tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/campus-sexual-assault-26354/articlesCampus sexual assault – The Conversation2023-11-06T05:39:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2142152023-11-06T05:39:38Z2023-11-06T05:39:38ZFieldwork can be challenging for female scientists. Here are 5 ways to make it better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555493/original/file-20231024-23-98o1fy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5851%2C3818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Merla, Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women coastal scientists face multiple barriers to getting into the field for research. These include negative perceptions of their physical capabilities, not being included in trips, caring responsibilities at home and a lack of field facilities for women. Even if women clear these barriers, the experience can be challenging. </p>
<p>This is a problem because fieldwork is crucial for gathering data, inspiring emerging scientists, developing skills, expanding networks and participating in collaborative research. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cft.2023.26">Our recent study</a> revisited an international survey of 314 coastal scientists that revealed broad <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-inequalities-in-science-wont-self-correct-its-time-for-action-99452">perceptions and experiences of gender inequality</a> in coastal sciences. We offer five ways to improve the fieldwork experience for women. </p>
<p>Our collective experience of more than 70 years as active coastal scientists suggests women face ongoing problems when they go to the field. Against a global backdrop of the #MeToo movement, the <a href="https://www.pictureascientist.com/">Picture a Scientist</a> documentary and media coverage about <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00097-4">incidents of sexual harassment</a> in the field, conversations between fieldworkers and research managers about behaviour and policy change are needed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A collage of photos showing female fieldworkers operating equipment, carrying gear and fixing engines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Disrupting the narrative: Women fieldworkers operating equipment, carrying gear and fixing engines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering network</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-harassment-impacts-university-staff-our-research-shows-how-211996">Sexual harassment impacts university staff – our research shows how</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Our research: what we did and what we found</h2>
<p>In 2016, we surveyed both male and female scientists about their experiences of gender equality in coastal sciences during an international symposium in Sydney and afterwards online.</p>
<p>From 314 responses, 113 respondents (36%) provided examples of gender inequality they had either directly experienced or observed while working in coastal sciences. About half of these were related to fieldwork.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cft.2023.26">recent paper</a> in the journal Coastal Futures revisits the survey results to further unpack fieldwork issues that continue to surface among the younger generation of female coastal scientists whom we supervise in our jobs. Many of those younger women don’t know how to address these issues.</p>
<p>The paper includes direct quotes from 18 survey respondents describing their experiences. One woman, a mid-career university researcher, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As I fill in this survey, the corridor of the building I work in is lined with empty offices. My colleagues are out on boats doing fieldwork. I have a passion for coastal science. That’s why I’m working in a university. But I have a disproportionately large share of administrative, pastoral and governance duties that keep me from engaging in my passion. I’m about to go to a committee meeting of women, doing women’s work (reviewing teaching offerings). Inequality is alive and well in my workplace! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Collectively, the responses highlight barriers to fieldwork participation and challenges in the field, such as sexual harassment and abuse.</p>
<h2>A pressing issue, on and off campus</h2>
<p>Universities have recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/14/universities-criticised-for-failed-response-after-report-details-extent-of-sexual-violence-on-campuses">criticised for failing to respond</a> to sexual violence on campus. But women employed by universities working off campus – at field sites – can be even more vulnerable. </p>
<p>The social boundaries that characterise day-to-day working life in the office and the laboratory are reconfigured on boats or in field camps. Personal space is reduced. Fieldworkers can be required to sleep in close proximity to one another, potentially putting women in vulnerable situations.</p>
<p>As this female early-career university researcher wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sometimes women are ‘advised’ to avoid fieldwork for security reasons. Or [we] are considered weak, or we are threatened by rape for being with a lot of men.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://tos.org/oceanography/article/women-in-oceanography-continuing-challenges">Women working on boats</a> commonly face inadequate facilities at sea for toileting, menstruation and managing lactation. Some women said they were “not allowed to join research vessels” or “prevented from [joining] research in the field because of gender”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1579235099224473600"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/photos-from-the-field-our-voyage-investigating-australias-submarine-landslides-and-deep-marine-canyons-184839">Photos from the field: our voyage investigating Australia's submarine landslides and deep-marine canyons</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Reminded of our personal experiences</h2>
<p>Just reading the survey responses was difficult for us. Tales of exclusion and discrimination were particularly confronting because they resonated with our own personal experiences. As one of us, Sarah Hamylton, recalls:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I remember spending a hot day in my early 20s on a small boat taking measurements over a reef. I was the only female. When one of the four guys asked about needing the toilet, he was told to stand and relieve himself off the stern. I had to hold on, so I was desperate when we returned to the main ship in the afternoon. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But that wasn’t the only challenge Hamylton encountered on that trip:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We got back into port and the night before we departed to go home, I was woken by the drunken second officer banging on my cabin door asking for sex. The following year women were banned from attending this annual expedition because someone else had complained about sexual assault.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Gender stereotypes and discrimination</h2>
<p>Coastal fieldwork demands diverse physical skills such as boating, four-wheel driving, towing trailers, working with hand and power tools, moving heavy equipment, SCUBA diving and being comfortable swimming in the surf, in currents or underwater. </p>
<p>But our survey revealed roles on field trips – and therefore opportunities to learn and gain crucial field skills – are typically handed to men rather than women. Several respondents observed female students and staff being left out of field work for “not being strong enough” and “too weak to pick stuff up”. </p>
<p>Body exposure can also be an issue for women in the field. Close-fitting wetsuits and swimsuits can increase the likelihood of womens’ bodies being objectified by colleagues. Undertaking coastal fieldwork while menstruating can also be a concern.</p>
<p>Another of us, Ana Vila-Concejo, notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some scientific presentations show women in bikinis as a ‘beach modelling’ joke. Beyond self-consciousness, I have felt vulnerable wearing swimmers and exerting myself during fieldwork. Women students and volunteers have declined to participate in field experiments for this reason, particularly while menstruating. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The issue of body exposure also sheds light on the interconnections between race, religion, class and sexuality, which can create overlapping and intersectional disadvantages for women. Vila-Concejo adds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am old enough now that I don’t care anymore. I can afford a wetsuit, but many students and volunteers don’t have one. For some women, it isn’t socially or culturally acceptable to wear swimmers, or even to do fieldwork.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5S5uNqHzDRU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Gender inequality in coastal sciences: Overcoming fieldwork challenges.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Five suggestions for improvement</h2>
<p>To improve the fieldwork experience for women in coastal sciences, our research found the following behavioural and policy changes are needed: </p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>publicise field role models and trailblazers</strong> to reshape public views of coastal scientists, increasing the visibility of female fieldworkers</p></li>
<li><p><strong>improve opportunities and capacity for women to undertake fieldwork</strong> to diversify field teams by identifying and addressing the intersecting disadvantages experienced by women</p></li>
<li><p><strong>establish field codes of conduct</strong> that outline acceptable standards of behaviour on field trips, what constitutes misconduct, sexual harassment and assault, how to make an anonymous complaint and disciplinary measures</p></li>
<li><p><strong>acknowledge the challenges women face in the field and provide support where possible</strong> in fieldwork briefings and address practical challenges for women in remote locations, including toileting and menstruation</p></li>
<li><p><strong>foster an enjoyable and supportive fieldwork culture</strong> that emphasises mutual respect, safety, inclusivity, and collegiality on every trip. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>These five simple steps will improve the experience of fieldwork for all concerned and ultimately benefit the advancement of science.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-inequalities-in-science-wont-self-correct-its-time-for-action-99452">Gender inequalities in science won't self-correct: it's time for action</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hamylton receives funding from The Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Vila Concejo receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other sources unrelated to the subject of this article. She is a founding member and former co-chair of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Power receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the NSW State Government State Emergency Management Program, the Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Fund, the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour Fund, and ship time from Australia's Marine National Facility. She is a member of the NSW Coastal Council and is affiliated with the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shari L Gallop works for Pattle Delamore Partners (PDP). She has an honorary lectureship with the University of Waikato. She is a founding member and former co-chair of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Network.</span></em></p>Growing awareness of sexual harassment and discrimination in the field prompted an international survey and research into potential solutions.Sarah Hamylton, Associate professor, University of WollongongAna Vila Concejo, Associate professor, University of SydneyHannah Power, Associate Professor in Coastal and Marine Science, University of NewcastleShari L Gallop, Service Leader - Coastal, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1997142023-03-06T17:43:56Z2023-03-06T17:43:56ZAddressing campus sexual violence: New risk assessment tool can help administrators make difficult decisions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512767/original/file-20230228-194-67k43s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=476%2C201%2C5178%2C2997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students organize a walkout to protest sexual violence on campuses and to support survivors of sexual assault, in Kingston, Ont., at Queen's University, in September 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How do universities and colleges build safer campuses, and better respond to <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00017-eng.htm">incidents of sexual and gender-based violence</a>? There isn’t a simple answer to this question. </p>
<p>Whatever the response, any solution involves making difficult decisions based on valid tools. </p>
<p>We are part of a national collaborative initiative to <a href="https://www.couragetoact.ca/report">address and prevent sexual and gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions</a> in a survivor-centred, and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/health-risks-safety/trauma-violence-informed-approaches-policy-practice.html">trauma- and violence-informed way</a>.</p>
<p>We have been co-leading a project to create an evidence-based community risk assessment tool for campus administrators and sexual violence support staff to use when formulating campus policy about sexual assault and gender-based violence, and when responding to incidents.</p>
<h2>Informed policy needed</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/10/10/20885824/me-too-movement-sexual-assault-college-campus">Culture change movements</a>, <a href="http://www.ithappenedhere.org/press-release">documentaries</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/shows/the-hunting-ground">and media</a> reporting on sexual <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2023/01/20/this-campus-isnt-safe-following-a-string-of-sexual-assaults-inside-a-toronto-university-the-schools-response-is-under-fire.html?rf">assault on campuses</a> have brought to light the need to go beyond supporting victims and merely responding to incidents of sexual violence — and focus on the overall campus safety.</p>
<p>Such increased attention has obligated institutions to devote specialized campus resources to develop policies, increase survivor support and establish programming to address the multiple <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-covid-19-pandemic-has-made-the-impacts-of-gender-based-violence-worse-193197">forms of systemic oppression that intersect with gender-based violence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen holding signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512753/original/file-20230228-26-cqr5t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=472%2C383%2C4448%2C2788&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512753/original/file-20230228-26-cqr5t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512753/original/file-20230228-26-cqr5t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512753/original/file-20230228-26-cqr5t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512753/original/file-20230228-26-cqr5t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512753/original/file-20230228-26-cqr5t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512753/original/file-20230228-26-cqr5t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Student advocacy and culture change movements have called for more responsive and robust campus policies addressing sexual assault.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kendall Warner/The News & Advance via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Surveillance, security responses</h2>
<p>Campuses often respond to sexual or gender-based violence by choosing approaches involving surveillance, greater security measures and punishment — what might be called a carceral approach, reminiscent of prisons. </p>
<p>Some campus administrators believe that <a href="https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.v50i2.188687">police presence</a> and other <a href="https://www.cijs.ca/_files/ugd/3ac972_52bbee798fbb4f9d99927a59bd9774b8.pdf">security measures</a> make campus a safer environment. </p>
<p>These mainstream approaches work only to safeguard the institution from scrutiny. They put the onus on the victim in most cases, rather than a preventive approach that keeps survivors safe. </p>
<p>These efforts may ultimately fail to instil trust in survivors, as reports show that victims of sexual assault, especially <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv176ktr9">women of colour</a>, are less likely to report sexual violence to police or submit a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X16683225">formal complaint to the university</a>.</p>
<h2>Decisions about victims, the accused</h2>
<p>Neglected in these resources, however, are processes that guide decisions about those who have been accused of sexual and gender-based violence. </p>
<p>Most policies prematurely outline potential consequences for the accused and rush to ask how the individual should be disciplined. Instead, these policies should first ask how a decision should be made about the person who has caused harm: For example, is the person at a high risk of perpetrating further harm? What should be done about the person’s access to the campus environment and other students? </p>
<p>In odd contrast, the <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/tcjs-tsjp/fr-rf/docs/fr.pdf">criminal justice</a> field gives less consideration to the victim and more time and resources to the perpetrator, asking how they are evaluated, what sentence they should get — and what intervention should be applied. </p>
<p>There is a need to balance resources that are focused on both victims and the perpetrators.</p>
<h2>New national framework</h2>
<p>A Canadian social change consultancy dedicated to gender justice and equity, <a href="https://www.possibilityseeds.ca/">Possibility Seeds</a>, collaborated with over 300 experts and advocates from across the country to outline a national framework to address and prevent sexual and gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions. </p>
<p>A report emerging from this work, <a href="https://www.couragetoact.ca/report">called Courage to Act</a>, identified the importance of a co-ordinated response to incidents of campus gender-based violence including policy responses. Our work to create an evidence-based risk assessment tool emerged from needs highlighted in this report.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bIVZXfgugKQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Possibility Seeds video about the Courage to Act report and a national framework to address and prevent gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions in Canada.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Need for formal, relevant tools</h2>
<p>It has been generally accepted by the criminal justice field that assessing risk on the basis of personal impressions — what’s known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016347320889">unstructured judgements</a> — does not yield risk assessments that are as accurate as when people use structured and validated tools. </p>
<p>A structured risk tool ensures that we avoid making decisions based on personal subjectivity and inaccurate beliefs. </p>
<p>In the end, a structured and valid tool would help ensure that fair and consistent decisions are made. This ultimately protects the rights of those involved and helps keep the whole campus community safe.</p>
<h2>Tailored to post-secondary communities</h2>
<p>Some may wonder: Why reinvent the wheel when the justice system already uses risk tools to make decisions about criminal offenders? </p>
<p>However, these tools were developed for use with justice-involved adults, tend to focus on antisocial behaviours and attitudes, and assess specific risks for partner abuse, sexual violence or general violence. </p>
<p>Research suggests that young adults studying in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29562-4">post-secondary communities</a> are less likely to have antisocial traits (such as having serious criminal records, illicit drug dependency or poor employment records). This said, it is true that sexual or gender-based violence on campus may be perpetrated by anyone, not necessarily by students, and also that university affiliation does not guarantee pro-social or non-violent behaviour.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen at a rally in support of survivors of sexual assault." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512768/original/file-20230228-5972-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512768/original/file-20230228-5972-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512768/original/file-20230228-5972-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512768/original/file-20230228-5972-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512768/original/file-20230228-5972-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512768/original/file-20230228-5972-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512768/original/file-20230228-5972-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Campus sexual and gender-based violence includes a broad spectrum of harmful behaviours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also, campus sexual and gender-based violence includes a broad spectrum of harmful behaviours that can’t be easily pigeon-holed into sexual violence or partner assault. </p>
<p>These behaviours can include coercively controlling, sexually harassing or trolling or abusing people online in ways that do not necessarily involve physical contact but can cause tremendous distress to victims.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/post-secondary-workplace-harassment-policies-need-to-adapt-to-digital-life-161325">Post-secondary workplace harassment policies need to adapt to digital life</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Four factors</h2>
<p>This risk assessment tool will be freely available in fall 2023 and is intended to be used by all support providers on campus. It is not intended for use to purely predict future behaviour, but rather, to help campus administrators make determinations regarding risk management. </p>
<p>The tool helps administrators and sexual violence support staff consider four factors related to:</p>
<ul>
<li>the survivor/victim;</li>
<li>the post-secondary community;</li>
<li>the incident of sexual violence;</li>
<li>the respondent, or the person who has caused harm. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Safely planning with victims</h2>
<p>In addition to the tool’s use to assess the respondent’s risk to commit further sexual or gender-based violence, the tool may help administrators and post-secondary support staff to create a safety plan with the victim.</p>
<p>Also, identifying a respondent’s specific risk factors can help campus administrators target the respondent’s problematic areas that likely led to their harmful behaviours. Administrators and support staff can conduct an institutional risk audit that would help evaluate where increased allocation of resources would make the most sense in order to have a positive impact on campus safety.</p>
<p>To build safer campuses, we can start by using a community risk assessment to make difficult decisions about a person who has caused harm, and where to allocate resources to prevent future incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.</p>
<p><em>Ruchika Gothoskar, Research Assistant with Possibility Seeds, co-authored this story.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandy Jung receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She also provides consultation to Possibility Seeds.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jesmen Mendoza provides consultation to Possibility Seeds. </span></em></p>A national framework to address and prevent sexual and gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions includes a tool to guide responses to victims, alleged perpetrators and the community.Sandy Jung, Professor, Department of Psychology, MacEwan UniversityJesmen Mendoza, Psychologist and Faculty Member, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1715842022-06-13T12:30:38Z2022-06-13T12:30:38ZAlcohol is becoming more common in sexual assault among college students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465349/original/file-20220525-14-wl5sd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nine out of 10 college men who admitted to sexual assault say they took advantage of victims who were intoxicated.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girls-drinking-at-house-party-royalty-free-image/697566394?adppopup=true">shironosov via iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>One out of every three. That is the number of women in college who say they have been a victim of sexual assault either when they were in high school or college. That’s according to my new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211050103">peer-reviewed research</a> in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, which is based on survey data from 2015.</p>
<p>That figure is significantly higher than it was in the mid-1980s when I conducted the first such national <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/i-never-called-it-rape-ms-report-recognizing-fighting-and-surviving">survey of college students</a> at 32 institutions. Back then, the number was one out of every four. </p>
<p>Of these incidents, 75% involved victims who admitted they were incapacitated by alcohol at the time of the assault. In the mid-1980s, that number stood at 50%. </p>
<p>For the study, sexual assault was defined consistently with the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/updated-definition-rape">federal definition of rape</a>. That definition goes beyond forcible rape. It includes oral, anal or vaginal penetration when the victim is too intoxicated to consent. </p>
<p>Among college men, one in 19 admitted during the first survey to having committed sexual assault while in high school or college. That number has increased to one one of every eight.</p>
<p>One thing that hasn’t changed is that the vast majority of college men who responded to the survey and admitted to committing sexual assault, say they perpetrated the sexual assault while their victims were incapacitated by alcohol. Then and now, that figure has stood at approximately nine out every 10 college men who admitted to sexual assault. That means the <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/219181.pdf">most common scenario</a> for sexual assault of women in college involves men who take advantage of women when they are incapacitated. </p>
<p>For the first survey, conducted in 1985, 6,159 students responded to the questions. For the second survey, which I conducted in 2015 and have been analyzing over the past several years, 2,471 students responded. Both surveys got response rates of more than 90%.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>These findings matter because colleges have been trying to implement programs and strategies to reduce irresponsible drinking and the role it plays in sexual assault. If the prevalence of rape is going up instead of down, it calls the effectiveness of these programs into question.</p>
<p>Prior research – including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838014557291">by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> in Atlanta – has already established that these approaches to alcohol abuse prevention and associated sexual harm <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2014.05.004">have been largely ineffective</a>. That is to say, they neither reduce problematic drinking nor dissuade perpetrators from taking advantage of victims when they are incapacitated.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Researchers have suggested a need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018789153">take a closer look</a> at trying a more comprehensive approach to preventing sexual violence. This includes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838014557291">modifying drinking environments</a>. </p>
<p>Changing the drinking environment could entail efforts to change or regulate practices at the bars and liquor stores on or near college campuses, such as “2-for-1” drink specials, beer in pitchers, “ladies nights” in which women pay less than men for alcohol or cover charges, and sponsored drinking games, such as beer pong or flip cup.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary P. Koss received funding from the U.S. Department of Justice to support this research.</span></em></p>An increasing number of college students say they were victims or perpetrators of sexual assault – and that victims were drunk when the assault took place. Are campus drinking environments to blame?Mary P. Koss, Regents' Professor of Public Health, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638202021-07-03T22:57:32Z2021-07-03T22:57:32ZWith support for Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad becomes just one of several deans to tweet themselves into trouble<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409536/original/file-20210702-23-unqsqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C4082%2C3028&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students at Howard University are already calling for Phylicia Rashad's resignation as dean. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/phylicia-rashad-attends-david-makes-man-clips-and-news-photo/1124931798?adppopup=true">David Becker/Getty Images for The Blackhouse Foundation</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For acclaimed actor Phylicia Rashad, July 1, 2021 was the <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/14391/howard-university-announces-legendary-actress-alumna-phylicia-rashad-dean">official first day</a> on the job as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. But some hoped it would also be her last.</p>
