state-of-the-art surveys don’t simply ask if a person has raped another, but instead ask about a variety of specific acts, ranging from touching to intercourse, undertaken when another person did not want contact or could not consent. This includes behavior ranging from the use of alcohol or drugs to incapacitate, to threats or the use of force. In these cases, some 7 percent of incoming men admitted committing rape or attempted rape prior to their arrival in college, while another 17 percent committed other coercive acts. By the end of college, some 11 percent of men have raped or attempted to rape, while another 20 percent engaged in other coercive acts.
Alcohol use does not cause sexual assault—nor should it be used to blame the victim or excuse the victimizer. However, alcohol is associated with sexual assault. “Among some men, alcohol induces a set of expectations,” said White. These men may believe that drinking alcohol indicates a woman’s willingness to have sex, an attitude that their peer groups encourage. “Most men don’t engage in that behavior,” said White. “But there are some peer groups that objectify women, and the men in them are much more likely to target women who are drinking.”
These peer groups may include teams or fraternities. But White insisted that there is nothing about belonging to a fraternity or sports team that in itself encourages violent behavior toward women. There are some groups where the prevailing peer culture demeans women and endorses “conquest values.” Recent research has found that there are some high-risk fraternities where those values are highly prevalent, and other fraternities that don’t endorse those values, where the incidence of violence against women is much lower.
The mushrooming interest in campus gender-based violence has led to a plethora of initiatives to try to measure the true extent of the problem. These have been of varying quality, in terms of their costliness, validity and reliability. Concern about the integrity of these surveys led academics and practitioners of various backgrounds to form an Administrator-Research Campus Climate Collaborative, or ARC3. The group includes leading sexual assault and harassment researchers, Title IX coordinators, student affairs professionals, campus advocates, students, and campus law enforcement officials. Twenty-two of these experts have collaborated to create a scientifically sound survey that balances the need for scientific standardization with flexibility for individual institutions. The survey was pilot-tested on four, very different campuses in the Fall of 2015. (More information on ARC3 can be found at http://campusclimate.gsu.edu). It is meant to be a student-centric barometer of the success of policies, procedures, services and prevention programs on campus. In particular, the climate survey aims to achieve the following:
- Be based on reliable and valid measures;
- Be flexible enough to meet local concerns;
- Be open to revision as new evidence emerges;
- Focus on perpetration as well as victimization;
- Cover the range of Title IX violations—stalking, sexual harassment, and dating; violence, for example—in addition to sexual assault.
White concluded her talk by addressing the question of what can be done to prevent sexual assault. Interventions, she said, should begin early—preferably in early adolescence, with the teaching of healthy relationships and sexual empowerment. The focus should be on changing the behavior of potential perpetrators before they have assaulted anyone. “I’m a strong believer in primary intervention,” said White. “It’s better to put things in a constructive way. It resonates better to teach kids to engage in positive, healthy sexual behavior than to simply list the activities they shouldn’t engage in.”
White has been particularly impressed with two programs—one aimed primarily at males and the other largely at females. The first are bystander intervention programs, which train people to identify a potential incident, interpret it correctly as an emergency, assume responsibility, and help. These programs build empathy for rape survivors, focus on the responsibility to intervene, and appeal to men’s self-conceptions as “good guys” and potential helpers. Research shows that these programs result in increased identification of risky situations, increased bystander efficacy, increased willingness to help, and reduced acceptance of rape. “The results are very encouraging,” said White.
Sexual assault resistance education is by contrast a type of program directed primarily at women. It is based on an AAA algorithm: to assess the situation as potentially dangerous; to acknowledge the potential rape situation; and to act using rape resistance strategies. These programs aim to improve women’s assessment of risk, overcome emotional barriers to resisting, practice opposing verbal coercion, and improve strategies for sexual communication. The results have been positive: a reduced risk of completed and attempted rape, and a reduced risk of attempted coercion and nonconsensual sexual contact.
White added that it is important to respect the victims’ autonomy when deciding whether and how to report an assault. Requiring victims to report to police before an institution can investigate would be harmful to the victim's well-being and would result in less reporting. Finally, education and prevention programming should be part of the institutional response to the incidence of sexual violence on campus.
