Starting the Conversation: Are Campus Sexual Assault Policies Related to the Prevalence of Campus Sexual Assault?

The Clery Act's transparency purpose & campus sexual misconduct: A longitudinal analysis

Objective: Campus sexual misconduct causes adverse physical, mental, behavioral, reproductive, and financial consequences. Informing prevention efforts at federal, state, and institution levels requires valid data. We assessed the appropriateness of Clery Act Campus Crime Statistics data for evaluating campus sexual misconduct. Participants: We sampled 40 institutions within the American Association of Universities (AAU) from 2014 to 2020. Methods: We determined annual differences between rates of sexual misconduct reported in public Clery Act data and those reported by institutional Title IX coordinator offices (which are not required to be public). Results: Clery Act data offer a considerable undercount relative to Title IX Office sexual misconduct data. The magnitude of the differences was similar in both the institutions that published Title IX data and those that did not. Conclusions: Clery Act data are not appropriate for evaluating campus sexual misconduct, necessitating policy steps that require standardization and publication of Title IX Office data.

Justice for Women After Sexual Assault: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Justice after sexual assault is often understood and enacted through the criminal legal system such that the outcomes are binary (i.e., justice is achieved or not achieved). Previous research indicates that survivors have specific wants and needs following an assault in order to experience justice, which may or may not align with current practices. We conducted a critical interpretive synthesis of 5 databases to create a sampling frame of 4,203 records; the final analysis included 81 articles, book chapters, and policy documents. Results indicate that justice is an individualized and dynamic process which may include the experience of voice, connectedness, participating in a process, accountability, and prevention. The experiences of safety and control are central to each of these domains. Survivors may seek and enact these justice domains through several avenues, including the criminal justice and legal systems, restorative justice, medical/mental health spaces, activism, art, and social media. Existing actors within currently available justice systems, including legal, medical, and mental health personnel should encourage survivors to identify and define their own experience of justice, including locating helpful behaviors rooted in safety and control, and resist a binary model of justice. Extant systems should therefore be flexible and accessible to help survivors realize their preferred modes of justice.

Association Between Sexual Harassment Intervention Strategies and the Sexual Harassment Perception and Attitude of University Students in Beijing, China

Sexual harassment in universities harms the physical and psychological health and development of students. Although Chinese universities are required to implement sexual harassment interventions, few studies have estimated how well interventions are perceived by students and the association with their perceptions and attitudes toward sexual harassment. This study aims to examine the perceptions and attitudes toward sexual harassment and perceived sexual harassment interventions among university students. Further, it evaluated the association between sexual harassment interventions and sexual harassment perceptions and attitudes among university students and explored potential gender differences in the observed associations. We categorized sexual harassment interventions into three types of strategies (informal education activities, prevention mechanisms, and multiformat publicity) and designed an 8-item scale for sexual harassment perception and a 10-item scale for sexual harassment attitude. A total of 872 students were recruited from six universities in Beijing, China. Association between intervention strategies and sexual harassment perceptions and attitudes was analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results showed that 78.56% of the university students recognized all sexual harassment behaviors, and 11.58% felt angry about all sexual harassment behaviors. Male students felt angrier at same-sex harassment than female students (p < .001). Overall, the students were aware of approximately 3 of the 13 sexual harassment interventions. None of the three intervention strategies was significantly associated with perceptions of sexual harassment (p > .050). The attitude toward sexual harassment was positively associated with informal education activities (coeff = 0.055, p = .015) and multiformat publicity (coeff = 0.077, p = .030) among female students, and negatively associated with prevention mechanisms (coeff = -0.123, p = .033) among male students. Our findings imply that sexual harassment interventions are not well known among university students. Universities should develop and propagate more sexual harassment informal education activities and multiformat publicity intervention strategies and pay more attention to gender differences in intervention strategies.

A Systematic Review of Campus Characteristics Associated With Sexual Violence and Other Forms of Victimization

Violence researchers have highlighted a need to understand connections between campus characteristics and violent victimization among students. Responding to those calls, we systematically reviewed research examining the characteristics of secondary and post-secondary educational settings associated with sexual violence and related victimization experiences, including dating/intimate partner violence, stalking, bullying, hate crimes, and crime more broadly. We screened 1124 quantitative and qualitative records, 43 of which met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. Evidence emerged for institution demographics, institution type, institution climate, institution financial characteristics, and educational characteristics being related to various forms of victimization; institution setting (urban vs. rural) was not associated with victimization. Additionally, evidence was observed for institution location and size/density. Some factors, including institution type and campus demographics, operated differently for different forms of victimization. We highlight limitations of existing data, including variability in the measurement of victimization outcomes, lack of power to detect differences at the campus level, and challenges of creating a database on victimization that contains campus identifiers. We also reinforce calls for more intersectional research, both in terms of the types of victimization experienced by students as well as in the disproportionate impact victimization may have on students with marginalized identities.

Sexual Assault Prevention With Student-Athletes: Exploring Perceptions of the Campus Climate and Awareness of Sexual Assault Policies and Resources

Increasing awareness of school sexual assault policies and resources is a central component of sexual assault prevention. Research suggests that the state of the campus climate impacts an individual's level of awareness, particularly for at-risk groups like student-athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine how macro factors such as participation in sexual assault prevention, perceptions of the institutional response to addressing sexual assault, and perceptions of campus staff (i.e., campus police, athletic staff, and administration) are associated with awareness of sexual assault policies and resources. Student-athletes at five National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools participated in a web-based survey to assess their perceptions of the campus climate and awareness of sexual assault policies and resources. The results from an ordinary least squares multiple regression model revealed that past participation in sexual assault prevention, more positive perceptions of the institutional response, and more positive perceptions of campus police and administration were associated with a greater awareness of sexual assault policies and resources while controlling for race, ethnicity, and gender. Perceptions of athletic staff was not significantly related to awareness of policies and resources. These findings demonstrate that delivering consistent messaging and engaging campus staff in sexual assault prevention provides a foundation for building a positive campus climate which, in turn, may reduce campus sexual assault.

Changing Cognitive Risk Factors for Sexual Aggression: Risky Sexual Scripts, Low Sexual Self-Esteem, Perception of Pornography, and Acceptance of Sexual Coercion

Sexual aggression is a problem among college students worldwide, and a growing body of research has identified variables associated with an increased risk of victimization and perpetration. Among these, sexuality-related cognitions, such as sexual scripts, sexual self-esteem, perceived realism of pornography, and acceptance of sexual coercion, play a major role. The current experimental study aimed to show that these cognitive risk factors of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration are amenable to change, which is a critical condition for evidence-based intervention efforts. College students in Germany (N = 324) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a treatment group designed to change participants' sexual scripts for consensual sex with regard to the role of alcohol consumption, casual sex, and ambiguous communication of sexual intentions as risk factors for sexual aggression (EG1), a treatment group designed to promote sexual self-esteem, challenge the perceived realism of pornography, and reduce the acceptance of sexual coercion (EG2), and a non-treatment control group (CG). Baseline (T1), post-experimental (T2), and follow-up (T3) measures were taken across an eight-week period. Sexual scripts contained fewer risk factors for sexual aggression in EG1 than in EG2 and CG at T3. Sexual self-esteem was enhanced in EG2 at T2 relative to the other two groups. Acceptance of sexual coercion was lower in EG2 than in EG1 and CG at T2 and T3. No effect was found for perceived realism of pornography. The findings are discussed in terms of targeting cognitive risk factors as a basis for intervention programs.