<p>The day before, Rashad had sent out a <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/howard-university-phylicia-rashads-cosby-tweet-lacked-sensitivity/">controversial Tweet</a> in support of her onetime “TV husband,” Bill Cosby, after a court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/arts/television/bill-cosby-conviction-overturned-why.html">overturned his sexual assault conviction</a>. “FINALLY!!!!” Rashad wrote in the Tweet. “A terrible wrong is being righted — a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” This prompted <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/phylicia-rashad-bill-cosby-howard-university/">critics</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9748435/Howard-Students-call-Bill-Cosbys-former-star-Phylicia-Rashad-FIRED-supporting-him.html">Howard students</a> to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/phylicia-rashad-faces-calls-step-down-dean-after-bill-cosby-support-1605961">call for her resignation</a>.</p>
<p>Here, George Justice, an English professor and author of “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/how-be-dean">How to Be a Dean</a>,” offers insights on the controversy surrounding Rashad.</p>
<h2>Does Phylicia Rashad have the credentials to be a dean?</h2>
<p>Phylicia Rashad does not have the typical credentials of an academic dean. Most deans have served anywhere from 10 to 30 years as full-time faculty members. They also tend to have served as chair of their department or as an associate dean first.</p>
<p>But Rashad has a wealth of relevant professional experience, which can be as important as academic credentials for a school of fine arts.</p>
<p>Perhaps best known for her role on “The Cosby Show” as Clair Huxtable, Rashad’s Huxtable character was once <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/may/09/on-the-tube-she-was-the-mother-of-all-mothers/">voted in a poll</a> as “<a href="https://www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20040504/News/605090029/WM">TV mom closest to your own mom in spirit</a>.” Rashad is also <a href="https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/phylicia-rashad">no stranger to college campuses</a>. She has <a href="https://www.drama.cmu.edu/2015/02/20/phylicia-rashad-teaches-master-classes-school-drama/">taught master classes</a> at colleges and universities <a href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phylicia-Rashad/">throughout the country</a>. She also served as the <a href="https://news.fordham.edu/inside-fordham/denzel-washington-endows-fordham-theatre-chair-scholarship/">first Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre at Fordham University</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/dean-of-fine-arts-college-of-fine-arts-at-howard-university-2243951620">job description</a> for her current role as dean calls for 15 years of progressively responsible experience in management as well as “political adeptness” and “good judgement.” It also calls for “excellent oral and communication skills,” the ability to “relate well to the college’s diverse constituencies,” and the “inclination to be a visible spokesperson for the college.”</p>
<p>It’s hard to square that with the controversy in which she finds herself enveloped as dean of Howard’s <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/14391/howard-university-announces-legendary-actress-alumna-phylicia-rashad-dean">recently re-established</a> College of Fine Arts. The college is to be <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/howard-university-names-fine-arts-college-after-chadwick-boseman-n1268666">named after Chadwick Boseman</a>, the late “Black Panther” star who is also an alumnus of the school. </p>
<h2>Does your book cover anything close to this controversy?</h2>
<p>My book opens with the famed <a href="https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/racial-climate-at-mu-a-timeline-of-incidents-in-fall-2015/article_0c96f986-84c6-11e5-a38f-2bd0aab0bf74.html">2015 campus protests at the University of Missouri</a>, where I taught from 2002-2013 and served as graduate dean from 2011-2013. In that instance, the deans <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-missouris-deans-plotted-to-get-rid-of-their-chancellor/">teamed up</a> to help oust the campus chancellor and university system president for what was seen as their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/09/the-incidents-that-led-to-the-university-of-missouri-presidents-resignation/">weak response to student protests</a> regarding racism on campus.</p>
<p>Since deans represent the academic aspirations – and integrity – of their faculty and students, they need to speak up on matters of grave importance to the colleges they oversee. Typically, when deans themselves create controversies, particularly those associated with race, gender, sexuality or religion, they resign or are fired.</p>
<p>For example, Sonya Duhe, the newly appointed journalism dean at my home institution – Arizona State University – was fired shortly after she accepted the position in 2020. Her undoing came after she <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/new-asu-journalism-school-dean-under-fire-over-alleged-racist-incidents">Tweeted support for “the good police officers who keep us safe”</a> on “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/arts/music/what-blackout-tuesday.html">#BlackOutTuesday</a>” – a day of protest on June 2, 2020 that followed the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57618356">police murder of George Floyd</a>. The Tweet prompted scrutiny that led to revelations that she had been accused of <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/new-asu-journalism-school-dean-under-fire-over-alleged-racist-incidents">demeaning students of color</a> at her previous institution. Specifically, it was alleged that she would tell them their hair was too curly or their complexion was too dark for them to be “camera ready.” Duhe is reportedly <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/former-director-of-loyola-universitys-communication-program-sues-school-paper-university/36468746">suing Loyola and its campus newspaper</a> for publishing a series of articles that portrayed her as racist.</p>
<p>In 2007, the University of California-Irvine withdrew an offer to have Erwin Chemerinsky serve as law dean. Chemerinsky wrote that the offer was rescinded after then-university chancellor Michael Drake told him he was “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/news/la-oe-chemerinsky14sep14-story.html">too politically controversial</a>” for an op-ed he wrote <a href="https://www.latimes.com/la-oe-chemerinsky16aug16-story.html">criticizing a federal regulation for death row inmates</a>.</p>
<p>And Ronald Sullivan, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/ronald-sullivan-was-fired-harvard-does-it-matter/589471/">first black faculty dean to preside over a dorm at Harvard</a>, was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/ronald-sullivan-was-fired-harvard-does-it-matter/589471/">fired as dean</a> over his work as a lawyer on behalf of disgraced filmmaker Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein is currently serving <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51840532">23 years in prison</a> for rape and sexual assault. Sullivan retains his position as a <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10870/Sullivan">tenured faculty member</a> in the Harvard Law School.</p>
<h2>Are there any other comparable cases?</h2>
<p>Two recent cases that made national news are those of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/05/18/yale-dean-placed-on-leave-after-writing-about-white-trash-and-other-insulting-comments/">Dean June Chu at Yale</a>, who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/yale-dean-yelp-white-trash.html">suspended and never resumed her position</a> over writing Yelp reviews that suggested “white trash” would particularly like a certain restaurant. Dean Leslie Neal-Boylan of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell was fired, allegedly for an email <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2020/07/02/university-of-massachusetts-nursing-dean-fired-for-saying-everyones-life-matters/">stating “everyone’s life matters”</a> – a variation of a slogan meant as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-so-offensive-to-say-all-lives-matter-153188">critique of the Black Lives Matter mantra</a> – in the wake of the George Floyd murder.</p>
<h2>Do deans have to play by a different set of social media rules?</h2>
<p>Absolutely. Howard released a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQxLAM-oBBh/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3ebcb06f-09a0-422e-9dc1-f0edf93d5070">statement</a> after Rashad’s supportive tweet of Cosby saying that “personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies.” In my experience, that is a highly unusual statement and indicates deference to Rashad that might not be shown to other high-level administrators by their employers. Research has shown that college presidents use social media <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/university-leaders-reach-out-through-social-media/">to bolster their institutions but are afraid of making mistakes</a>.</p>
<p>After backlash to her Tweet, Rashad sent out <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/howard-university-students-and-alumni-are-furious-with-phylicia-rashads-support-of-bill-cosby">another Tweet</a> that stated: “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth.” Rashad also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cosby-rashad-apology/2021/07/03/1181d1ec-dc0d-11eb-9bbb-37c30dcf9363_story.html">issued an apology on July 2 for her initial Cosby Tweet</a>, but it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cosby-rashad-apology/2021/07/03/1181d1ec-dc0d-11eb-9bbb-37c30dcf9363_story.html">has not been enough to assuage some of her critics</a>.</p>
<p>Most deans and other university administrators that I follow have bland social media accounts. Their postings are mostly filled with praise for their institutions and self-praise for the great job they do with students, faculty and the community.</p>
<h2>How does Title IX come into play here?</h2>
<p><a href="https://sites.ed.gov/titleix/">Title IX</a> of the Educational Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination in American higher education. This includes sexual harassment and assault. Most universities, <a href="https://www2.howard.edu/title-ix/officers">including Howard</a>, employ Title IX administrators who advise campus leadership and conduct investigations on campus. <a href="https://dailynorthwestern.com/2020/05/10/sports/new-title-ix-regulations-no-longer-require-mandatory-reporting-in-colleges/">Until 2020</a>, federal law required leaders to be “mandatory reporters” who must pass along any information about possible incidents of harassment. Howard’s policy includes deans in the category of “<a href="http://dev.www2.howard.edu/title-ix/home">responsible employees</a>,” who are “expected” to report incidents to the Title IX office. Many of these incidents at universities relate to sexual matters among faculty and students, often with complicated power dynamics. As a “responsible employee,” and as leader of the School of Fine Arts, Rashad practically and symbolically represents the university’s compliance with Title IX. To her critics, her support of Cosby calls into question her ability to carry out that role.</p>
<p>This is a particularly important issue at Howard, where in 2016 students protested against the university’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/22/howard-u-students-protest-saying-victims-of-sexual-assault-deserve-better-treatment/">perceived inaction over sexual assault on campus</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<h2>What factors will affect Rashad’s fate?</h2>
<p>As my book describes, her role as dean will involve hiring faculty, attracting students and working with the community. This includes raising funds to support the work of her school and the university at large. Prior to the Cosby controversy, Rashad may have been well-positioned to do these things based on her experiences and stature. But amid <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/phylicia-rashad-draws-critics-and-dismissal-calls-for-defending-bill-cosby/3136773/?amp">calls for her ouster</a>, it remains to be seen whether the strengths she brings to the position will outweigh this controversy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Justice is Principal in Dever Justice LLC, a higher education consulting firm.</span></em></p>A single Tweet the day before she took over as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University has led to calls for Phylicia Rashad’s ouster. A scholar on college deans weighs in on what’s next.George Justice, Professor of English, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1439552020-08-14T12:13:59Z2020-08-14T12:13:59ZTweets show what hinders reports of sexual assault and harassment on campus – and why the new federal Title IX rules may be a step back<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352764/original/file-20200813-18-8ovzty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C1%2C386%2C258&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Definition of harassment is now more narrow.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/blank-sexual-harassment-complaint-form-and-pen-royalty-free-image/182872951?adppopup=true">KLH49/GettyImages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The nurse at the clinic said, ‘he did not mean it.’ He drugged my drink. How could he not ‘mean it?’ My grades plummeted. I quit college. I lost my dignity. I lost me.”</p>
<p>That statement is just one among the thousands of tweets with the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23whyididntreport&src=hashtag_click">#WhyIDidntReport</a>. The hashtag <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/us/why-i-didnt-report-assault-stories.html">went viral</a> in 2018 after President Trump questioned why Christine Blasey Ford didn’t report the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/california-professor-writer-of-confidential-brett-kavanaugh-letter-speaks-out-about-her-allegation-of-sexual-assault/2018/09/16/46982194-b846-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html">sexual assault</a> she alleged against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.</p>
<p>I analyzed these tweets for a research project about obstacles that sexual assault survivors face when reporting what happened. Those obstacles include skeptical outsiders, an intimidating legal system and the trauma of having to talk about the abuse again with investigators.</p>
<p>New <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-the-new-title-ix-regulations-will-affect-sexual-assault-cases-on-campus-138091">Title IX guidelines</a> that govern how sexual assault and harassment allegations are handled on college campuses take effect Aug. 14. Title IX is a <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html">civil rights law</a> that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that rely on federal financial assistance.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&user=9ukXZMoAAAAJ&gmla=AJsN-F50oT429VUdCcS0eMc7yarUjVli8igzuyxRC7ylm7ACsWVTXIGuvxJFcCZjAVTddbL0RYbZ66QgGh9b1Wk-mArWN25_YMkauzME--bw66CATrJ_-8QfaTcP3zW0onZodZjv_rND">domestic violence scholar</a> who has studied how <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-lies-and-conflict/201901/how-denial-and-victim-blaming-keep-sexual-assault-hidden">victims are often blamed</a> for their abuse, become confused about it and become <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-lies-and-conflict/202001/8-reasons-women-stay-in-abusive-relationships">hesitant to report</a> assault for fear of making things worse, I believe these new guidelines will make <a href="https://time.com/5836774/trump-new-title-ix-rules/">reporting more difficult</a> by increasing the burden for victims and narrowing what counts as assault.</p>
<h2>Scope of the problem</h2>
<p>Sexual assault is <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence#:%7E:text=Among%20undergraduate%20students%2C%2023.1%25%20of,force%2C%20violence%2C%20or%20incapacitation.&text=4.2%25%20of%20students%20have%20experienced%20stalking%20since%20entering%20college.">one of the most prevalent crimes</a> on college campuses. As many as <a href="https://www.aau.edu/sites/default/files/%40%20Files/Climate%20Survey/AAU_Campus_Climate_Survey_12_14_15.pdf">1 in 5</a> college women and 1 in 20 men report being victimized by attempted or perpetrated assault during their time on campus. The combination of binge drinking, immaturity and loose legal guidelines for on-campus assault create a dangerous culture where abuse can fester.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/07/02/sexual-assault-title-ix-due-process-betsy-devos-column/3281103001/">false accusations of assault</a> exist and can be damaging, they are rare – consisting of only <a href="https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/Publications_NSVRC_Overview_False-Reporting.pdf">2%-5% of claims</a>.</p>
<p>Universities have a <a href="https://time.com/100542/the-sexual-assault-crisis-on-american-campuses/">troubled track record</a> when it comes to recognizing and addressing sexual assaults. Since only around <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system">20%-30% of assaults</a> among college-aged women are reported to the police, the vast majority of abuse incidents <a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/false-rape-accusations.html">stay hidden</a>. </p>
<p>The new Education Department changes are intended to protect students from false claims by requiring due process for the accused. Unfortunately, as a part of the government’s effort to
“<a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-takes-historic-action-strengthen-title-ix-protections-all-students">restore due process</a>” in campus proceedings for sexual assault and harassment, I believe the new requirements go too far in burdening alleged victims.</p>
<h2>Gray areas</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.independent.com/2020/07/20/a-look-inside-the-new-title-ix/">new changes</a> are complex and listed in a <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/titleix-regs-unofficial.pdf">2,033-page document</a> that may be hard for universities to implement consistently, or for a student to understand or challenge. For example, a new stipulation is that for a report to be investigated by the university, it must have happened on campus or as a part of an “educational program or activity.”</p>
<p>There is a lot of gray area in what this means, which creates potential hurdles for survivors.</p>
<p>On August 14, the same day the new changes took effect, the Department of Education announced a <a href="https://sites.ed.gov/titleix/?utm_content&utm_medium=email&utm_name&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term">new website</a> billed as a “one-stop resource” for information about the new changes.</p>
<p>Further, the investigative process now requires any complaint of misconduct to be brought before a <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-the-new-title-ix-regulations-will-affect-sexual-assault-cases-on-campus-138091">live hearing</a>. This involves cross-examination, including by attorneys. For those already shaken and traumatized, recounting an assault in front of a panel that may include the presence of their perpetrator, is daunting.</p>
<p>Currently a student makes a report that is confidentially handled through a victim advocate in the Title IX office, which investigates the account without the pressure of this kind of direct encounter of alleged victim and perpetrator.</p>
<p>The new guidelines narrow the definition of harassment. This means less severe forms of sexual misconduct – the ones that don’t include overt violent sexual assault – are more likely to be dismissed. The old definition of misconduct or harassment is “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.”</p>
<p>The new guidelines change this wording, so that only “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity” qualifies for investigation.</p>
<p>For someone who has experienced or is still being subjected to sexual maltreatment, this is a much harder standard to prove.</p>
<h2>What hinders reporting</h2>
<p>When I analyzed tweets connected to the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23whyididntreport&src=hashtag_click">#WhyIDidntReport</a>, I found many where survivors of sexual assault described intimidating cultural norms.</p>
<p>For instance, one stated: “It happened so often … I thought it was normal behavior and that we had to take it.” Survivors also reported indifference from different agencies. One, for example, stated: “The officer rolled his eyes at me when I tried to file a report … asked if I’d been drinking, said it was probably a misunderstanding, and sent me off to go talk it out with the person who raped me.”</p>
<p>I grouped these obstacles into two main groups.</p>
<p>The first group included external factors, such as cultural influences and legal entanglements. The second group referred to internal factors, including powerlessness, fear, self-blame and shame.</p>
<h2>External barriers</h2>
<p>Survivors who wanted to report assault bumped up against powerful cultural hierarchies and gender norms.</p>
<p>As one female student recounted: “I was a student leader of a group he advised. He used his position to force me to come to his office daily, doors closed, for hours where he made sexual jokes and forced me into long, full-body hugs. I naively obeyed him – he was in authority … My girlfriends … met with the Dean … and reported his behavior. I was then summoned to the Dean’s office and told I would be expelled for NOT reporting him… Men protect men.”</p>
<p>Others also mentioned being cowed by those in authority, keeping silent, as one person mentioned, “because he was the only Professor between me and my degree.”</p>
<p>Some attempted to report, only to get ignored by law enforcement workers. “I walked to the police station after I gained consciousness,” one rape survivor said, “cold and wet from laying in a field for who knows how long, the desk cop basically told me regret was not grounds to file a report for rape.”</p>
<h2>Internal barriers</h2>
<p>The experience of assault for those in my project was often so overwhelmingly negative that to risk further trauma by pursuing justice simply wasn’t viable. For example, many survivors tweeted that they felt powerless: “He was my professor. I reported it to a female teacher. Said no one would believe me. That (reporting) would ruin my life.”</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Others expressed fear, as shared by one survivor of rape: “At 21 my Christian college told me to get an abortion, my church kicked me out. I’m 29 and he’s still stalking me. He’s still free while I live in a prison of fear.”</p>
<p>Other internal reactions included self-blame: “I was drunk … I wondered if it was my fault … I wondered what my college friends would think of me.”</p>
<p>And shame: “He was a friend at a date party … Our friends blamed me. I flew home from college. 18 yrs later I’m still ashamed.”</p>
<p>As these tweets show, reporting sexual assault and harassment is already hard enough. When survivors speak up, it is important for individuals and universities to listen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Whiting does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An analysis of thousands of tweets show the obstacles that hinder people from reporting sexual assault and harassment on campus.Jason Whiting, Professor of Family Therapy, Brigham Young UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1334472020-03-18T12:05:12Z2020-03-18T12:05:12ZStudents less likely to report sexual harassment when the perpetrator is a professor<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320904/original/file-20200316-27638-1a6uqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some victims say their reports drew retaliation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-hold-handkerchief-and-filling-sexual-royalty-free-image/671065332?adppopup=true">pic_studio/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2017, Karen Kelsky, a <a href="http://theprofessorisin.com/about-the-professor-2/">consultant</a> for people looking for academic jobs, launched a <a href="https://theprofessorisin.com/2017/12/01/a-crowdsourced-survey-of-sexual-harassment-in-the-academy/">survey</a> to capture people’s experiences of sexual harassment at colleges and universities. I took interest in this survey because it was <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/12/08/what-can-crowdsourced-survey-sexual-harassment-academia-tell-us-about-problem">widely reported</a> and sparked a lot of interest how sexual assault was affecting women on campus.</p>
<p>The crowdsourced survey – which began shortly after the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/arts/tarana-burke-metoo-anniversary.html">#MeToo hashtag went viral</a> – drew more than 2,000 responses from people from throughout the United States and other places around the world. The respondents included people who indicated that they had been sexually harassed as undergraduates, graduate students or as faculty. </p>
<p>Even though the survey is based on self-selected respondents who chose to report on things that may have happened years ago, I still believe the survey approximates the occurrence of sexual harassment on campus.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://rossier.usc.edu/faculty-and-research/directories/a-z/profile/?id=221">educational psychologist</a> who focuses on how <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2017.1401498">digital technologies</a> can be used to <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-017-0226-9">promote equity</a> and educational achievement, I wanted to know more. So I contacted Kelsky to ask if I could take a deeper look into the data. She agreed.</p>
<p>I began to systematically examine the data from Kelsky’s survey along with my Ph.D. student, <a href="https://rossier.usc.edu/faculty-and-research/phd-directories/phd-a-z/phd-profile/?id=105">Clare Baek</a>. Our study, published in March in <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230312">PLOS ONE</a>, found that students were 1.6 times more likely to not report their experiences when compared to faculty. We also found that students in the life and physical sciences – that is, subjects like biology and physics – were 1.7 times more likely to not report their experiences when compared to students in other disciplines. </p>
<p>Men represented 90% of the reported perpetrators of sexual harassment, according to this self-reported survey.</p>
<p>Respondents were asked if there were “institutional responses to the harassment.” After coding the data, we came up with six categories. On average, 34.3% of all respondents wrote that no action was taken, after they disclosed it, 36.9% did not report the incident, 9.3% reported that some action was taken by the institution, 6.6% reported that the action taken was unclear, 8% reported some sort of retaliation, and 5% did not fall into the above categories.</p>
<p>The decision to report or not report varied across disciplines, with roughly 50% of respondents in the physical sciences and engineering choosing to not report the incident. In contrast, only 18% of staff chose to not report the incident. Members of professional schools, humanities departments and social science departments were in the middle – 25% chose to not report the incident. </p>
<h2>Keeping quiet</h2>
<p>Kelsky’s survey also asked respondents about what happened and when, and what kind of impact the harassment had on their career, mental health and life choices.</p>
<p>We were interested in studying the emotional content of responses to those questions, so we analyzed responses with “natural language processing,” a data science technique that, <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/2898607.2898768">among other things</a>, shows the extent of positive, negative or neutral <a href="https://doi.org/10.2200/S00416ED1V01Y201204HLT016">sentiment</a> within a response.</p>
<p>Respondents were asked to state what type of institution they were at, such as an elite or Ivy League school, or a small liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Our analysis found that when it came to mental health, the sentiment was more negative for student respondents to the survey, compared to faculty and staff respondents. Responses from students in the social sciences, who attended elite or Ivy League schools, were more negative than students who attended other types of schools, no matter what they were studying. </p>
<h2>Consequences of telling</h2>
<p>Our findings suggest that power matters when it comes to choosing not to report an incident. If the perpetrator was a faculty member, for example, respondents were 1.5 times more likely to not report the sexual harassment than when the perpetrator was not faculty. This shows why it is important for schools to examine how they go about taking reports of sexual harassment. It also shows the need for schools to establish clear policies and procedures on how to make a report of sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Among other things, schools should be taking a close look at whether there is something about the reporting process that is making students less likely to report. Are whistleblowers who come forth protected against retaliation? And, are there enough services in place, such as counseling, to help alleged victims after a report has been made?</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Aguilar has received funding from the American Educational Research Association, 2U Inc., and the USC Rossier Herman & Rasiej K-5 Mathematics Initiative. Stephen Aguilar is affiliated with AERA, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Learning Analytics Research, and International Society of the Learning Sciences. He also serves on the E+K Program's Equity Research Advisory Board.
</span></em></p>A researcher takes a closer look at an online compilation of sexual harassment reports on campus.Stephen Aguilar, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1167152019-05-13T10:41:21Z2019-05-13T10:41:21ZWorried about sexual harassment – or false allegations? Our team asked Americans about their experiences and beliefs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273335/original/file-20190508-183089-qnu2eb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a survey, 81% of women and 43% of men said that they had experienced sexual harassment or assault at least once.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/metoo-new-movement-736146328?src=j_id6a7UrN2b__UmvEa71g-1-2">Mihai Surdu/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the launch of #MeToo, there’s been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/23/us/metoo-replacements.html">a lot of attention</a> on problems of sexual harassment and assault in the U.S. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, this has not amounted to much progress in terms of reductions in sexual harassment and assault or improvements in conviction rates. This is in part due to the social and political dissension regarding <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/01/trump-jr-says-wave-sexual-assault-accusations-make-him-worry-sons-more-than-daughters/">the veracity of accusations</a> and what constitutes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/us/politics/betsy-devos-sexual-assault-title-ix.html">fairness of due process when cases arise</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/our-work/nationalstudy/2019study/">Our new study</a>, published April 30 by nonprofit Stop Street Harassment, in partnership with our team at UC San Diego’s Center on Gender Equity and Health, as well as others, looks closely at the scope of these issues in our country. </p>
<p>The headline figure is that, as has long been known, sexual harassment affects most women and many men. </p>
<p>However, our study dug deeper, providing insight into three questions that are central to today’s media coverage of #MeToo.</p>
<h2>1. Have the rates of sexual harassment and assault changed with the #MeToo movement?</h2>
<p>In the nationally representative sample of the approximately 2,000 Americans whom we surveyed in early 2019, 81% of women and 43% of men said that they had experienced sexual harassment or assault at least once in their lives.</p>
<p>Eighteen percent of women and 16% of men reported recent sexual harassment or assault in the last six months, which is <a href="http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Full-Report-2018-National-Study-on-Sexual-Harassment-and-Assault.pdf">not a significant change from 2018</a>. </p>
<p>The overall prevalence of sexual harassment or assault throughout one’s lifetime also showed no change.</p>
<p>These findings suggest that <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2018-12-21/35-metoo-sparked-surge-in-awareness-about-sexual-harassment-study">improved awareness of #MeToo</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/world/europe/metoo-backlash-gender-equality-davos-men.html">potential backlash against it</a> have not altered the incidence or reported prevalence of these abuses.</p>
<p>However, while these data indicate no change in survey reports, U.S. crime data indicate that more people are <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6466">reporting sexual harassment and assault to the police</a>, possibly due to greater comfort engaging the criminal justice system thanks to #MeToo. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, high rates of sexual harassment and assault, particularly for women, continue to be a norm in the U.S.</p>
<h2>2. How safe from sexual harassment are students and workers?</h2>
<p>Our study suggests that most sexual harassment occurs on the street or in other public venue.</p>
<p>However, 38% of women and about 15% of men have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace and at school.</p>
<p><iframe id="FWbhJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FWbhJ/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Harassment in high school was particularly common, reported by 27% of women and 11% of men. Smaller but significant groups said they had experienced harassment at their middle school and college campuses.</p>
<p>This suggests that, despite concerns about sexual harassment in U.S. schools and workplaces, long-standing federal policies from <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/sexhar00.html">the Department of Education</a> and the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/sexual_harassment_guidance.cfm">Equal Employment Opportunity Commission</a> against these abuses are not effectively preventing perpetrators from acting anyway, typically with impunity.</p>
<h2>3. How safe are boys and men from false allegations of sexual harassment and assault?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/10/20/measuring-the-metoo-backlash">False allegations</a> of sexual harassment and assault against high-profile individuals are a growing public concern. Some have expressed worry that there is great risk for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/01/trump-jr-says-wave-sexual-assault-accusations-make-him-worry-sons-more-than-daughters/?utm_term=.944e58c5a5e1">unfair and unfounded accusations against men and boys</a>.</p>
<p>These fears were raised by some, for example, in national discussions of the allegations against <a href="https://www.vox.com/a/sexual-harassment-assault-allegations-list/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a> and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.</p>
<p>While our data reveal that most people believe survivors to varying degrees, one in 20 women and one in 12 men felt that most or all of the allegations in recent high-profile cases were “false and that accusers are purposefully lying for attention or money.” </p>
<p><iframe id="hDB3F" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/hDB3F/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>While one-third of respondents reported ever perpetrating sexual harassment or assault, only 2% of men and 1% of women said they had ever been accused of these abuses. That shows that, while ongoing public perceptions of false accusations as a major risk persist, any accusation, including false accusations, is in fact very rare.</p>
<h2>What does this all mean?</h2>
<p>Sexual harassment and assault is a persistent issue in the U.S. Our study underscores that it’s particularly common for American children, disproportionately girls. Furthermore, many are also enduring this harassment in the workplace.</p>
<p>When these abuses occur, most bear them in silence, without accusations against those at fault. How do I know this? Well, this is the part where I cannot tell you based on our research, but because I did not tell anyone when I was sexually harassed in school and early in my career: #MeToo.</p>
<p>We say nothing because it is not worth the burden – of tackling institutional accountability when there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/nearly-all-sexual-harassment-at-work-goes-unreported-and-those-who-do-report-often-see-zero-benefit-108378">little likelihood of repercussions</a> for those who victimize us; of trying to justify or prove ourselves in environments where people continue to <a href="https://qz.com/1404845/indelible-in-the-hippocampus-christine-blasey-ford-schooled-the-senate-on-the-neurochemistry-of-ptsd/">believe that false accusations and confused memories are common</a>; of taking the time to process what happened rather than just focusing on moving forward, and avoiding those trying to harm or impede us.</p>
<p>I believe that the U.S. does too little to educate the public regarding the nature and scale of problem, or the fact that men are far more likely to be victims of these abuses rather than of false allegations related to their perpetration. </p>
<p>My team’s hope with this work is to give light to the risk and harms of sexual harassment and assault as a social epidemic in our country. Given how rare it is for those affected to seek help, the U.S. needs to prioritize its prevention for the benefit of all, regardless of gender.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anita Raj receives funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, UNICEF and the California Coalition against Sexual Assault (CALCASA). </span></em></p>Since #MeToo, the number of women and men who say that they’ve been sexually assaulted or harassed in recent months has not changed much.Anita Raj, Professor of Society and Health, Medicine, and Education Studies, and Founding Director of the Center on Gender Equity and Health, University of California, San DiegoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1148922019-04-17T10:56:18Z2019-04-17T10:56:18ZShould you apply to a college that has had a recent scandal?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268876/original/file-20190411-44776-1tcdbrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most of the nation's top schools experience a major scandal that causes applications to fall, new research shows.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/princeton-nj-10-march-2016-university-394834045">EQRoy from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When a scandal lands a college at the center of media attention, students and families are often repulsed – quite literally.</p>
<p>That’s what we discovered when we <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/coep.12427">examined admissions data</a> at dozens of schools where scandals took place over roughly a decade.</p>
<p>For instance, we found that in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/us/penn-state-scandal-fast-facts/index.html">child sex abuse scandal</a> at Penn State, applications dropped by 10%, or about 5,000 applicants, from 47,552 to 42,570.</p>
<p>At Dartmouth, applications fell by 3% in 2013 and 14% in 2014 after
Rolling Stone published an <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/confessions-of-an-ivy-league-frat-boy-inside-dartmouths-hazing-abuses-238604/">exposé</a> about the school’s fraternity hazing culture.</p>
<p>And back in 2006, Duke saw its applications drop by 2% after the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=3028515&page=1">Lacrosse rape case</a>.</p>
<p>The dips in applications tend to last about a year or two and then things go back to normal.</p>
<p>We are both economists with an interest in how students choose colleges and the consequences of those decisions.</p>
<p>While we found that applications temporarily drop at colleges that draw negative publicity, there may be some good reasons to apply to a school where a scandal recently took place.</p>
<h2>The silver lining</h2>
<p>First, our research found that around 75% of the U.S. News and World Report Top 100 Universities had a scandal reported by the media from 2001-2013. Simply put, scandals are common across selective college campuses. This suggest that having a scandal doesn’t imply that a school is worse than another school without a scandal - or that a school without a scandal won’t have a scandal in the future.</p>
<p>Second, we found that schools that have a scandal are less likely to have one in the following years than schools that didn’t have a scandal. We don’t believe our findings can be fully explained by the old saying that “lightning never strikes twice.” Rather, we think it is because colleges’ responses in the wake of a scandal – from shutting down fraternities after hazings to boosting campus police to changing administrators – make them less prone to a scandal (and hopefully safer). </p>
<p>Third, we find that fewer students apply to a school after a scandal, likely since scandals temporarily cause a hit to the college’s reputation. The decreased application volume may make it slightly easier to get into the school. </p>
<h2>The aftermath of a scandal</h2>
<p>To conduct our study, we searched for highly visible scandals in national newspapers such as The New York Times and magazines that publish long-form articles such as Rolling Stone. Just to be sure we caught the big scandals, we used a commercially available news archives site and found the same results. We placed scandals in four categories: sexual assaults, homicides, hazings and academic cheating scandals.</p>
<p>Examining the top 100 schools in the U.S. News and World Report National University Rankings from 2001-2013, we found that roughly 75% of schools in our dataset experienced a scandal that attracted media coverage. The scandals that became highly publicized witnessed a roughly 10% average decrease in the following year’s entering freshman applications.</p>
<p>We didn’t find that scandals had any impact on incoming students’ SAT scores or school yield – that is, the number of admitted students who actually go to the school. We also didn’t find any impact on alumni donations.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that not all college scandals are the same. While we didn’t find any differences by scandal category, <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w24852">a recent study</a> has shown that Title IX investigations at less selective schools lead to an increase in applications, likely due to the adage “all press is good press” for these less prominent schools. This nuance is important for predicting the impacts of scandals, like the ongoing bribery scandal uncovered by the Department of Justice’s Operation Varsity Blues. Applications to schools with scandals could rise or fall based on the school’s selectivity and how much attention the scandal gets in the media.</p>
<p>So why do students and families tend to avoid highly selective schools that have recently experienced scandals?</p>
<h2>Rational behavior</h2>
<p>These scandals might provoke emotional reactions that overtake other factors that students and families consider.</p>
<p>Research has shown that applicants tend to rely on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716301248">simple metrics and pathways in their decision-making processes</a>. In the absence of such an event, applicants might be more likely to accurately weigh the many pieces of information, such as a school’s academic strength or extracurricular offerings, in the complex calculus of choosing a college.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When scandals take place at a college, the natural reaction for some people is to avoid the school. But two economists suggest potential applicants think hard about their decision.Jonathan Smith, Assistant Professor of Economics, Georgia State UniversityPatrick Rooney, PhD Candidate, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1122252019-03-05T19:07:11Z2019-03-05T19:07:11ZStudents don’t feel safe on public transport but many have no choice but to use it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262024/original/file-20190305-92301-2d5obn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly half of female tertiary students surveyed in Melbourne say they 'rarely' or 'never' feel safe on public transport after dark.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-alone-passageaway-671868">KN/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The worst-case scenario has happened twice for young women using public transport in Melbourne in the past nine months. In June 2018, <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/aussie-womens-fury-after-eurydice-dixons-vile-murder/news-story/41d6923708312ae8a5d3d5f2ee788b65">Eurydice Dixon</a>, 23, was walking from the tram to her home, through a well-used park just north of the central city, when a young man is alleged to have stalked, raped and murdered her. In January 2019, another young man is alleged to have raped and murdered 21-year-old Palestinian exchange student <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-19/man-charged-over-aiia-maasarwe-death/10728836">Aiia Maasarwe</a> 100 metres from the tram she took home from central Melbourne.</p>
<p>Even before these attacks, students reported feeling unsafe when using public transport. In April to June 2018, we undertook a <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/research/projects/current/public-transport-safety-for-tertiary-students">survey</a>, as part of <a href="https://www.kth.se/abe/om-skolan/inst/som/avdelningar/urbana-studier/forskning/urban-community-sa/trygghet-i-kollektiv">a 17-city global study</a> of tertiary students’ safety on public transport. We received over 500 completed surveys. </p>
<h2>What did our survey find?</h2>
<p>A large proportion of female students report a climate of fear on public transport. Just under half (45.1%) said they “rarely” or “never” feel safe on public transport after dark, compared to 11.3% of men. </p>
<p>Almost three in five women (58.9%) say they try to reduce their risk of victimisation in various ways. These include avoiding certain lines and stops, ensuring they are met at a stop and being constantly on alert. Just under half (45.4%) of female students report fear of victimisation as a reason for not using public transport.</p>
<p>This was not just a matter of perceptions. Almost four-fifths (79.4%) of female students and an equivalent proportion of LGBTI+ students said they had been victims of unwanted sexual gestures, comments, advances, exposed genitals, groping or being followed on public transport in the previous three years. </p>
<p>Over half (51.7%) of men reported having been victimised. These incidents were more likely to be gestures and comments rather than groping or being stalked.</p>
<p>Only 5.7% of those who had been victimised reported this to anyone in authority. This is hardly surprising. The public safety messages from police, transport authorities and tertiary educational institutions do not encourage the reporting of incidents. Instead, they emphasise the responsibility of potential victims to protect themselves.</p>
<p>The immediate response of police to the killing of Eurydice Dixon was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/15/men-need-to-change-anger-grows-over-police-response-to-comedians">this statement</a>: “Make sure you have situational awareness. Be aware of your own personal safety. If you’ve got a mobile phone, carry it; if you’ve got any concerns, call the police.”</p>
<p>But both Eurydice Dixon and Aiia Maasarwe were allegedly carrying their phones and sending messages as to their whereabouts when attacked. </p>
<p>As Change.org executive director <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/aussie-womens-fury-after-eurydice-dixons-vile-murder/news-story/41d6923708312ae8a5d3d5f2ee788b65">Sally Rugg said</a>, these messages “suggest that the police can’t stop men from raping people, so it’s up to the women to take precautions, which is insulting to men, unhelpful and untrue”. </p>
<h2>Counting the cost of student safety concerns</h2>
<p>With 18 tertiary institutions located throughout Greater Melbourne, safe public transport access touches on issues of social justice, environmental sustainability and economic productivity. The situation in most tertiary institutions is one of car dependence. For instance, at the largest Deakin University campus, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259138426_Engaging_higher_education_institutions_in_the_challenge_of_sustainability_Sustainable_transport_as_a_catalyst_for_action">61% of students and staff drove alone to work in 2012</a>. </p>
<p>The outer suburbs fare worst – <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222754050_Quantifying_spatial_gaps_in_public_transport_supply_based_on_social_needs">50% of these areas have “very low” or “low” public transport frequency</a>. Yet these suburbs have very high needs for public transport in terms of the proportion of adults without cars, including many tertiary students – a concept called “transport disadvantage”. Students living in middle and outer Melbourne tend to be <a href="https://atrf.info/papers/2010/2010_Mahmoud_Currie.pdf">more dependent on public transport and more likely to travel in the evenings</a>, two risk factors for victimisation.</p>
<p>Tertiary students have a huge economic impact, through the revenue they generate for their institutions, their role in the workforce, the services they use and the purchases they make. The 2016 census recorded <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/australias-universities/key-facts-and-data#.XG3YbLhS82w">1.4 million</a> university students in Australia – 26% of them, or almost 400,000, international students. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262025/original/file-20190305-92301-1q0ov3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262025/original/file-20190305-92301-1q0ov3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262025/original/file-20190305-92301-1q0ov3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262025/original/file-20190305-92301-1q0ov3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262025/original/file-20190305-92301-1q0ov3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262025/original/file-20190305-92301-1q0ov3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262025/original/file-20190305-92301-1q0ov3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A national survey of university students found public transport is where sexual harassment is most common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-waiting-train-1043487601">Dennis Diatel/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/tertiary-student-education-profile.pdf">2016, the City of Melbourne</a> had 227,000 students living and/or studying within the municipality, with 45,000 students calling it home. A third are international fee-paying students, who <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/wave-of-studentonly-skyscrapers-to-hit-melbourne-20160202-gmjd00/">often live in high-priced apartments sold on the basis of safe and convenient access to campuses</a>.</p>
<p>The issues of safety are nationwide. In 2016, <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/change-course-national-report-sexual-assault-and-sexual">a study</a> involving 30,000 students in all 39 Australian universities underscored the high rates of assault and harassment of women and sexual minorities. Public transport was the most common location for sexual harassment – 22% of incidents, as opposed to 14% on university grounds and 13% in a university teaching space. And 57% of perpetrators of sexual harassment were identified as male students from their university.</p>
<h2>We need a better approach</h2>
<p>There are precedents for a better approach. In 2015, Transport for London, in partnership with police, launched its “<a href="http://www.btp.police.uk/about_us/our_campaigns/report_it_to_stop_it.aspx">Report it to Stop it</a>” campaign. </p>
<p>The campaign built on a series of videos encouraging women to come forward in reporting unwanted sexualised staring, remarks, groping and stalking on public transport. The videos also show the consequences of reporting, with a man being identified and arrested for sexual harassment. A reporting hotline can be called or texted 24 hours a day, every day. </p>
<p>In the first year of the campaign, <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/inside-tfl-campaign-tackle-unwanted-sexual-behaviour-public-transport/1450533">reports of harassment on public transport increased by 36%, with a 40% increase in criminal charges</a>. An evaluation after the first year found 84% of women respondents agreed the campaign “made me feel more confident to take action against unwanted sexual behaviour if it occurred”.</p>
<p>Our report recommends that the Victorian government work with police, public transport providers and tertiary institutions on a coordinated campaign to encourage better reporting of sexually related crimes on public transport. This would include:</p>
<ul>
<li>investing in a common hotline</li>
<li>creating publicity materials (including posters, videos, ad campaigns) to encourage reporting by both victims and witnesses</li>
<li>employing consistent messaging on all these organisations’ websites that put the onus for safety where it belongs: on offenders not to offend, and on institutions to respond properly to offences. This should include public education on consequences of offences.</li>
</ul>
<p>We also recommend that people who make reports be treated respectfully and their concerns treated seriously. All reports should be immediately followed up and all efforts made to arrest, charge and convict offenders. All public security and authorised officers, drivers and station attendants should be trained in how to respond to complaints and concerns.</p>
<p>Our third recommendation is that tertiary educational institutions have a role to play in cases where offenders as well as victims are students. Very clear messaging is needed on campus that offences on public transport as well as on campus are an institutional responsibility.</p>
<p>Our final recommendation is that state government recognise the impacts of infrequent, unreliable and inadequate transport services on the mobility and safety of people with lower incomes and less access to cars, including tertiary students. Authorities should consider partnering with ride-sharing services to make “the last kilometre” home from some public transport stops safer and more secure. Without a coordinated campaign to tackle the root causes of victimisation and fear, putting more CCTV, lighting and officers on trains is no longer enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Thompson is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellow (DE180101411)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn Whitzman and Rewa Marathe do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As they return to classes, a survey finds nearly half of female tertiary students in Melbourne don’t feel safe using public transport at night. And 79% have been sexually harassed or victimised.Carolyn Whitzman, Professor of Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneJason Thompson, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Design, The University of MelbourneRewa Marathe, Research Assistant and PhD Candidate, Melbourne School of Design, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1113432019-02-10T19:13:18Z2019-02-10T19:13:18ZUniversities have made progress on responding to sexual assault, but there’s more to be done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258042/original/file-20190209-174864-3f5e8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The majority of Australian universities have implemented or beefed up existing policies to respond to sexual assault and harassment since 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Four years ago, <a href="http://thehuntinggroundfilm.com/">the Hunting Ground documentary</a> explored the failure of university administrations to adequately respond to sexual assault on college campuses in the United States. Universities in Australia and elsewhere also came under the spotlight. Reports from <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/the-shocking-way-sexual-violence-is-handled-at-australian-universities/news-story/fdb2f5d827ee8f6f4c124af11847aa25">advocacy groups and journalists</a> detailed the shocking rates of sexual violence in Australian university settings and poor university responses to them. </p>
<p>With funding from the <a href="https://www.thehuntinggroundaustralia.com.au/">Hunting Ground Australia project</a>, the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/">Australian Human Rights Commission</a> (AHRC) conducted a national survey on the prevalence and nature of sexual assault and sexual harassment at Australian universities. Almost 31,000 students participated. The landmark AHRC report, <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/change-course-national-report-sexual-assault-and-sexual">Change the Course</a>, was released in August 2017. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Cw787OnzNw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The report highlighted high rates of sexual violence against university students in Australia, massive under-reporting, and a lack of adequate university policies and practices to address the problem. The message was clear: universities need to do more. </p>
<p>Australian universities have a unique opportunity to show leadership to the rest of the community on sexual assault and sexual harassment. But how much progress have Australian universities made since the release of the AHRC’s report in August 2017? </p>
<h2>A widespread problem</h2>
<p>Sexual violence and sexual harassment are not unique to university settings. These behaviours are also widely reported in other institutions such as the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-08/hundreds-of-adf-personnel-named-in-sexual-abuse-offences/5727788">military</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-20/boy-raped-on-nauru-asylum-seeker-lawyers-claim/10632882">detention centres</a>, <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/spike-in-january-sexual-harassment-claims-exposes-sleazy-workplace-habits/news-story/8adadcb93c57e324422a56066b1bb5dc">workplaces</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-sexual-harassment-in-schools-is-a-hateful-part-of-everyday-life-65452">schools</a>, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/groped-propositioned-ogled-life-as-a-female-barrister-in-victoria-20190205-p50vv1.html">the legal profession</a>, <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2016/10/15/sexual-harassment-politics/14764500003857">politics</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-09/one-fifth-of-surgeons-yet-to-complete-online-harassment-training/9314650">the medical profession</a>, <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/media/2016/12/10/sexual-harassment-the-media/14812884004070">the media</a>, <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/">religious institutions</a> and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-22/australian-theatre-responds-to-metoo-sexual-harassment-bullying/10619362">entertainment industry</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hazing-and-sexual-violence-in-australian-universities-we-need-to-address-mens-cultures-92685">Hazing and sexual violence in Australian universities: we need to address men's cultures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The AHRC <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/change-course-national-report-sexual-assault-and-sexual">survey</a> found one in 15 university students (6.9%) reported having been sexually assaulted on at least one occasion in 2015 and 2016 (1.6% in a university setting). One in two students (51%) reported having been sexually harassed on at least one occasion in 2016 (26% in a university setting). </p>
<p>As described in the <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5762fc04f5e231826f09afae/t/5a95cf99e4966ba2c2a64ca5/1519767581881/The+Red+Zone+Report+2018">Red Zone report</a>, approximately 21,000 students have been sexually assaulted in a university setting in 2015 and 2016. Approximately 200 sexual assaults occur in a university setting each week, or around 30 sexual assaults per day.</p>
<p>We don’t yet know whether the efforts and actions to improve university responses have helped to reduce rates of sexual assault and sexual harassment. </p>
<p>There have been a number of investigations and reports following the release of the AHRC findings. These reports <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2018/02/apo-nid134766-1236446.pdf">suggest</a> sexual violence continues to be rife in Australian universities. The AHRC survey will be repeated every three years and the next survey will provide insight into how things have changed.</p>
<p>But survey results must be interpreted cautiously. Some participants may not label their experiences as “sexual assault” or “sexual harassment”. Also, surveys conducted in English might not adequately capture the <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/education/2019/02/02/risks-foreign-students-campus/15490260007384">experiences of international students</a> because of cultural and language barriers.</p>
<h2>Under-reporting</h2>
<p>The AHRC <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/change-course-national-report-sexual-assault-and-sexual">survey</a> found sexual assault and sexual harassment were rarely reported to universities. The survey found 87% of students who were sexually assaulted, and 94% of those who were sexually harassed, didn’t make a formal report or complaint to their university. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rape-sexual-assault-and-sexual-harassment-whats-the-difference-93411">Rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment: what’s the difference?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The study found domestic students were more likely than international students to report experiencing sexual assault and sexual harassment. But international students were almost two times less likely to seek support from someone in their faculty or school. </p>
<p>Overall, only 4% of students thought their university was doing enough to provide clear and accessible information on sexual assault procedures, policies and support services. </p>
<h2>How far have universities come?</h2>
<p>In February 2016, the <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/uni-participation-quality/students/Student-safety/Respect--Now--Always-#.XFz1t88zbxQ">Respect. Now. Always.</a> campaign was introduced by Australia’s 39 universities. The campaign sought to raise awareness of sexual assault and sexual harassment, make support services for students more visible and accessible, obtain data to guide further improvement in university policy and practice, and help universities share best practice resources.</p>
<p>As part of the campaign, Universities Australia also developed <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/ArticleDocuments/797/Companion%20Report%20Web%20version%203.pdf.aspx">a ten-point action plan</a>. This includes initiatives such as respectful relationships education and specialist training for university staff and counsellors.</p>
<p>In July 2018, Universities Australia introduced <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/uni-participation-quality/students/Student-safety/Guidelines-for-university-responses-to-sexual-assault-and-sexual-harassment#.XF0Bgc8zbxQ">a set of non-binding guidelines</a> for universities. These guidelines refer to recording data, timeframes for reporting, resolutions and criminal investigations – among other things. </p>
<p>The AHRC has conducted two audits of the actions taken by Australian universities in response to the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/change-course-national-report-sexual-assault-and-sexual">Change the Course</a> report. One in <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/audit-2017">December 2017</a>, and the other in <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/AHRC_Aug2018_Uni_Audit_snapshot.pdf">August 2018</a>. The audits are based on information submitted to the federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, by 39 vice chancellors about how their universities have responded to the nine recommendations of the AHRC report. </p>
<p>As of July 2018, the majority of universities have implemented the following measures, or are committed to doing so in the future:</p>
<ul>
<li>establish an advisory body or working group to develop an action plan</li>
<li>implement training and education for students in relation to sexual assault, sexual harassment and respectful relationships </li>
<li>take steps to increase the availability and visibility of support services</li>
<li>implement a review of existing university policies and response pathways</li>
<li>identify and train staff members and student representatives who are most likely to receive disclosures</li>
<li>implement practices to ensure information about disclosures and reports is collected and stored confidentially</li>
<li>express commitment to conduct the national survey on sexual assault and sexual harassment every three years.</li>
</ul>
<p>The 2017 and 2018 audits also provide examples of the practical measures put in place by some universities. They include providing students with access to specialist sexual assault and trauma counsellors on campus, independent evaluations or audits, anonymous reporting tools and education and awareness campaigns.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-sexual-assault-policies-are-often-inconsistent-and-confusing-73758">University sexual assault policies are often 'inconsistent' and 'confusing'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Responses showcasing how individual universities <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/audit-2018">have responded</a> to each of the AHRC’s nine recommendations can be found on the AHRC website. </p>
<p>In January this year, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/latest-news/publications/report-minister-education-higher-education-sector-response-issue-sexual">released their report</a> to the federal minister of education on higher education provider responses to sexual assault and harassment. Overall, TEQSA found the majority of universities have done the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>accepted the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/change-course-national-report-sexual-assault-and-sexual">Change the Course</a> recommendations and are responding to the issue of sexual assault and sexual harassment</li>
<li>established a sexual assault/sexual harassment taskforce</li>
<li>implemented or strengthened a policy on sexual assault and sexual harassment</li>
<li>conducted external or internal reviews of existing policies and response pathways</li>
<li>offered online and face-to-face training for university staff and support services</li>
<li>offered counselling services (some of whom collaborate with external rape/sexual assault support services)</li>
<li>reported incident data internally.</li>
</ul>
<p>Only some universities report their incident data publicly and/or have conducted reviews of their counselling services and student accommodation.</p>
<p>TEQSA also reported on the responses and actions of 126 independent and TAFE higher education providers. TESQA found independent and TAFE higher education providers have taken far less action. For instance, only 58% reported having a policy in relation to this issue. Only 13% had completed a review of sexual assault and harassment policy and practice.</p>
<h2>Preventing sexual assault and harassment</h2>
<p>This month, it was <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/News-media/Latest-news/Our-Watch-partner-with-Universities-Australia-and">announced</a> that Our Watch has partnered with universities and the Victorian government to develop a new evidence-informed respectful relationships education course. The online module will be trialled with students over the next 18 months.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/everyday-rape-lets-turn-the-spotlight-on-known-perpetrators-39437">Everyday rape: let's turn the spotlight on known perpetrators</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The initiatives and actions taken to date by the majority of Australian universities are commendable. But so much more needs to be done within and beyond universities. </p>
<p>The biggest challenge we face in addressing sexual assault and harassment is much bigger than the university sector. It involves massive cultural change across our entire society. But Australian universities have the opportunity to show leadership on this issue. Let’s not waste that opportunity.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article has been updated since publication to avoid conflating gotafe with the TAFEs registered by TEQSA.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Henry receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Institute of Criminology, and the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. </span></em></p>Universities have done a lot over the last two years to respond to the high rate of sexual assault and harassment on campus, but we still don’t know whether rates of incidents have dropped.Nicola Henry, Associate Professor & Vice-Chancellor's Principal Research Fellow, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1077662018-11-29T11:38:13Z2018-11-29T11:38:13ZBetsy DeVos has little to show after 2 years in office<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247812/original/file-20181128-32180-577m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' policy proposals have failed.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/DeVos-For-Profits/8e85a766b31a4a3289c9cb3b1f356851/22/0">Matt Rourke/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opinion/betsy-devos-and-the-wrong-way-to-fix-schools.html?_r=0">widespread fear</a> that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would dismantle the public system of education, she has failed to accomplish much of what she set out to do.</p>
<p>That is my assessment as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vK7qfnkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">educational policy researcher</a> who has followed <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-is-betsy-devos-70843">Secretary DeVos</a> since she took the helm of the U.S. Department of Education in February 2017.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/devos-speech-shows-contempt-for-the-agency-she-heads-90424">DeVos’ objective</a> has been similar to that of her boss, President Donald Trump – and that is to rescind policies of the Obama administration.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/betsy-devos-6-month-report-card-more-undoing-than-doing-81793">While in office</a>, DeVos has endeavored to <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/02/trump_school_choice_initiative_who_can_apply.html">expand school choice initiatives</a> at the federal level, propose <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/02/12/devos-seeks-massive-cuts-from-education-department-to-support-school-choice/?utm_term=.e1c14757bd0c">major cuts</a> to the department that she oversees, and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/25/education-department-is-failing-to-provide-public-service-loan-forgive.html">restrict access to public service loan forgiveness</a>. She has also sought to change the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-proposed-title-ix-rule-provides-clarity-schools-support-survivors-and-due-process-rights-all">standard of evidence</a> in sexual cases at institutions of higher education, and <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/07/31/2018-15823/student-assistance-general-provisions-federal-perkins-loan-program-federal-family-education-loan">limit oversight</a> of for-profit colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Let’s take a closer look at what DeVos has sought to accomplish during her nearly two years as education secretary.</p>
<h2>School choice</h2>
<p>Betsy DeVos has long been an advocate for school choice in K-12 education. As education secretary, she has proposed that the federal government <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/02/trump_school_choice_initiative_who_can_apply.html">support school choice with federal money</a>. DeVos has advocated for legislation that redirects federal funds to school choice programs in which the funds would follow each individual child, rather than be directly distributed to school districts and states. She has also called for a new federal program that would give states money to give <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/03/betsy_devos_fights_democrats_on_vouchers_safety_civil_rights_in_budget_hearing.html">individual students grants</a> to attend private schools of their choice. Neither of these proposals were included in the budget passed in 2018. Although DeVos did not secure the US$500 million she had sought for school choice, she did secure a fraction of that amount – an additional <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2018/09/14/inside-the-spending-deal-that-will-fund-the-education-department-340453">$58 million</a> for charter schools.</p>
<p>DeVos has also sought to push for school choice through <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/02/betsy_devos_education_savings_accounts_school_choice_military_families.html">education savings accounts for military families</a>. Education savings accounts have gained momentum in several states in the last five years. DeVos’ proposal would allow children of military families to take money that would have been given to a school where they were stationed, and choose a school where they prefer to send their children. Some military groups have <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/383807-devos-pushes-for-school-vouchers-for-military-families-despite-opposition">opposed this idea</a>, arguing that it would take away funding from other educational programs. Congress has not yet taken up this issue.</p>
<p>During her tenure, the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-12-15/tax-bill-could-hand-devos-first-major-school-choice-victory">tax code was changed</a> so that rich families can use college savings plans known as 529s to pay for private schools at the K-12 level.</p>
<h2>Cuts to the Education Department</h2>
<p>In her first year in office, Secretary DeVos proposed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptNTqF5zIxE">$9 billion or 13 percent cut</a> to the Education Department. She also proposed that $1 billion be redirected from other programs to promote private and charter schools. Some of the programs that she proposed cutting included: after-school programs for low-income students, funding for mental health services and college assistance for needy students. </p>
<p>Ultimately this plan was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/03/21/congress-rejects-much-of-betsy-devoss-agenda-in-spending-bill/?utm_term=.0ad6c739609e">largely ignored by Congress</a> with none of the proposed reforms enacted. In August, Congress actually <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/10/donald-trump-education-spending-increase-second-straight-year.html">increased the federal education budget by $581 million</a>. </p>
<h2>Public service loan forgiveness</h2>
<p>DeVos’ administration has been <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/25/education-department-is-failing-to-provide-public-service-loan-forgive.html">reluctant to honor the public service loan forgiveness</a> program. The public service loan forgiveness program was created to encourage graduates to take on public service jobs, such as a teacher, police officer or firefighter. After a public servant pays their loans for 10 years, the remaining portion is forgiven. Although the <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service">program</a> was enacted by Congress and signed by the President George W. Bush, the U.S. Department of Education has denied over 99 percent of those who have applied in the last two years. Most of the denials were over <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/653853227/the-student-loan-whistleblower">technicalities</a> as a result of poor management by third party loan managers. Loan forgiveness may become part of the agenda of the new Democratically controlled house, as was foreshadowed <a href="https://democrats-edworkforce.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2018-10-16%20Bicameral%20Oversight%20Letter%20to%20Ed%20Dept%20on%20PSLF%20Implementation.pdf">in a letter</a> signed by 150 Democratic House member asking DeVos for an explanation in October 2018.</p>
<h2>Borrower defense to repayment</h2>
<p>In June 2018, DeVos <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/07/31/2018-15823/student-assistance-general-provisions-federal-perkins-loan-program-federal-family-education-loan">tried to start a process</a> to undo Obama-era rules meant to hold for-profit colleges accountable for making false promises to students about their chances for graduation and gainful employment. The Obama administration <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-path-debt-relief-students-91-additional-corinthian-campuses">outlined a plan</a> that students who were defrauded by these deceptive schemes would have their federal debt forgiven. </p>
<p>DeVos proclaimed the process as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/court-rules-against-education-secretary-betsy-devos-in-for-profit-college-case/">“muddled” and “unfair”</a> and proposed changes that would make it more difficult to place blame on the for-profit colleges, which would have left many students with debt and little to show for their for-profit education. However, the proposed rule never materialized, and a federal judge <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/court-rules-against-education-secretary-betsy-devos-in-for-profit-college-case/">ordered DeVos</a> to comply with the Obama-era borrower protection rules. </p>
<h2>Campus sexual assault</h2>
<p>DeVos has made changing the way in which colleges and universities adjudicate sexual assault a top issue of her tenure. During the Obama administration, the Department of Education suggested that universities <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-09-26/new-title-ix-guidance-gives-schools-choice-in-sexual-misconduct-cases">change the standard of proof</a> when taking disciplinary action on students accused of sexual assault to a preponderance of evidence. The new rules <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-proposed-title-ix-rule-provides-clarity-schools-support-survivors-and-due-process-rights-all">proposed by DeVos</a> would require that all accused students be granted presumed innocence, due process provisions, and the right to question the accuser in a hearing. The new rules would also restrict the circumstances under which the preponderance of evidence standard could be used.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/31/devos-sexual-assault-investigation-changes/1157376002/">Critics claim</a> that this will create an atmosphere that is conducive to rape culture, keeping victims of sexual assault from seeking justice. DeVos argues that this will bring about a fair and uniform standard by which all colleges and universities will operate. <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-proposed-title-ix-rule-provides-clarity-schools-support-survivors-and-due-process-rights-all">A draft </a> of this proposal was released on Nov. 16, 2018, but has not yet been acted upon. Public comment is expected to be sought on the proposed rules.</p>
<h2>Resistance to agenda</h2>
<p>Other than the power of persuasion, the cabinet office of Secretary of Education has little power outside of carrying out federal law. When Betsy DeVos was confirmed in the cabinet post, <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/how_betsy_devos_could_and_coul.html">some questioned</a> the degree to which she would be able to execute her agenda and persuade legislators.</p>
<p>Looking retrospectively at DeVos’ first two years in office, it appears that few of her major policy aims have been implemented. Considering the importance of Congress in approving federal provisions, it seems unlikely that DeVos will accomplish much more in the next two years, especially with control of the House of Representatives shifting to a Democratic majority during the midterm elections of 2018.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107766/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dustin Hornbeck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Although many feared that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would destroy public education, a review of the past two years shows that much of her policy agenda has failed.Dustin Hornbeck, Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1003222018-07-23T06:35:51Z2018-07-23T06:35:51ZUniversity students aren’t reporting sexual assault, and new guidelines don’t address why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228542/original/file-20180720-142428-qj0812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5691%2C3819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many students don't trust universities to do the right thing. So 87% don't report sexual assault on campus, or travelling to and from.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/BfezrueCMEI">Lexi Ruskell/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Guidelines for how universities should respond to student sexual assault and sexual harassment <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/Media-and-Events/media-releases/Students-at-the-centre--new-guidelines-for-university-responses-to-sexual-harassment-and-sexual-assault#.W1UJr7h9hPY">released late last week</a> fail to address the reason so many students don’t actually report their experiences.</p>
<p>Nor do the guidelines, released by Universities Australia, address prevention of student sexual assault and harassment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-sexual-consent-matter-one-off-courses-are-unlikely-to-help-91574">Making sexual consent matter: one-off courses are unlikely to help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Among the guidelines’ aims to encourage students to report, and to help universities to respond “with care and compassion” are recommendations for universities to:</p>
<ul>
<li>create a standalone policy to address sexual assault and harassment</li>
<li>train staff to respond to disclosures</li>
<li>minimise the number of times students need to recount their traumatic experience, and </li>
<li>offer multiple ways to make a formal report.</li>
</ul>
<p>However these recommendations fail to address a <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AHRC_2017_ChangeTheCourse_UniversityReport.pdf">key finding</a> of the Australian Human Rights Commission: that 94% of students who were sexually harassed and 87% who were sexually assaulted did not make a formal complaint to their university.</p>
<p>Its 2017 report, based on a national survey of more than 30,000 Australian university students, found 51% of students were sexually harassed in 2016, with 26% saying they were sexually harassed at university (or travelling to or from).</p>
<p>A further 6.9% said they were sexually assaulted in 2015 or 2016, with 1.6% of students saying they were sexually assaulted at university (or travelling to or from).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-have-a-problem-with-sexual-assault-and-harassment-heres-how-to-fix-it-81096">Universities have a problem with sexual assault and harassment: here's how to fix it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why don’t students report sexual assault or harrassment?</h2>
<p>However, students who responded to the survey said they did not report because they:</p>
<ul>
<li>feared the university wouldn’t believe them</li>
<li>thought the situation was “not serious enough”</li>
<li>were worried their report would not be treated confidentially, and</li>
<li>they thought the university wouldn’t take any action.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other reasons included a fear of being victimised or discriminated against (for LBGTIQ students), and confusion among international students about whether the experience was “just a part of Australian culture”.</p>
<p>These reasons point to students’ lack of trust in university procedures and practice; additional barriers that marginalised or vulnerable groups face when reporting; <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/gender-based-violence-in-university-communities">and</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>an acceptance or normalisation of conduct which is degrading, potentially unlawful, and frequently damaging and enduring in impact.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These factors highlight the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/03/sexual-assault-at-universities-the-same-degrading-attitudes-permeate-society">real barriers</a> to students reporting incidents of sexual violence. How universities choose to reduce or eliminate these barriers is key to a student’s recovery.</p>
<h2>Here’s how universities can help students report</h2>
<p>There are good reasons to encourage students to report incidents of sexual assault and harassment – to ensure their safety, manage their long-term physical and mental health, and to collate and analyse data to help improve services and prevention.</p>
<p>So in addition to user-friendly reporting mechanisms, universities must also:</p>
<ul>
<li>adopt transparent and robust disciplinary procedures and sanctions</li>
<li>have properly resourced student support services (psychological, medical and academic), and</li>
<li>develop a range of ongoing prevention strategies reinforced by visible university leadership that cultivates <a href="http://humanrights.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/AHR0001_Local_Perspectives_Case_Study_online.pdf">inclusive, diverse and equitable campuses</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>These indicators of good practice were key components of the <a href="http://humanrights.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/AHR0002_On_Safe_Ground_Good_Practice_Guide_online.pdf">2017 report</a>, published by the Australian Human Rights Centre at the University of NSW.</p>
<p>The report drew on a two-year <a href="http://humanrights.unsw.edu.au/news/strengthening-australian-university-responses-sexual-assault-and-harassment">consultative research project</a>, which combined the national student survey data and international research on university good practice in responding to and preventing sexual assault and harassment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228741/original/file-20180723-189329-1c7z7u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students need to have a real say in how universities respond to sexual assault and harassment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTUzMjMzOTk4OSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTEwNjIyNjU2NiIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMTA2MjI2NTY2L21lZGl1bS5qcGciLCJtIjoxLCJkIjoic2h1dHRlcnN0b2NrLW1lZGlhIn0sIndOcGRKc2syaHVHYU9wS1RuVW9UNFY2OXlQUSJd%2Fshutterstock_1106226566.jpg&pi=41133566&m=1106226566&src=ya7RYRV_2QwOwY6fXC51FQ-1-24">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it is reassuring to see this work replicated in the Universities Australia guidelines, the issue of sexual assault and harassment at university has been the subject of student activism for <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/gender-based-violence-in-university-communities">more than 30 years</a>.</p>
<p>Universities have long been alerted to the risks of inept and insufficient responses to student reports of sexual assault and harassment. The release of <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AHRC_2017_ChangeTheCourse_UniversityReport.pdf">various</a> <a href="http://humanrights.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/AHR0002_On_Safe_Ground_Good_Practice_Guide_online.pdf">landmark reports</a> in the past year and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/six-universities-under-teqsa-microscope-over-sex-assaults-20180614-p4zlk2.html">persistent</a> <a href="http://www.endrapeoncampusau.org/">media</a> <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/canberra/programs/am/unis-launch-response-guidelines-for-sexual-assault-on-campus/10016474">coverage</a> <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/11/29/broderick-report-on-cultural-renewal-at-colleges-received.html">has resulted</a> in many universities across Australia taking steps in an attempt to address student needs.</p>
<h2>How do we move to genuine student engagement?</h2>
<p>But if we are serious about preventing sexual violence at universities and securing the physical and psychological well-being of students harmed by it, we have to move beyond guidelines that endorse “meaningful discussion with students”, as Universities Australia recommends.</p>
<p>We need to make sure students have <a href="http://humanrights.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/AHR0002_On_Safe_Ground_Good_Practice_Guide_online.pdf">formalised input</a> in the design, implementation and revision of strategies that expose, manage and reduce university sexual assault and harassment.</p>
<p>Including student representatives on high-level university working groups on sexual assault and harassment and on sexual violence prevention committees, as trainers on reporting procedures and prevention strategies, and as speakers in university forums on changing cultural attitudes, is vital. This will demonstrate genuine university collaboration. Without substantial input from students, policies and procedures are meaningless.</p>
<p>This will also recognise the critical role student leadership has in developing solutions relevant to students.</p>
<p>Lastly, such an approach validates students’ experiences and their contribution. It will guide universities towards a more proactive and coherent position, rather than a reactive and piecemeal approach, to address and prevent sexual violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Durbach was Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre at UNSW from 2006 to 2017, which received funding from The Caledonia Foundation to undertake the Strengthening Australian University Responses to Sexual Assault and Harassment project. She was co-author of On Safe Ground: a good practice guide for Australian universities (2017). Universities Australia list her as one of the stakeholders they consulted while preparing their guidelines. </span></em></p>Activists have raised the issue of student sexual assault and harassment on campus for more than 30 years. It’s time students had a real say in how universities respond.Andrea Durbach, Professor, Faculty of Law, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/949612018-04-20T10:37:37Z2018-04-20T10:37:37ZHarvard sexual harassment case scars the institution as well as victims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215678/original/file-20180419-164001-6ux9p4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harvard faculty member accused of decades of sexual harassment. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lisbon-january-25-2014-photo-harvard-172997687?src=2Hf-9837zLort-Gzw5XC-w-1-59">Gil C/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of recent #MeToo revelations, Harvard University has begun to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/05/prominent-harvard-professor-placed-on-leave-following-accusations-of-decades-of-sexual-harassment/?utm_term=.3fed82909050">take action</a> against a tenured professor whom the university found guilty of sexual harassment in the 1980s and who now stands accused of harassing women undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and staff for four decades.</p>
<p>I was there in 1983, when this scandal <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1983/9/28/harvard-disciplines-professor-for-sexual-harassment/">first broke</a>. </p>
<p>I know from that time how deeply harassment reverberates through psyches and careers in academic settings. And I watched Harvard, through its actions and inaction, rid itself of the very people who could have held the university accountable. </p>
<p>It is time to broaden the discussion of harassment beyond victimizer and victim and to include, as well, discussion of collateral damage to individuals, cultures and promotion practices inside institutions. </p>
<h2>A clear and public finding</h2>
<p>In 1983, the dean of Harvard’s faculty of arts and sciences <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/harvard-harassment">determined</a> that professor Jorge Dominguez, a senior faculty member in the Department of Government, had sexually harassed a female junior faculty colleague in the same department. While the name of the colleague, Terry Lynn Karl, was not made public at the time, her identity was widely known at the university and in the field of Latin American Studies. Despite the clear and public finding of harassment, the university did not dismiss Dominguez from his job or remove him from campus. Rather, Harvard went on to promote him to ever higher posts, including vice provost for international affairs. </p>
<p>At the time of the harassment <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/harvard-harassment">findings</a>, I was a Ph.D. student working closely with Dominguez, who was my faculty mentor. Upon learning of the harassment, I ended my role as his advisee, as did most of the 10 or so students he supervised at the time, female and male. Together with fellow graduate students in Harvard’s government department, we formed a committee to address the harms Dominguez had perpetrated and the needs of graduate students at that moment of pain and anger. </p>
<p>Those of us who had broken with Dominguez feared retribution in a profession notoriously structured around vertical mentoring relationships, where negative comments from a senior scholar in your field can scuttle a job and even a career. Virtually all of the graduate students in our large and fractious department signed a letter in support of protections that would have prohibited Dominguez from evaluating or commenting on our work, formally or informally. The government department and the university, however, refused to discuss these protections.</p>
<h2>Loss of community</h2>
<p>In the years immediately following, almost all of us left town: faculty member Terry Karl, <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/More-Women-Come-Forward-to/242737">graduate students who also accused Dominguez</a> of harassment, and most of the other students who had cut their ties with him. Karl found a position at Stanford, where she was later awarded tenure. The majority of the graduate students received our Ph.D.s from Harvard, but completed our research and writing from a safe distance, under the guidance of faculty from other fields or universities. </p>
<p>In the process, we lost the community in which we pursued our education, along with the mentors and guidance in our field so central to success in academia. We began our careers angry, disoriented and scrambling to find alternative committee members and recommenders – and utterly uncomfortable talking about this history of harassment and its impact with future employers and colleagues. For years, Dominguez’ former mentees worried whether, when, or to whom Dominguez had commented on us or our scholarship in ways that may have harmed our careers.</p>
<p>By keeping Jorge Dominguez employed in prestigious positions, Harvard knowingly shed faculty and graduate students who had exposed or fought sexual harassment head-on. By ignoring the recommendations of graduate students for grappling with the collateral damage that occurred after the events, the university sent a clear message that protections would not be offered to those who stayed. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/More-Women-Come-Forward-to/242737">accounts recently published in the Chronicle of Higher Education</a>, 18 other undergraduate, graduate, faculty, and staff women accused Dominguez of harassment through 2015. One woman alleges that he harassed her when she was an undergraduate, in 1979, four years before the official <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/More-Women-Come-Forward-to/242737">finding</a> of harassment and subsequent promotions, and that she reported the incident to her departmental advisor.</p>
<p>The most shocking thing about this story is that none of the revelations of recent weeks represent the breaking of long-held silences. <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/More-Women-Come-Forward-to/242737">Most of the women</a> who identified themselves as having been harassed by Dominguez between 1979 and 2015 <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/harvard-harassment">report discussing his actions at the time</a> with the advisers, counselors and supervisors responsible for creating a safe environment for women at Harvard.</p>
<p>In the face of these recent revelations, <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/3/5/dominguez-on-leave/">Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael Smith has said</a> that the institution “will not tolerate sexual harassment.” University Provost Alan Garber and the chair of Harvard’s department of government, Jennifer Hochschild, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/05/prominent-harvard-professor-placed-on-leave-following-accusations-of-decades-of-sexual-harassment/?utm_term=.802f80a54128">each indicated</a> that they found the recent revelations of sexual harassment “heartbreaking.” Dominguez was put on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/05/prominent-harvard-professor-placed-on-leave-following-accusations-of-decades-of-sexual-harassment/?utm_term=.802f80a54128">administrative leave</a> and very soon thereafter announced his <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/03/06/harvard-professor-accused-sexual-misconduct-retire/EmGqKO43J5hxZdYuf7oAhL/story.html">retirement</a>.</p>
<h2>Long-term consequences</h2>
<p>But what kind of institution emerges in the course of 40 years of ongoing sexual harassment as an open secret? A female academic who was an undergraduate at Harvard in the 2000s recently told me that she didn’t study Latin America, her passion, because she knew about the risks to women of working with Dominguez. The #MeToo moment presses us to ask who left Harvard and who stayed, who got jobs there, and at what cost and with what pain to themselves and others.</p>
<p>It is far too simple to say that those who were willing to overlook harassment at Harvard were most likely to succeed, to claim the Harvard brand, and to shape knowledge in their fields. But this is the proposition faced today with regard to the entertainment industry, journalism, politics and now academia. Many key positions of power and production came to be occupied by those who harassed their subordinates or who looked the other way while others did so.</p>
<p>As society begins to understand the depth and breadth of harm caused by sexual harassment to those directly victimized, it is important to examine as well how layers of cultural and scholarly knowledge have been shaped by abusive practices and the complicity of the institutions in which such practices were enacted. </p>
<p>I believe it is these questions about intimate forms of pain and harm over decades, and their personal and institutional effects, that Harvard – and all universities – must address if they intend truly to not tolerate sexual harassment and, in even the most minimal way, to repair hearts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94961/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey W. Rubin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Harvard case shows that when sexual harassment occurs on campus, it not only leaves a trail of victims but hurts the institutional culture as well.Jeffrey W. Rubin, Associate Professor of History, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/930542018-04-02T10:47:56Z2018-04-02T10:47:56ZColleges must confront sexual assault and sexual harassment head on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210872/original/file-20180317-104663-147dnif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sexual assault and harassment are prevalent at U.S. colleges and universities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-woman-sitting-her-desk-male-492079309?src=Q395ysTGD2Wm8gHPyPAEFA-38-25">Jason Salmon from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the past month the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/issuances/in144.jsp">National Science Foundation</a> and a <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Bill-Would-Hold-College/242558">bipartisan group of U.S. senators</a> both introduced measures that would require higher education leaders to review and report cases of sexual assault and harassment on their campuses.</p>
<p>While these initiatives represent a good first step, they do not go far enough to eliminate the problem. That goal falls to college and university leaders who have the will to rid their campuses of the <a href="https://qz.com/1153654/sexual-harassment-in-academia-a-crowdsourced-survey-reveals-the-scale-metoo/">long-standing problem</a> of sexual harassment and sexual assault.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MPuoZ-0AAAAJ&hl=en">experienced</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ODO9J8cAAAAJ&hl=en">university administrators</a>, faculty and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=4D_3b4oAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&authuser=1&gmla=AJsN-F6UUq_FOK5hn2If4zlbsIR5fQFzUrpFfeoMKc4pNU5r1YJH4uPNlcj0OX0A5Pn8cGQqAttdlG5LERii6MTki6Jo4Y4hkosbBJ07XcobeC0AqX80cy4">practitioners of sexual</a> assault prevention, we believe now is the perfect opportunity for universities and colleges to lead the way. The roadmap to success lies in the tenets of the mission of colleges and universities: research the problems, use the findings to educate others and engage communities to make change.</p>
<h2>Staggering statistics</h2>
<p>Statistics on sexual assault and harassment on campus show the need for change. For instance, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men are <a href="https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics">sexually assaulted while in college</a>. For graduate students, 38 percent of females and nearly 1 in 4 males reported <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0361684316644838">sexual harassment from faculty or staff</a>. Roughly half of all such instances included multiple victims of the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2971447">same faculty member</a>.</p>
<p>About <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2649259?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">40 percent of female faculty members and 30 percent of female non-faculty staff members</a> experience sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities have tried to confront the problem, but there is <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/20/sexual-assault-on-college-campuses-more-awareness-hasnt-solved-underlying-issues">so much more to do</a>. These gaps lead to costly consequences. Sexual harassment and assault drive talented <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221546.1996.11780254?journalCode=uhej20">faculty</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12564-017-9499-0">staff</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-harassment-compromises-graduate-students-safety-58694">students</a> away from colleges and universities.</p>
<h2>Promising solutions</h2>
<p>Based on our collective experience dealing with the issue of sexual assault and harassment in academe, we believe the following things can help turn things around:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Openly define the challenges</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Those who run college campuses must be willing to share their own uncomfortable truths concerning sexual assault and harassment. But colleges and universities have been <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colleges-sexual-assault-data_us_560c52c1e4b0dd85030a9fba">reluctant</a> to do so because of the highly competitive environment in which they seek to recruit top faculty, students and athletes.</p>
<p>If all campuses shared more information about their experiences with sexual harassment and sexual assault in a public forum, such as on <a href="https://ope.ed.gov/campussafety/#/institution/search">the U.S. Department of Education’s Campus Safety and Security website</a>, the true scope of the challenges would be better defined on each campus, and the stigma of acknowledging them would be removed.</p>
<ul>
<li> <strong>Redeploy effective approaches</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Rather than start from scratch, colleges and universities can adopt <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/08/28/how-colleges-are-battling-sexual-violence">effective</a> strategies and avoid those that have been found <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/20/sexual-assault-on-college-campuses-more-awareness-hasnt-solved-underlying-issues">ineffective</a> on other campuses – something that isn’t always done in higher education.</p>
<p>For instance, since <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/09/opinion/foubert-fraternities-rape/">fraternities</a> are associated with higher rates of rape and coercive behavior, and sexual assaults happen more frequently during <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ccsvsftr.pdf">the first two months of the fall semester</a>, it would help to delay fraternity recruitment by even one semester. Doing so has been found to <a href="https://www.eab.com/research-and-insights/academic-affairs-forum/custom/2009/12/the-benefits-and-drawbacks-of-delayed-or-deferred-fraternity-and-sorority-recruitment">increase academic performance, promote acclimation to the campus environment</a> and <a href="https://www.wm.edu/offices/fsl/policies/FS%20Task%20Force%20Recommendations%204-21-16.pdf">potentially promote safety.</a></p>
<p>Another strategy would be to purposefully plan <a href="https://campusactivities.usc.edu/events/late-night-sc/">late-night programming</a> for students on key “party” nights each week in order to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/27/late-night-cookouts-keep-drinkers-campus">reduce alcohol-related incidents</a>. Alcohol has been shown to be a <a href="https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-1/43-51.htm">significant contributor</a> to sexual assaults on campuses. The idea is for college leaders to take <a href="https://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/media/journal/140_181.pdf">greater responsibility for the campus environment.</a></p>
<p>To bring about greater reporting of sexual assault, colleges could rely on <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/whisper-networks-20/546311/">“whisper networks”</a> to bypass the barriers to reporting. With time-stamped accounts saved, submitted or held until another victim identifies the same offender, such networks may help identify <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11991158">serial rapists</a>. Currently, only 20 percent of students and 32 percent of women who aren’t students <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence">report sexual violence on campus</a>, and <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/articlehttps:/www.chronicle.com/article/The-Paradox-of-Protecting/242191/The-Paradox-of-Protecting/242191">even bystanders fear speaking out</a>.</p>
<p>To proactively stop sexual harassment and assault, colleges can change their training for faculty, staff and students to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2005.00237.x">longer</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07448481.2016.1178122">interactive</a> and in-person sessions, which have been proven to increase their effectiveness.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Collaborate to find innovative solutions</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to addressing known contributors to sexual harassment and assault, college and university leaders must find ways to innovate. </p>
<p>People at all levels of an organization have ideas on how to address the issues they face, but they aren’t always asked to share what they know. In order to tackle tough problems such as sexual assault and sexual harassment on campus, faculty, staff and students can be <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/NICOD">empowered</a> to identify ideas to shift the culture that allows harassment and assault to exist, and the top ideas can be selected by a campus-wide vote.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Invest resources</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Culture change requires not only new approaches but also the resources to implement them. Colleges can demonstrate their commitment by ensuring that the number of survivor advocates and Title IX investigators is adequate for the size of the student population. Statistics suggest that a ratio of 1 each per 7,500 students would give each a caseload of 450 victims, which is consistent with <a href="http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Advisor-Load.aspx">standards for academic advising</a>. They should also fund off-campus, trauma-informed training for these professionals to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/the-nassar-investigation-that-never-made-headlines/551717/">ensure impartiality</a>, and reward units that improve their workplace climate with increased university resources.</p>
<h2>A matter of will</h2>
<p>Effective change requires the resolve to weather hazards that are sure to come: negative press, withdrawn donor support and a focus on placing blame. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/19/us/ford-chicago-sexual-harassment.html">Lasting change in workplace climate</a> is also a notoriously difficult thing to achieve. Nevertheless, the safety and well-being of students, faculty and staff is too important not to keep trying.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/krista-millay-453915">Krista Millay</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/martha-gilliland-453934">Martha Gilliland</a> co-authored this piece. Millay is community impact director at the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona and the former director of the Women’s Resource Center at the University of Arizona, where she oversaw sexual assault prevention. Gilliland is the former chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has held several other administrative posts.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tricia Serio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Colleges and universities can rid their campuses of sexual assault and sexual harassment if they do a few key things, a group of researchers argue.Tricia Serio, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926852018-03-05T23:38:21Z2018-03-05T23:38:21ZHazing and sexual violence in Australian universities: we need to address men’s cultures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208854/original/file-20180305-65522-gpki6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brotherhood is produced by men with a sense of licence and tradition, and is sustained through particular rites of passage and rituals of abuse. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The esteemed residential colleges of Sydney University have recently gained intense public scrutiny for fostering cultures of sexual harassment, rape and hazing. The <a href="http://apo.org.au/system/files/134766/apo-nid134766-607496.pdf">Red Zone Report</a>, produced by independent journalists for <a href="http://endrapeoncampus.org/">End Rape on Campus Australia</a>, presented a harrowing account of men’s tribalism, and elitism in Australia’s universities. </p>
<p>The report focused on 12 universities including all the Group of Eight universities. Across all 39 Australian universities there are 216 residential colleges or halls. </p>
<p>The colleges are sites of social privilege, populated by the wealthy, with histories that include prime ministers, religious leaders and famous judges and sportspeople. That history is challenged by college cultures that celebrate perversity at the expense of the traditions of academic scholarship and community service.</p>
<h2>Welcome to university</h2>
<p>Orientation Week (O Week) is an exciting time for all university students embarking on a new year of study. But O Week has become known as “The Red Zone”. During this period, sexual harassment, hazing and college rituals spike in incidence.</p>
<p>The report was released to highlight this.</p>
<p>Residential colleges are a hotspot for these activities. They have similarities to other education or training institutions, such as the Royal Military College, religious seminaries or apprenticeship schools. These are closed, insular, elitist and culturally formalised environments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208835/original/file-20180305-171274-cx8lme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St John’s College at the University of Sydney, one of the colleges named in the report as a site of hazing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Jason Tong</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://universitycollegesaustralia.edu.au/about-us/history/">college system</a> dates back to the mid-19th century. Most colleges were founded on the contributions of wealthy private individuals in the mid-1900s. The colleges hark back to British aristocracy but have become increasingly divorced from the principles of education and scholarship over time. </p>
<p>The colleges remain capitalised by wealthy families as their children pass through from generation to generation. Their <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/business-is-booming-for-misogyny-hunters/news-story/39a646bfe1cfbfc2c5dff3a3eae83001">Christian foundations</a> have been used as proof of their moral authenticity.</p>
<p>Wealth and privilege are sustained by social connections that serve to mask and silence these cultures and their practices. From managing media events to using influence to avoid independent scrutiny, the colleges instil an overstated sense of purpose and entitlement among their residents.</p>
<h2>Sexual assault: how much?</h2>
<p>The Red Zone Report explains there are about 30 assaults on university campuses across Australia per day. About 21,000 of the 1.3 million students who attended Australian universities in 2015/16 were subject to sexual assault. </p>
<p>And 23% of women who experienced rape or sexual assault during 2015/16 were assaulted on a university campus. Women were about four times more likely to experience sexual assault on campus than men. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-metoo-we-need-bystander-action-to-prevent-sexual-violence-91741">Beyond #MeToo, we need bystander action to prevent sexual violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Universities with colleges have the highest rates of sexual assault. College students were seven times more likely than non-college students to have been raped or sexually assaulted on campus. College women are six times more likely to experience attempted or completed rape or sexual assault, compared to college men.</p>
<h2>Don’t our universities know about college hazing?</h2>
<p>Evidence of sexual harassment, rape and hazing has been in the hands of universities for many years.</p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="http://elizabethbroderick.com.au/">Broderick and Co.</a> investigated college culture at Sydney University. The terms of the research were limited. The <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/11/29/broderick-report-on-cultural-renewal-at-colleges-received.html">Broderick report</a> provided important quantitative data on these cultures, but rejected the wider historical and cultural context within which college tribalism is sustained. </p>
<p>The Red Zone report fills the gaps. It describes hazing rituals in detail gathered across Australian universities. The report provides the necessary context of the histories and cultures of abuse in these colleges, and the administrative responses by the universities. </p>
<p>The Red Zone Report is important because it is independent.</p>
<p>The report describes these cultures and the practices of the men inside them. It gives us a wider sense of how these traditions of torture arise as part of young men’s misguided sense of community. The Red Zone Report tells us it is a community based on sexual prurience, conquest and the immaturity of young wealthy Australian men. </p>
<p>These incidents are windows into the wider Australian establishment. Many of our cultural leaders, solicitors, public servants and corporate chiefs with university degrees have been educated in these environments.</p>
<h2>The ‘man problem’: it’s about men isn’t it?</h2>
<p>In the past two decades or so Australia has seen the “man problem” arise across numerous social institutions. </p>
<p>The elite Australian football codes, the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-subject-to-new-sexual-harassment-scandal/news-story/8998479a7119225eba0467b7c8fcae93?nk=efa1cb3ba27a0ffe68b621db40b6a5c8-1519967731">AFL</a> and <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/rendezview/give-grown-women-credit-for-their-own-decisions/news-story/de9efe217c3af20ad83a92a5e98c5996">NRL</a>, are consistently in the media because of matters of men’s culture and behaviour.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.eoc.sa.gov.au/eo-resources/EOC-Independent-Review">State</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/22/afp-gets-95-sexual-harassment-and-discrimination-complaints-in-three-months">federal</a> police forces have recently undergone reviews into cultures of bullying, harassment and institutional dereliction. These reviews name men and their cultures of masculinity as the principal contexts of abuse. The <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report">Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse</a> is an example of this. </p>
<h2>Brothers</h2>
<p>Two principal forces sit behind these cultures of violence and depravity: some men use violence to control others, and that violence serves to sustain male domination – in colleges, in universities, and across wider society.</p>
<p>The college system and these men’s dominance is sustained by a kind of brotherhood. Brotherhood is based on the self-interest of the association of men itself. It reflects the demand of a group of lads to have the “freedom” to do as they please. </p>
<p>Brotherhood is produced by men with a sense of licence and tradition. That tradition, and manhood, is sustained through particular rites of passage and rituals of abuse. </p>
<p>Brotherhood brings men together. It keeps men together. It keeps other men and women out. </p>
<h2>Changing men</h2>
<p>The Red Zone report highlights the way in which universities have been struggling for decades with college cultures and their misogyny, sexual perversity and violence. It names university cultures of abuse and the wealthy, male and often Christian cliques of domination that reside within them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-governments-should-be-cautious-about-criminalising-hazing-92665">Why governments should be cautious about criminalising hazing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This report is another example of male cultures of tribalism and violence across institutions in Australia. These cultures of manhood must be acknowledged publicly. Recommendations or strategies must take addressing men’s cultures as a principal line of inquiry and action. </p>
<p>The Red Zone report provides a line in the sand that no university leader, or any of us, can ignore.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Wadham receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Addressing male cultures of tribalism and violence needs to be central to the response to reports of hazing and violence in Austrslia’s university colleges.Ben Wadham, Associate Professor, School of Education, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926652018-03-01T19:18:33Z2018-03-01T19:18:33ZWhy governments should be cautious about criminalising hazing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208396/original/file-20180301-36693-18dp351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most jurisdictions in Australia already make it a crime to intentionally or recklessly engage in conduct that creates a substantial or real risk of serious harm.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not-for-profit group <a href="http://www.endrapeoncampusau.org/">End Rape on Campus</a> recently released a <a href="http://www.endrapeoncampusau.org/s/The-Red-Zone-Report-2018">report</a> detailing horrific incidents of “hazing” in residential colleges. Hazing essentially describes the ritual humiliation of newcomers to college life.</p>
<p>Just some examples of hazing described in the report include students:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>being “encouraged” to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/newcastle-college-hazing/9461892">drink beer that has been poured onto another resident’s genital region</a></p></li>
<li><p>exposing each other’s sexual activity online with graphic and embarrassing photos, and</p></li>
<li><p>being locked in a bathroom and having vats of dead fish thrown on them.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This report marks an important milestone, because the media interest in the release of this report creates an opportunity for a turning point. A unified public and private condemnation of hazing in Australia.</p>
<p>Much as <a href="https://lukebattyfoundation.org.au/">Rosie Batty</a> brought family violence into the spotlight, and much as the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/hack/9229818">#metoo movement</a> unearthed the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault, the Red Zone report provides us with a unique opportunity to address yet another of society’s unaddressed shames.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-metoo-to-ricebunny-how-social-media-users-are-campaigning-in-china-90860">From #MeToo to #RiceBunny: how social media users are campaigning in China</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The fact that male students are habitually masturbating into female students’ bathroom products is unacceptable. Such behaviours are outdated, misogynistic, and cruel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208401/original/file-20180301-36700-khiqbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208401/original/file-20180301-36700-khiqbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208401/original/file-20180301-36700-khiqbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208401/original/file-20180301-36700-khiqbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208401/original/file-20180301-36700-khiqbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208401/original/file-20180301-36700-khiqbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208401/original/file-20180301-36700-khiqbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Male students uploaded photos of themselves holding women’s underwear to Facebook in one initiation ritual.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Red Zone Report</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most of the recommendations in the report are both sensible and uncontroversial. The authors recommend, for example, greater oversight of student residences, and more transparency and dialogue about college culture.</p>
<p>But they also recommend that hazing be criminalised across Australia, in particular:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the act of requiring an individual to undergo any act which is likely to cause bodily danger or physical punishment to any student or other person, as a precondition of joining or participating in a student group or organisation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This recommendation should be approached with considerable caution. While it might garner significant political points, making a new criminal law is not always the best response to undesirable behaviours.</p>
<h2>Criminal law as a response to undesirable behaviours</h2>
<p>The criminal law is the state’s most coercive tool. Used to its full extent, it can lead to you being arrested, subjected to a lengthy and expensive trial, having your liberty revoked for years, and suffering a life-long stigma. The criminal law is a necessary part of a fully functioning liberal democracy, but it should be used with extreme caution.</p>
<p>Research has repeatedly proven the effectiveness of a criminal justice system is inextricably linked to whether it is perceived as legitimate, fair and coherent. When the criminal law is too broad, too narrow, or inconsistent, it loses legitimacy. It also loses legitimacy when new laws are introduced that are purely symbolic and add no real substance to existing laws.</p>
<p>It is questionable, for example, whether the new crimes of <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/num_act/faa20182o2018228/s26.html">drive-by shooting</a>, <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ca195882/s77a.html">home invasion</a>, and <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ca195882/s79.html">carjacking</a> add much to the criminal law. Many of these behaviours were already captured by crimes such as attempted murder, <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ca195882/s23.html">reckless conduct endangering serious injury</a>, <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ca195882/s77.html">aggravated burglary</a>, and <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ca195882/s75a.html">armed robbery</a>.</p>
<p>There is an often forgotten criteria that should be met before any new law is introduced. Specifically: is the targeted behaviour already a crime? If so, is the answer really to criminalise it again, or is the more appropriate response to dedicate more resources to policing existing crimes?</p>
<p>When the Red Zone report recommended introducing specific criminal laws that target hazing in Australian universities, it neglected to consider whether those behaviours might already be criminal.</p>
<h2>Hazing laws in the United States</h2>
<p>Hazing is certainly a crime in the United States. It has been specifically criminalised in <a href="https://www.stophazing.org/states-with-anti-hazing-laws/">all but six US states</a> for decades now.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wrongs-of-passage-in-fraternity-hazing-80948">The wrongs of passage in fraternity hazing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In <a href="http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.37.htm#37.152">Texas</a>, for example, it is a crime to intentionally or recklessly engage in an act, directed at a student, which endangers their mental or physical health or safety, for the purpose of pledging or initiation into a student organisation.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/120.16">New York</a>, it is a crime to intentionally or recklessly engage in conduct, during another person’s initiation or affiliation with an organisation, which creates a substantial risk of physical injury. </p>
<p>And in <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=245.6.">California</a>, it is a crime to engage in any method of initiation into a student organisation that is likely to cause serious bodily injury to a former, current or prospective student.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208374/original/file-20180301-36686-46dxub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208374/original/file-20180301-36686-46dxub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208374/original/file-20180301-36686-46dxub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208374/original/file-20180301-36686-46dxub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208374/original/file-20180301-36686-46dxub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208374/original/file-20180301-36686-46dxub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208374/original/file-20180301-36686-46dxub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graffiti in Venice Beach, California, depicting a student who died in a hazing ritual.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/duncan c</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>To prove these crimes, the prosecution would have to establish:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li> the defendant intentionally or recklessly engaged in conduct</li>
<li> such conduct created a substantial or real risk of injury or serious injury to the victim</li>
<li> the victim was a student</li>
<li> the conduct was part of an initiation or affiliation with a student organisation.</li>
</ol>
<p>Except for the requirement the victim be a student being initiated into a student organisation, this looks very much like a number of offences that already exist around Australia.</p>
<h2>Is hazing already a crime in Australia?</h2>
<p>Most jurisdictions in Australia already make it a crime to intentionally or recklessly engage in conduct that creates a substantial or real risk of serious harm, including both physical and mental harm (such as <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/sa/consol_act/clca1935262/s29.html">South Australia</a> and the <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nt/consol_act/cca115/sch1.html">Northern Territory</a>). </p>
<p>Even more relevant, <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_act/cc189994/s320a.html#torture">Queensland has criminalised torture</a>, which is defined as “the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person by an act or series of acts”, and pain or suffering is then defined as including “physical, mental, psychological or emotional pain or suffering”.</p>
<p>Further, in addition to there already being a number of criminal laws that would capture most of the hazing behaviours described in the Red Zone report, there are also a number of issues with the way the proposed offence is framed.</p>
<p><strong>Looking at their proposed offence, the prosecution would need to prove:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li> the defendant required the victim to engage in an act</li>
<li> the victim was a student</li>
<li> the victim engaged in the required act</li>
<li> the act was part of initiation into a student group or organisation</li>
<li> the act was likely to cause bodily injury or physical punishment.</li>
</ol>
<p>First, it is peculiar that requiring someone to do something that is likely to cause them bodily injury would only be criminal if it occurs in the context of a student initiation ritual. Does this make such behaviours acceptable in other contexts?</p>
<p>Second, there are many forms of hazing that would not be captured if the legislation was limited to circumstances in which the victim suffered bodily injury or physical punishment, particularly emotional and psychological torture.</p>
<p>And third, it would be somewhat unorthodox to ask the prosecution to establish that a defendant required a victim to do something. Such a requirement would raise serious questions of <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/mislj61&div=16&id=&page=">free will and autonomy</a>, issues which are not sufficiently addressed in the report. In many US states, for example, legislation specifies that people <a href="http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.37.htm#37.154">cannot consent</a> to participating in initiation rituals that would constitute hazing.</p>
<p>The Red Zone report will hopefully herald a new era. Hazing is a blight on society. And the criminal law may well be the appropriate response to hazing behaviours.</p>
<p>But in an age where the criminal law is treated as both a panacea for society’s woes and a constant failure (while it is, in fact, neither), much more consideration is needed before any new criminal laws are introduced. </p>
<p>First and foremost, we should determine what exactly the wrongful and harmful behaviour we want to prohibit is. Once that has been identified, we should determine whether that behaviour is already criminal. If so, we should consider whether we can better utilise the laws we already have. And if not, we should figure out how to write a law that adequately captures the targeted behaviour, and goes no further.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Paul McGorrery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hazing is unacceptable, but criminalising it may cause more problems than it solves.Dr Paul McGorrery, PhD Candidate in Criminal Law, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/870482018-02-20T11:40:38Z2018-02-20T11:40:38ZAlcohol probably makes it harder to stop sexual violence – so why aren’t colleges talking about it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206019/original/file-20180212-58335-7b3a9l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At least half of campus sexual assaults involve alcohol use.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/ball-beer-beer-pong-close-up-544988/">Burst/pexels.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Several years ago, one of us (Dominic) was consulting with university administration on their sexual violence prevention program. </p>
<p>All colleges and universities that receive Title IX funding are federally mandated to offer <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcop.20159/full">intervention programs</a>, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801214545284">where bystanders are trained</a> to intervene in risky sexual situations. These programs aim to reduce campus sexual violence, as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2017.1295014">one in five</a> college women say they’ve been a victim of sexual assault. </p>
<p>The good news is that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178914000536">studies</a> show that such programs can help bystanders prevent sexual violence. The bad news is that risky sexual situations <a href="http://www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.15288/jsas.2002.s14.118">often involve alcohol</a>, and there’s no research on how alcohol intoxication might influence bystanders’ ability to intervene. These programs weren’t designed to help bystanders compensate for the effects of alcohol on their decisions in these situations.</p>
<p>When I mentioned this problem, one administrator was shocked. Essentially, the university would be paying thousands of dollars for mandated prevention programming – with no evidence to suggest that it would help when students were drinking.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the field remains where it was several years ago. <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-47158-001">Our latest work</a> tries to finally understand how alcohol affects bystanders.</p>
<h2>A narrow spotlight</h2>
<p><a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2015-13579-001">One recent study</a> indicates that bystanders are present for nearly 20 percent of sexual assaults, yet actually intervened in just 27 percent of those cases. </p>
<p>To intervene successfully, bystanders must make a series of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-008-9581-5">decisions</a>. <a href="http://www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.15288/jsas.2002.s14.118">Research suggests</a> that at least half of campus sexual assaults involve alcohol use, and bystanders are likely drinking in these situations as well. We believe that alcohol intoxication inhibits these decisions and prevents bystanders from acting. </p>
<p>This is based largely on the premise that alcohol intoxication affects what people pay attention to in a situation. Think of attention as a spotlight. Sober people have a very wide spotlight. They can perceive a lot of information in their environment – both information that is significant and noticeable and information that’s easily overlooked. But when people are drunk, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1990-30873-001">their attention narrows</a>. They tend to consider only information that easily captures their attention. </p>
<p>Consider the decisions necessary for bystanders to effectively intervene.</p>
<p>First, a person must notice the risky situation. You cannot intervene to prevent sexual violence if you don’t see it. Signs of an unwanted sexual advance – like averted eye contact or polite resistance – are often subtle. Intoxicated individuals are more likely to <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02351.x">“zone out”</a> compared to their sober counterparts. </p>
<p>Second, bystanders must figure out if it’s appropriate to intervene in a given situation. It’s rare for bystanders to witness a rape in progress. They’re more likely to witness behavior that precedes the assault, such as inappropriate sexual conversations. Such signs can seem ambiguous, and it may be unclear to a bystander if someone’s sexual boundaries are being crossed. Alcohol can exacerbate that ambiguity, making it harder to pick up on the risk for sexual violence.</p>
<p>Even in ideal circumstances, it’s difficult for bystanders to accept the responsibility to act. When other people are around, an individual <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2011-08829-001">is less likely to intervene</a>. There isn’t any research to directly show this, but we believe alcohol likely strengthens this “bystander effect” – the person will look to someone else to intervene, instead of taking action themselves.</p>
<p>After all that, bystanders must decide how to help. Most bystander intervention programs teach students a range of strategies, such as how to use humor to safely and effectively intervene. </p>
<p>But acute alcohol intoxication <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-02949-013">impairs our ability</a> to solve problems, plan out our behavior and stick to it. Intoxicated bystanders who would otherwise have the skills and confidence to intervene are less able to effectively implement a plan of action.</p>
<p>What’s more, bystanders must overcome their fear of how others will perceive them. Men may feel that they <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-008-9581-5">shouldn’t intrude on another man’s “sexual conquest”</a> or <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3149/jms.1601.3">fear losing respect</a> from male peers if they intervene. Alcohol likely heightens men’s focus on these barriers and makes intervention less likely.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206021/original/file-20180212-58312-1kc215y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this display, each flag represents one of a potential 3,000 women who will be assaulted on a campus the size of the University of Oregon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolframburner/8677522644/">wolframburner/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Better training for bystanders</h2>
<p>There is no research that addresses the role of alcohol on bystander intervention for sexual violence. However, we recommend that colleges and universities consider adapting their prevention strategies. </p>
<p>Even current bystander training programs that do include an alcohol component focus on how alcohol impacts victims and perpetrators of sexual violence, rather than bystanders. But we believe that these programs should also focus on how alcohol intoxication impacts bystanders themselves. Programs should discuss the potential impairing effects of alcohol and how to intervene effectively when drinking. (We are currently working on a pilot for such a program.)</p>
<p>Colleges should also examine their policies. <a href="http://www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.15288/jsad.2007.68.208">Evidence shows</a> that there are ways colleges can successfully limit heavy alcohol use, such as college bans or limits on alcohol, as well as restrictions on the number and type of alcohol outlets. If we’re correct that sober individuals are more likely to intervene than intoxicated individuals, then these approaches may, in turn, increase bystander intervention.</p>
<p>In the same vein, colleges could implement initiatives that ensure the presence of sober bystanders. For example, at Cornell University, a student-led group called <a href="http://cayugaswatchers.org/blog.html">“Cayuga’s Watchers”</a> provides sober party monitors who serve as responsible – and sober – bystanders. Similarly, there are <a href="http://www.azrapeprevention.org/ASBA">programs</a> that train bar staff to be effective bystanders. Colleges could partner with local bars that are often frequented by students to train these staff, and thus make these venues safer for all patrons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Parrott receives funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruschelle Leone receives funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. </span></em></p>At least half of campus sexual assaults involve alcohol. But prevention programs at US colleges and universities don’t address what that means for bystanders.Dominic Parrott, Professor of Psychology, Georgia State UniversityRuschelle Leone, Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/826362017-09-04T23:02:02Z2017-09-04T23:02:02ZRape at universities: One program is proven to reduce it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184288/original/file-20170831-22427-m8qk2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) Sexual Assault Resistance program is the only campus education program proven to decrease sexual assault.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As students return to universities across Canada and the United States this month, the safety of female students is a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-colleges-sexual-assault-policies-1.4255460">major concern</a>. Sexual violence <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/08/26/what-schools-do-not-tell-you-about-campus-sexual-assault_partner/">occurs on all campuses</a> and <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ccsvsftr.pdf">can no longer be ignored</a>. </p>
<p>It’s now widely recognized that universities and governments need to invest deeply in prevention. The province of Quebec, for example, recently announced a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-provincial-sexual-assault-policy-campus-1.4255310">$23 million investment</a> into campus sexual assault policies and prevention. </p>
<p>Less widely recognized is the importance of empowering women to talk about desire. This is a vital part of any comprehensive solution to campus sexual assault.</p>
<p>As a psychology professor who studies male violence against women, I have spent the last 10 years developing the <a href="http://sarecentre.org">Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) Sexual Assault Resistance program</a>. The program is designed for women in the first year of university, because that’s when the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260514554425">risk of sexual assault</a> is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260508314308">highest</a>. </p>
<p>The EAAA program is the only campus education program proven to decrease sexual violence. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa1411131">Study results</a> show that attending women were 46 per cent less likely to experience rape and 63 per cent less likely to experience attempted rape or other forms of sexual assault in the next year. Women who took EAAA also benefited from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684317690119">lower rates of sexual assault two years later</a>. </p>
<p>Women also increased their ability to detect risk in men’s behaviour and their confidence in asserting their rights. They learned, and became more willing to use, the most effective verbal and physical strategies for defending themselves. Importantly, these changes were accomplished while substantially decreasing women’s (already relatively low) beliefs in rape myths and woman-blaming. </p>
<h2>Sexual desire at the centre</h2>
<p>So how does EAAA accomplish all this? In 2001, prominent sexual violence researchers <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.00030">Patricia Rozee and Mary Koss</a> synthesized a decade of rape research and suggested the Assess, Acknowledge, Act (AAA) components of an effective program for women. I brought the idea to life and added an “enhancement” — emancipatory sex education. This puts women’s own values and desires at the centre of the discussion. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184383/original/file-20170901-27315-5u4i82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184383/original/file-20170901-27315-5u4i82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184383/original/file-20170901-27315-5u4i82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184383/original/file-20170901-27315-5u4i82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184383/original/file-20170901-27315-5u4i82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184383/original/file-20170901-27315-5u4i82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184383/original/file-20170901-27315-5u4i82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Helping women to explore their sexual desires and communicate their needs is critical to reducing sexual assault.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The EAAA program focuses on sexual assault by acquaintances and adds to women’s existing strength, knowledge and skills. It provides space for them to explore their sexual and relationship goals and desires. It reinforces, with knowledge and skills, their rights to seek and engage in sex they do want, to resist sex they don’t want and to fight back against threats to their bodily integrity. </p>
<p>EAAA is never prescriptive. The goal is to increase women’s options so that they are able to participate in their lives fully and without fear. </p>
<h2>Asserting sexual needs</h2>
<p>Most of the media coverage about the EAAA has focused on the Act unit which includes two hours of self-defence originating in a long tradition of <a href="http://wendo.ca/">feminist self-defence in Canada</a> and the <a href="https://seejanefightback.com/about-2/">United States</a>. This is definitely a critical element of EAAA and the reduction in completed sexual assaults. But that doesn’t explain how EAAA reduces <em>attempted</em> sexual assaults even more dramatically.</p>
<p>The final Relationships & Sexuality unit is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684310384101">likely responsible</a>. This provides women with sexual knowledge. It offers time for exploring their sexual desires and practice in communicating their interests (in, for example, a specific sexual act) and asserting their needs (for safer sex, for example). It provides a positive sexuality frame within which resistance to sexual assault is contextualized. </p>
<p>Greater sexual knowledge and confidence around desires and values makes coercion visible earlier. If a woman sees coercion earlier, then her options for leaving or resisting in other ways are greater. </p>
<h2>Holding women responsible?</h2>
<p>Some feminists have expressed the view that all interventions for women are implicitly or explicitly holding women responsible for men’s behaviour. </p>
<p>I agree that many campaigns have done this. Women are still being told (by parents, media, posters and talks on campus) that they should restrict their behaviour in various ways. That they should limit where they go and when, how they dress and how they behave — to stay safe. This “advice” is based on myths, not evidence. These social precautions <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J012v04n01_06">interfere with a woman’s quality of life</a> without providing actual protection, especially since most danger comes <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/170711/dq170711a-eng.htm">from men whom women already know</a>. </p>
<p>The EAAA program for women undermines these messages. The program makes it clear that there is no risk in any situation unless there is a man present who is willing to engage in coercive behaviour. “Risk factors” (such as isolation or the presence of alcohol) are described as circumstances which provide perpetrators with certain advantages. Women brainstorm ways of undermining those advantages and come up with strategies that work for them personally. </p>
<p>Our research findings show that this message about perpetrator responsibility gets through; women decrease their belief in woman-blaming explanations for rape. And EAAA is beneficial for women even if they are sexually assaulted after they take it. Survivors who have taken EAAA blame themselves less than do survivors who did not receive the program. </p>
<h2>Beyond bystander education</h2>
<p>Universities need to invest deeply in effective prevention to reduce campus sexual assault. I, like many feminists on campus, would like universities to “tell men not to rape.” Unfortunately, the research evidence shows us that the available educational programs for men <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2014.05.004">do not work to accomplish their goals</a>. Only comprehensive strategies working on multiple levels will produce the individual and campus-wide changes we are striving for. Large and sustained changes cannot be accomplished with brief interventions or during one occasion during a university orientation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184385/original/file-20170901-27276-1hkorrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184385/original/file-20170901-27276-1hkorrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184385/original/file-20170901-27276-1hkorrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184385/original/file-20170901-27276-1hkorrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184385/original/file-20170901-27276-1hkorrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184385/original/file-20170901-27276-1hkorrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184385/original/file-20170901-27276-1hkorrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A range of sexual education efforts are required on campus to shift ‘rape culture.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The relatively recent focus on bystander education is one prevention option endorsed <a href="https://dr6j45jk9xcmk.cloudfront.net/documents/4593/actionplan-itsneverokay.pdf">in Canada</a>, the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ovw/page/file/905942/download">United States</a> and the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/sv-prevention-technical-package.pdf">CDC</a>. And it’s a good choice. Bystander programs have been shown to change students’ attitudes toward intervening when they see a problem. More importantly, they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039660">increase students’ actual intervention behaviour</a>. </p>
<p>But these bystander programs weren’t designed to, and do not, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2014.05.004">decrease sexual assault perpetration or victimization</a> in the short term. Additionally, most sexual assaults occur in circumstances where <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039073">no one is present</a> who could intervene. So they’re primarily effective in increasing interventions in “precursor” settings where risk is elevated (for example, where a man overhears his friend say that he doesn’t care what it takes, he is going to “hit that” tonight) but a sexual assault has not begun. </p>
<h2>A comprehensive solution</h2>
<p>If a good bystander program is delivered broadly and in a sustained way on any campus, over time, we expect that a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcop.10078">culture shift will occur</a>. In this context, not only would social norms stop supporting a “rape culture,” but perpetrators would also find it extremely difficult to act unnoticed and uninterrupted. Unfortunately we aren’t there yet. </p>
<p>Empowering women is, therefore, another critical piece of a comprehensive solution to the problem of sexual violence. EAAA empowers women students with the resources they need to defend their own sexual rights. It does this within a positive sexuality frame that fits well with other sexual education efforts on campus, such as sexual consent education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlene Senn is a researcher at the University of Windsor. She is also the founder/CEO of the SARE Centre, a non-profit organization, created to disseminate the EAAA sexual assault resistance program. The research described was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FRN #110976).</span></em></p>A program developed by a University of Windsor professor significantly reduces a woman’s risk of rape on campus. It also focuses on communicating sexual desires.Charlene Senn, Professor of Psychology, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/817932017-08-11T00:59:34Z2017-08-11T00:59:34ZBetsy DeVos’ 6-month report card: More undoing than doing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181705/original/file-20170810-27649-uj8hzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1543%2C0%2C2887%2C1802&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Betsy Devos has been busy advancing a conservative education agenda since her confirmation earlier this year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, the news cycle has been dominated by stories of White House controversy: <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-revised-travel-ban-still-faces-legal-challenges-74141">a travel ban</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/facing-the-threat-from-north-korea-5-essential-reads-81873">North Korea</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-isnt-letting-obamacare-die-hes-trying-to-kill-it-81373">health care</a> and more.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Secretary of Education <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-is-betsy-devos-70843">Betsy DeVos</a> has been busy fulfilling her conservative agenda that seeks to broaden school choice and market-based schooling in pre-K through higher education.</p>
<p>As a researcher of education policy and politics, I’ve been following Secretary DeVos’ first six months in office. Here’s a quick look at what’s she’s done – and what’s been left in limbo.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181706/original/file-20170810-27677-19dobnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181706/original/file-20170810-27677-19dobnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181706/original/file-20170810-27677-19dobnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181706/original/file-20170810-27677-19dobnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181706/original/file-20170810-27677-19dobnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181706/original/file-20170810-27677-19dobnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181706/original/file-20170810-27677-19dobnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Devos at her January 2017 confirmation hearing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Student loan forgiveness</h2>
<p>Student loan forgiveness is one area in which DeVos seems to be changing direction from the Obama administration. In particular, she’s considering changes to the “<a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/borrower-defense">borrower defense to repayment</a>” regulations. These rules help students who have been defrauded or left in the lurch by university closures.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has approved none of the more than 15,000 applications it has received for loan forgiveness. An estimated <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2017/07/28/student-loan-forgiveness-trump">65,000 applications</a> are currently pending after DeVos called a halt to the rules – an act that <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/06/pf/college/betsy-devos-lawsuit-student-loan-rule/index.html">prompted 18 states to sue</a> DeVos in July.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on August 1, a <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/08/02/541126799/new-fears-for-public-service-loan-forgiveness">legal motion was filed</a> by the Department of Education that has left another loan forgiveness initiative in a state of limbo. Since 2007, the <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service">Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program</a> has forgiven student debt for public employees (e.g., teachers, firefighters, police) after payments are made for 10 years. Some 500,000 people are waiting to see if their debt will be forgiven as expected.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181707/original/file-20170810-4090-1l67vay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181707/original/file-20170810-4090-1l67vay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181707/original/file-20170810-4090-1l67vay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181707/original/file-20170810-4090-1l67vay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181707/original/file-20170810-4090-1l67vay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181707/original/file-20170810-4090-1l67vay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181707/original/file-20170810-4090-1l67vay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DeVos has left the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program in limbo. The program alleviates student debt for people like firefighters, social workers and teachers.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>For-profit colleges</h2>
<p>At the heart of the loan forgiveness controversy is the role of for-profit colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Under the Obama administration, revisions to the borrower defense rules came about after reports of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2017/07/28/student-loan-forgiveness-trump">for-profit institutions luring students</a> into taking out student loans. Some of these schools – including <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/corinthian-colleges-shuts-down-ending-classes-16-000-overnight-n348741">Corinthian Colleges</a> and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/07/itt-tech-shuts-down-all-campuses">ITT-Tech</a> – abruptly closed, leaving students unemployed or <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2016/03/25/former-corinthian-colleges-to-pay-over-1b-for-defrauding-students/">lacking the skills promised</a> by the institution. These closings account for the majority of the loan forgiveness applications pending due to DeVos’ delay. </p>
<p>What’s more, DeVos is seeking to loosen federal restrictions on for-profit colleges and universities. The Obama-era <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2015/07/08/what-the-new-gainful-employment-rule-means-for-college-students">Gainful Employment Rule</a> requires colleges and universities to report how many of their graduates are able to pay back their student loans after graduation and what their income level is once completing a degree or certificate program. </p>
<p>DeVos called the current system “<a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-announces-regulatory-reset-protect-students-taxpayers-higher-ed-institutions">a muddled process that’s unfair to students and schools</a>” and has decided to discard the current version of the Gainful Employment Rule and start the process from scratch.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181708/original/file-20170810-20110-179265w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181708/original/file-20170810-20110-179265w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181708/original/file-20170810-20110-179265w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181708/original/file-20170810-20110-179265w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181708/original/file-20170810-20110-179265w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181708/original/file-20170810-20110-179265w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181708/original/file-20170810-20110-179265w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under DeVos, for-profit colleges may see a relaxing of Obama-era regulations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ITT_Technical_Institute_campus_Canton_Michigan.JPG">Dwight Burdette</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sexual assault on campus</h2>
<p>Student loan forgiveness and for-profit regulations aren’t the only Obama-era initiatives that DeVos is seeking to roll back. DeVos has also been at the center of a controversy regarding campus sexual assault and Title IX, the anti-discrimination law.</p>
<p>During the Obama administration, a <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/09/19/president-obama-launches-its-us-campaign-end-sexual-assault-campus">great deal of focus</a> was paid to the widespread problem of sexual assault on college campuses. As a result, the administration <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-and-obama-rewrite-the-rulebook-on-college-sexual-assaults/2016/07/03/0773302e-3654-11e6-a254-2b336e293a3c_story.html">issued guidelines</a> that advised universities to treat rape as a form of sexual harassment. University officials who failed to do so would be considered in violation of <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html">Title IX</a>.</p>
<p>In an effort to reduce sexual violence on campus, the <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201104.pdf">administration suggested</a> that action be taken with a “<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/08/04/little-appetite-rollback-obama-guidelines-campus-sexual-assault">preponderance of evidence</a>” – a looser evidence standard that allowed alleged victims to request investigation more easily.</p>
<p>DeVos and her staff claim that the climate on campuses has swung too far in the wrong direction, leaving many men unfairly accused of assault. In fact, Candice Jackson, DeVos’ hire to head the civil rights division of the Department of Education, came under fire – and <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/07/13/537082095/education-department-official-apologizes-for-flippant-campus-sexual-assault-comm">later apologized</a> – for “flippant” remarks she made characterizing the majority of campus sexual assault cases as the result of two drunk students or unhappy ex-girlfriends.</p>
<p>DeVos intends to revisit the current policy, but her intentions are still unclear. Importantly, whatever guidelines DeVos institutes, the U.S. Department of Education would likely maintain the power to withdraw federal funding to public institutions that fail to comply with Title IX guidelines. The department does not, however have direct methods with which to enforce sexual assault protections.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181709/original/file-20170810-20679-6m0dub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181709/original/file-20170810-20679-6m0dub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181709/original/file-20170810-20679-6m0dub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181709/original/file-20170810-20679-6m0dub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181709/original/file-20170810-20679-6m0dub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181709/original/file-20170810-20679-6m0dub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181709/original/file-20170810-20679-6m0dub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Vice President Joe Biden speaking at an anti-sexual violence event. Devos is looking to revisit the Obama administration’s campus sexual assault policies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Paul Vernon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Civil rights</h2>
<p>Early in her tenure as secretary of education, DeVos <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-transgender-students-need-safe-bathrooms-50831">rescinded Obama-era guidelines</a> interpreting Title IX with regard to protections for transgender students.</p>
<p>In June, Jackson <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3866816-OCR-Instructions-to-the-Field-Re-Transgender.html">released a document</a> instructing schools on the topic of transgender students. It does not include <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-essential-education-updates-southern-this-is-the-trump-administration-s-new-1497632892-htmlstory.html">bathroom protection for transgender students</a>, a key component of the Obama-era guidelines.</p>
<p>This document, in addition to Jackson’s controversial comments about sexual assault, <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/08/democrats_blast_betsy_devos_hostility_civil_rights.html">spurred House Democrats</a> to demand the dismissal of Jackson from her post, but nothing has yet been done. </p>
<p>In addition to the policy shift for transgender students, DeVos has also been criticized for claiming that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/betsy-devos-comments-about-hbcus-2017-2">historically black colleges and universities</a> were great pioneers of school choice. The comment <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/02/28/devos-called-hbcus-pioneers-of-school-choice-it-didnt-go-over-well">enraged critics</a>, leaving DeVos to <a href="https://apnews.com/c48492774a0a4f6185e3ef208ef83dd5">apologize</a> and attempt to combat perceptions that she may be insensitive to the plight of African-Americans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181711/original/file-20170810-20110-15ydlmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181711/original/file-20170810-20110-15ydlmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181711/original/file-20170810-20110-15ydlmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181711/original/file-20170810-20110-15ydlmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181711/original/file-20170810-20110-15ydlmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181711/original/file-20170810-20110-15ydlmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181711/original/file-20170810-20110-15ydlmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gavin Grimm’s suit to grant transgender students access to appropriate facilities remains undecided.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Steve Helber</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Special education</h2>
<p>In July, DeVos gave her first major speech on special education for students with disabilities. Critics were disappointed in her <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/07/18/the-deep-irony-in-betsy-devoss-first-speech-on-special-education">emphasis on school choice</a>, rather than the need for more resources dedicated to special education in public schools.</p>
<p>DeVos also stated in that speech that she has prioritized special education complaints in the Office of Civil Rights, which is not actually the office that deals with special education complaints. This confusion came six months after DeVos also took heat for <a href="http://time.com/4637642/betsy-devos-confirmation-education-policy">confusion about federal special education law</a> at her confirmation hearing.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fftskn5HFdA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">At her confirmation hearing in January, Betsy DeVos came under fire for a perceived lack of understanding about IDEA, the federal special education law.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>In sum, while Secretary DeVos has been in office, much of her agenda has been focused on rescinding actions taken by the Obama administration, without enacting much in the way of official replacement policy herself. This has left many policies and guidelines in a state of uncertainty while the country waits to see what will happen.</p>
<p>It appears that she’s changing what she can with her official power – and using her pulpit to influence. But broad change requires legislative action, which is yet to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dustin Hornbeck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From student loans to Title IX, Betsy DeVos has had a busy six months in office. But despite numerous reversals of Obama-era guidelines, little has come in the way of tangible policy.Dustin Hornbeck, Ph.D. Student in Educational Leadership and Policy, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/810962017-07-31T19:55:12Z2017-07-31T19:55:12ZUniversities have a problem with sexual assault and harassment: here’s how to fix it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179938/original/file-20170727-25733-1k417nv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">University students need more, and better, education in sexual violence prevention strategies.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities in Australia have a serious problem with sexual assault and sexual harassment. The <a href="http://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AHRC_2017_ChangeTheCourse_UniversityReport.pdf">Australian Human Rights Commission’s survey</a>, released today, documents that large numbers of students have experienced sexual assault and harassment.</p>
<p>This is no surprise. National and international studies have already established that the risks of sexual and dating violence are <a href="http://media.aomx.com/anrows.org.au/s3fs-public/151022%20Horizons%201.1%20PSS.pdf">highest among university-aged populations</a>. And key risk factors for sexual violence, including sexist norms and gender inequalities, thrive in <a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/ProgramsandProjects/DiscriminationandViolence/ViolenceAgainstWomen/CAS_Paper3_CriticalLiterature.ashx">some campus contexts</a>.</p>
<p>Universities are already adopting <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838014521322">systems</a> and <a href="http://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEP/article/view/19426/19628">policies</a> for responding to victims and survivors. But they also must act to prevent sexual assault and harassment from happening in the first place.</p>
<h2>Education is a key response</h2>
<p>It may be tempting for universities to adopt tokenistic measures aimed largely at placating parents and reassuring international student markets. But a real effort demands more comprehensive strategies to prevent violence among students and staff.</p>
<p>A key element of campus prevention efforts should be violence prevention education. Teaching and learning strategies are the most widely used <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7095750/Current_Practices_to_Preventing_Sexual_Violence_and_Intimate_Partner_Violence">tools of violence prevention</a>.</p>
<p>There is <a href="http://www.xyonline.net/content/xii-prevention-campuses-and-universities">significant scholarship</a> in this field, including <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838010390708?journalCode=tvaa">more than 100 published evaluations</a> of university-based prevention programs. These show that face-to-face education programs are effective in preventing and reducing violence. </p>
<p>If done well, these can reduce students’ adherence to attitudes that support rape, decrease victim-blaming, increase students’ willingness to intervene, and even lower rates of actual perpetration. However, if poorly designed and implemented, some programs produce no positive impact or even make things worse.</p>
<p>It will be useless, and indeed harmful, if universities adopt programs that fall short of standards for effective practice in <a href="http://www.xyonline.net/content/respectful-relationships-education-violence-prevention-and-respectful-relationships-educatio">violence prevention education</a>. </p>
<p>Some Australian universities already host programs on sexual consent, healthy relationships, bystander intervention and related topics. These programs are of varying quality. Few if any meet well-established criteria <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/getmedia/4a61e08b-c958-40bc-8e02-30fde5f66a25/Evidence-paper-respectful-relationships-education-AA-updated.pdf.aspx">for effective practice</a>. </p>
<p>Most are far too brief to make change, comprising only one or two hours of instruction. Most are not designed to be sustained or integrated into the institution. And none have been subjected to robust impact evaluation (although some are based on other, evaluated programs).</p>
<h2>Importance of a holistic approach</h2>
<p>Effective practice in violence prevention education on campus has five essential elements:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a whole-of-institution approach</p></li>
<li><p>a long-term vision and funding</p></li>
<li><p>effective curriculum delivery</p></li>
<li><p>relevant and tailored practice</p></li>
<li><p>evaluation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Whatever means a university adopts to educate its students about violence, these must be embedded in a whole-of-institution approach. This includes educating students and staff, changing organisational policies and practices, and building an equitable university culture.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.whatworks.co.za/documents/publications/35-global-evidence-reviews-paper-2-interventions-to-prevent-violence-against-women-and-girls-sep-2015">Reviews of violence prevention</a> and relationships education are unanimous in advocating a whole-of-organisation or institution-wide approach. This applies to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/campussvprevention.pdf">university context</a>, <a href="https://endingviolence.uiowa.edu/assets/CDC-Preventing-Sexual-Violence-on-College-Campuses-Lessons-from-Research-and-Practice.pdf">in particular</a>. </p>
<p>This also requires systems of response to victims and perpetrators, stakeholder involvement (including by students and community violence-focused agencies), accountability systems, and reporting on outcomes. </p>
<p>Prevention requires a long-term approach, including resourcing, staffing and senior-level leadership.</p>
<h2>What is an effective program?</h2>
<p>What does the effective delivery of violence prevention curriculums look like? </p>
<p>They must tackle the <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/getmedia/d53470da-fe17-4af1-baca-bedfd7f9b235/Change-the-story-framework-foundations-1-updated.pdf.aspx">factors known to drive violence</a>, including <a href="https://www.academia.edu/444508/Factors_Influencing_Attitudes_to_Violence_Against_Women_Journal_article_2009_">violence-supportive and sexist attitudes</a> and gender inequalities. </p>
<p>They also must tackle both physical and sexual violence. In practice these often <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/campussvprevention.pdf">overlap and co-occur</a>, as do their <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838014521027">risk and protective factors</a>.</p>
<p>Effective programs are <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2008/08/04112614/0">interactive, participatory</a> and involve <a href="http://vawnet.org/material/evaluation-campus-based-gender-violence-prevention-programming-what-we-know-about-program">small-group learning</a>. They include activities focused on skills development (seeking consent, resolving conflict, and so on). They have protocols for responding to disclosures of victimisation and perpetration.</p>
<p>To work well, programs must run for long enough and intensively enough to produce change. While brief, one-session programs among students are common, none have demonstrated lasting effects on <a href="https://endingviolence.uiowa.edu/assets/CDC-Preventing-Sexual-Violence-on-College-Campuses-Lessons-from-Research-and-Practice.pdf">risk factors or behaviour</a>.</p>
<p>Lengthier programs have greater impacts, as a wide range of <a href="http://www.nasasv.org.au/PDFs/Standards_Full_Report.pdf">reviews</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838010390708?journalCode=tvaa">analyses</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274699523_School-based_violence_prevention_programmes_A_literature_review">have shown</a>. At least five classroom sessions is a reasonable minimum.</p>
<p>Both mixed-sex and single-sex classes have <a href="http://www.xyonline.net/content/respectful-relationships-education-violence-prevention-and-respectful-relationships-educatio">advantages and disadvantages</a>. The optimum strategy may be a sequenced mix of both.</p>
<p>Finally, it should be university staff who teach violence prevention education on campus. This <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/getmedia/4a61e08b-c958-40bc-8e02-30fde5f66a25/Evidence-paper-respectful-relationships-education-AA-updated.pdf.aspx">facilitates a whole-of-institution approach</a>, enables more effective integration of curricula, and fosters student wellbeing. </p>
<p>While some recommend using peer educators (other students), a review and meta-analysis find that peer educators are <a href="http://www.svri.org/sites/default/files/attachments/2016-03-21/menandboys.pdf">no more effective</a> or <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2005.00237.x/abstract">less effective</a> than professional presenters.</p>
<p>The fourth essential element of effective violence prevention on campuses is relevant and tailored practice. Good-practice programs are informed by knowledge of their audiences and local contexts. This means they are tailored for particular campus populations.</p>
<p>Finally, universities must evaluate and improve their violence prevention efforts. This requires them to gather <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838014521027">robust data</a> on their impacts on violence-related attitudes and behaviours.</p>
<p>Australian universities have a critical opportunity to adopt world-leading initiatives in campus-based prevention.vStrong prevention frameworks are already available, such as <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/What-We-Do/National-Primary-Prevention-Framework">Change the Story</a> and <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/women/programs-services/reducing-violence/the-national-plan-to-reduce-violence-against-women-and-their-children-2010-2022">national plans of action</a>.</p>
<p>Overseas, university bodies such as the <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/changing-the-culture-final-report.aspx">Universities UK Taskforce</a> have shown national-level leadership. It is time for Australian universities to step up and adopt a comprehensive, long-term and multi-pronged prevention strategy.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If you need support, help is available.</em></p>
<p><em>* National university support line: 1800 572 224 (From July 31 to November 30, 2017)</em></p>
<p><em>* 1800 RESPECT: 1800 737 732</em></p>
<p><em>* Lifeline: 13 11 14</em></p>
<p><em>* Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Flood receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>A new report reveals that Australian universities are not as safe as they should be, and it’s time they adopted strategies to fix the problem.Michael Flood, Associate Professor in Sociology, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/757682017-04-06T03:17:27Z2017-04-06T03:17:27ZHow ethical is sexual assault research?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164222/original/image-20170406-16576-dgqxuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3929%2C2297&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ethics procedures aim to protect research participants from harm.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thirty-nine Australian universities will now <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/Media-and-Events/media-releases/Universities-confirm-release-of-sexual-assault-and-harassment-data#.WOWEMFOGOV4">individually release the findings</a> of a national research project on sexual assault and harassment on campus.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/uni-participation-quality/students/Student-safety#.WOWeyVOGOV4">“Respect. Now. Always.”</a> project, launched in February 2016, has involved two phases: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>an open call for submissions from the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/">Australian Human Rights Commission</a> (AHRC)</p></li>
<li><p>an online survey with a randomly selected sample of current university students.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This announcement follows intense criticism from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/04/human-rights-commission-defends-survey-on-university-sexual-assaults">student bodies</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/human-rights-commission-accused-of-betraying-students-who-participated-in-sexual-assault-survey-20170402-gvc56f.html">sexual assault activists</a> after it was initially announced that the findings for individual universities would not be made public. </p>
<p>The project has also faced considerable controversy over the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/projects/university-sexual-assault-and-sexual-harassment-project">submission process</a>, which did <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/sexual-assault-project-is-committed-to-real-change-20170404-gvdga7.html">not receive ethics approval</a> before starting the research. The AHRC said this was because it was not required.</p>
<p>But the commission confirmed it did receive ethics approval for the survey component of the research. </p>
<p>Insufficient distinction between the two strands of the project, however, appears to have created confusion over whether correct ethics protocols have been followed – and over the nature of the research that participants were taking part in. </p>
<p>The project has also suffered from <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/sexual-assault-project-is-committed-to-real-change-20170404-gvdga7.html">poor communication with participants</a>. The AHRC has <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/stories/university-sexual-assault-project-will-see-results-students">acknowledged</a> that its use of the phrase “areas for action”, rather than “recommendations”, was confusing and misleading.</p>
<p>In response to this, journalist and anti-sexual assault advocate Nina Funnell <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/04/human-rights-commission-defends-survey-on-university-sexual-assaults">commented</a> in The Guardian:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They don’t have to get ethics approval, that is true, but they do have to treat survivors with respect and they haven’t.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Clearly, this case raises some substantial questions about what constitutes “ethical” research on sexual assault. </p>
<p>Why does it matter if research is ethical or not? And what steps could or should have been taken to ensure that issues such as those the AHRC now faces are avoided?</p>
<h2>Research ethics 101</h2>
<p>Ethics procedures are in place as a way to safeguard and protect research participants from harm, while ensuring that research has the potential to benefit the broader community.</p>
<p>In Australia, strict <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/r39.pdf">codes of conduct</a> govern research involving human participants. These codes set out the responsibilities of individual researchers and the institutions they work for. </p>
<p>All research involving human participants is subject to review by a <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-ethics/human-research-ethics-committees-hrecs/frequently-asked-questions-faqs-about-human-res">human research ethics committee</a>. Researchers cannot start their work until approval has been granted.</p>
<p>Broadly speaking, <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/demystifying-ethical-review">ethical research</a> is guided by the following <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/r39.pdf">principles</a>:</p>
<p><strong>Respect</strong> </p>
<ul>
<li>All participants must be treated with respect for their rights and autonomy as human beings. This includes, for example, ensuring that they are informed as to what participation in research will involve, and what the potential risks are.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Merit</strong> </p>
<ul>
<li>Research is methodologically sound and rigorous. Any potential benefits of a project are balanced carefully against the potential to cause harm.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Justice</strong> </p>
<ul>
<li>The research does not disadvantage any particular segment of the community and the benefits of research are shared across the community.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Beneficence</strong> </p>
<ul>
<li>Research should seek to benefit the community. </li>
</ul>
<p>The ways in which these principles are achieved will, of course, vary depending upon the nature and goals of a specific research project.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164220/original/image-20170406-16585-1cov0o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164220/original/image-20170406-16585-1cov0o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164220/original/image-20170406-16585-1cov0o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164220/original/image-20170406-16585-1cov0o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164220/original/image-20170406-16585-1cov0o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164220/original/image-20170406-16585-1cov0o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164220/original/image-20170406-16585-1cov0o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sexual assault can be a difficult and sensitive topic to discuss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conducting research on sexual assault</h2>
<p>Obtaining ethics approval and conducting research in an ethical manner is vital for all research involving human participants. </p>
<p>Research with sexual assault victim-survivors can present <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19385821">heightened ethical challenges</a>. This means that research on this topic must be handled with particular skill, care and respect.</p>
<p>Although it is important not to generalise the experiences of victim-survivors, it is fair to say that sexual assault can be a <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/publications/insights-sexual-assault-perpetration/chapter-3-victimsurvivor-narratives">difficult and sensitive</a> topic to discuss with a researcher. </p>
<p>The potential for participants to experience harm or retraumatisation in sexual assault research is very real – although victim-survivors also report <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26051308">many benefits</a> from participating in research. </p>
<p>This does not mean that we cannot or should not undertake research with sexual assault victim-survivors. </p>
<p>It does, however, mean that we need to have processes in place to support participants and minimise the likelihood that taking part in a project will cause them distress. </p>
<p>This potential for harm places a considerable onus on sexual violence researchers to ensure that our projects are designed with care and rigour to ensure that our participants’ contributions carry the weight and authority they deserve. </p>
<p>Poorly designed research has the potential to cause <a href="http://www.who.int/gender/violence/womenfirtseng.pdf">direct harm to victim-survivors</a> – for example, it might underestimate the actual prevalence of sexual violence. </p>
<p>Sexual assault involves a loss of autonomy and control. Because of this, it is vital that our research aims to provide victim-survivors with control and choice over <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801208331248">how they participate</a> and what information they share. </p>
<p>A key aspect of affording participants control is communicating to them, prior to the research, how their contributions will be used and represented in research outputs, such as publications. </p>
<p>Victim-survivors often face the very real fear of being identified by their perpetrator and facing ramifications, as well as the stigma associated with experiencing sexual assault. </p>
<p>For these reasons, ensuring that participants cannot be identified, and that their responses are stored securely and confidentially, is of utmost importance.</p>
<p>Victim-survivors often participate in research out of a <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/publications/insights-sexual-assault-perpetration/chapter-3-victimsurvivor-narratives">desire to help others</a>. They share their experiences in the hope that doing so will contribute towards meaningful change, and ultimately prevent others from experiencing sexual violence. </p>
<p>Given this motivation, it is unsurprising that the AHRCs’ poor communication regarding whether recommendations will be made from the research has been a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/human-rights-commission-accused-of-betraying-students-who-participated-in-sexual-assault-survey-20170402-gvc56f.html">distressing one for some participants</a>: it may undermine their very purpose in participating in the first place. </p>
<p>Negative encounters with research have the potential to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/hrdq.1120/asset/1120_ftp.pdf;jsessionid=4FCFEE8B5B2609974A4B0BEE03DE8DAF.f03t03?v=1&t=j14jpd43&s=c00d663abb6594f98fe9ee4b310cd11d6e017c47">undermine public trust</a> and faith in research, and may contribute towards a reluctance to participate in the future. </p>
<h2>Getting it right</h2>
<p>How can we best ensure that all research with sexual assault victim-survivors engages in appropriate practices to protect and maintain participants’ rights and wellbeing, as well as the integrity of the research? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.svri.org/sites/default/files/attachments/2016-01-13/EthicalRecommendations.pdf">Best practice guidelines</a> on sexual assault research include, but are not limited to, <a href="http://www.who.int/gender/violence/womenfirtseng.pdf">the following</a>: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>prioritising the safety and wellbeing of participants at all times</p></li>
<li><p>ensuring the research methodology is sound</p></li>
<li><p>ensuring all members of a research team have been extensively trained in undertaking research sensitively with victim-survivors, and are aware of relevant ethical issues</p></li>
<li><p>providing support, such as access to counselling, for victim-survivors both during and after their participation in the research</p></li>
<li><p>having procedures in place to minimise the potential for participant distress, and to support participants should they become distressed during the research</p></li>
<li><p>maintaining the confidentiality of participants’ contributions at all times</p></li>
<li><p>affording participants control over how and when they participate</p></li>
<li><p>ensuring that participants are fully informed about the nature of the research, and how their contributions will be used, prior to taking part.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>• <strong>If this article has raised any concerns for you, please seek support by calling 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), <a href="http://www.1800respect.org.au">www.1800respect.org.au</a></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bianca Fileborn has previously received funding to undertake research on sexual violence.</span></em></p>A recent survey about sexual assault on university campuses was criticised as being unethical. So what is the right way to go about conducting such research?Bianca Fileborn, Lecturer in Criminology, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/722552017-03-07T03:14:41Z2017-03-07T03:14:41ZRape on campus: Athletes, status, and the sexual assault crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159844/original/image-20170307-14934-1hx6k4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Vanderbilt football player Brandon Vandenburg was sentenced to 17 years after being convicted in a college rape case.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mark Humphrey</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The feminist legal scholar <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=camtwo">Catharine MacKinnon</a> once <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674896468">argued</a>
that rape was not prohibited, but merely regulated. She was writing in 1989, four years before it became <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=201457">illegal to rape one’s spouse</a> in all 50 states. At the time, rape was quite clearly regulated in some states: you could rape your spouse, just not anyone else.</p>
<p>MacKinnon, though, wasn’t talking only about the law; she was talking about what happened outside the law, too. She was saying something far more provocative: No matter the law, certain strategies for gaining sexual compliance are sometimes allowed, and certain people can get away with sexual coercion and violence more often and more easily than others.</p>
<p>Learning about such experiences was, unfortunately, an inevitable part of writing <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/American-Hookup/">“American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus,”</a> my book about sex in college. To understand student experiences, I visited 24 institutions, read hundreds of firsthand accounts of hookup culture published in college newspapers, collected 101 student journals about life in the first year and reviewed the now-extensive work on hookup culture by social scientists, which included survey data summarizing 24,000 student responses.</p>
<p>One outcome of this work was an understanding of the role that status plays in organizing sexual activity on campus. Status shapes who has access to sex, with whom and with what consequences. All things being equal, high-status students benefit from hookup culture, while low-status students suffer harm or exclusion.</p>
<p>Among the most high-status students on campus are athletes — especially men who play the most celebrated sports. These students carry the kind of privilege that MacKinnon described, and they often know it. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time NBA champion, MVP and former UCLA star, once <a href="http://time.com/3689368/campus-sexual-assault-athletes-yes-means-yes/">called out</a> his fellow student-athletes on this issue:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m especially aware of the culture of entitlement that some athletes feel, as they strut around campus with the belief that they can do no wrong.“</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On average, athletes are more likely than other students on campus to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-007-9225-1">identify with hypermasculinity</a> and to <a href="http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1407&context=etd">accept</a> <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801216651339">"rape myths” </a> to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-007-9225-1">justify sexual assaults.</a> Evidence also suggests they’re more likely to be <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/McNeil_Consent%20Communication.pdf">confused about consent</a> and admit to having <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524838014537907">committed</a> <a href="https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/06/attitudes-assault-athletes-2016/">acts</a> of <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-007-9225-1">sexual</a> <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801216651339">aggression</a>. </p>
<p>In writing “American Hookup” — in listening carefully to students and documenting how they choose and talk about their sexual partners — I came to understand how high-status athletes are able to persist in holding and acting on these beliefs if they choose to, and with greater impunity than their peers. </p>
<p>Here is what I found.</p>
<h2>Sex and status on college campuses</h2>
<p>In the culture of sex that dominates college campuses today, status is what sex is all about.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158607/original/image-20170227-25959-ajz6cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158607/original/image-20170227-25959-ajz6cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158607/original/image-20170227-25959-ajz6cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158607/original/image-20170227-25959-ajz6cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158607/original/image-20170227-25959-ajz6cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1034&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158607/original/image-20170227-25959-ajz6cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1034&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158607/original/image-20170227-25959-ajz6cb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1034&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many college football players are adored — almost worshipped — by their peers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In some ways, status simply gives athletes sexual access. Students who follow hookup culture’s rules choose to hook up with people they think will enhance their own popularity. As one of the female students who submitted to me a semester-long journal wrote: “It’s almost bragging rights if you hook up with a guy with a higher social status.” </p>
<p>“The whole point,” wrote another in her journal, “is to get some and then be able to point the person out to your friends and be like, ‘Yeah, that guy. That’s right. The hot one over there. I got that.’” </p>
<p>Hookup culture is about “having game”: It’s about “scoring” with someone your peers think is “worth” getting, someone who “counts.” In that game, as one of my male students put it, “sex is a commodity.”</p>
<p>If hookup culture is status-based, then high-status students like athletes are at an advantage. “It automatically sounds better,” explained another one of my female students, to say “I hooked up with a guy on the football team” instead of “I hooked up with a guy.” <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/sex-scandal-at-duke-sex-at-duke-duke-university-duke-scandal-duke-fraternities-duke-rape-duke-sororities-20060615">As a female student at Duke</a> put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Frat stars and athletes — those are the only ones that matter. I mean, honestly.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since their star status gives athletes plentiful opportunities to hook up, athletes sometimes find themselves following a hookup script that bears a queasy resemblance to sexual assault. As the students in “American Hookup” reveal, it’s expected in hookup culture that students will get people drunk with the aim of having sex with them; be sexually persistent, even forceful; pull peers into secluded parts of a party; and proceed quickly to sexual intercourse, even when their partners are near incapacitation. </p>
<p>In this way, I found, hookup culture both catalyzes and camouflages sexually coercive behavior: It instigates it at the same time that it makes it invisible. This puts high-status students like athletes at substantial risk of engaging in sexually violent behavior, if only because they have the most opportunity to play out this script. They may also be unlikely to be interrupted when they’re crossing the line.</p>
<h2>Status undermines bystander intervention</h2>
<p>Encouraging and training students to interrupt sexual assaults before they begin — what we call bystander intervention — is one of the <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/springer/vav/2013/00000028/00000006/art00009">most</a> <a href="http://209.198.129.131/images/Sex%20Violence%20Prevention%20through%20Bystander%20Education.pdf">promising</a> <a href="http://www.kasap.org/images/files/News/evaluation_of_green_dot.pdf">prevention</a> <a href="http://www.ncdsv.org/images/VAW_PreventingSexualAggressionAmongCollegeMenEvalSocialNormsBystanderIntervenPrgrm_2011.pdf">strategies</a>. However, the social power of some athletes may make it harder for peers to interrupt a potential assault when they see one happening. Students are in a social hierarchy and they know it. </p>
<p>Arguably, it’s one thing to pull a drunken peer out of the arms of some guy who lives down the hall; it’s entirely another to do so when he’s one of the most prominent and well-loved students on campus.</p>
<p>When bystanders don’t intervene, it’s left up to victims to come forward and prevent future assaults themselves. But the decision to report is almost always difficult and fraught, which is why <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rsavcaf9513.pdf">80 percent of campus sexual assaults go unreported</a>. When students have been victimized by celebrated athletes, how much more bravery is required — especially if the victim doesn’t have equal standing on campus? </p>
<p>Victims <a href="http://time.com/2905637/campus-rape-assault-prosecution/">fear that their anonymity may be compromised</a> and, when it is, they could be subject to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/jameis-winston-rape-accuser-speaks-film/story?id=29268643">the wrath</a> of those who liken athletes to gods.</p>
<h2>Status and institutional protection</h2>
<p>In cases where victims do decide to report the assault, they sometimes discover that their institutions are as inclined to protect the perpetrator as their peers. </p>
<p>Evidence suggests that in some instances, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Crisis-of-Campus-Sexual-Violence-Critical-Perspectives-on-Prevention/Wooten-Mitchell/p/book/9781138849419">administrations protect athletes</a> named as perpetrators of sexual assault. A <a href="https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/SurveyReportwithAppendix.pdf">U.S. Senate survey of 440 colleges and universities</a> found that staff or administrators sometimes discourage victims from reporting, downgrade an assault’s severity, delay proceedings while athletes finish their season or graduate, or simply fail to follow up altogether. When athletes are found responsible for sexual assault, they may suffer only trivial consequences. </p>
<p>In just the last five years, there have been at least 19 controversies surrounding university administrations’ response to reports of sexual assault. For example, despite <a href="http://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=170207">forced changes in leadership</a>, Baylor continues to be embroiled in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/01/us/texas-rangers-baylor-university/">investigations</a> and <a href="http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/18846299/judge-allows-lawsuit-baylor-proceed">lawsuits</a>, facing allegations that the university was “deliberately indifferent” to reports of sexual assault involving student-athletes. In January 2016, <a href="http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/18569197/latest-lawsuit-filed-baylor-university-alleges-culture-which-drugs-alcohol-sex-were-encouraged">Florida State settled for $950,000</a> with a former student who alleged that “university officials concealed and obstructed the sexual assault investigation so that [Jameis] Winston could play football.” Though some of the institutions have enacted policies in response to similar allegations, there has been controversy over administrative response to sexual assault at: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/amherst-vanderbilt-sexual-assault_n_4271138.html">Amherst</a>, <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/12/11/co-eds-rip-columbia-over-athlete-rape-probes/">Columbia</a>, <a href="http://jezebel.com/5696455/student-commits-suicide-after-alleged-sexual-assault-by-notre-dame-football-player">Notre Dame</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/amherst-vanderbilt-sexual-assault_n_4271138.html">Vanderbilt</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/us/how-one-college-handled-a-sexual-assault-complaint.html?_r=0">Hobart and William Smith</a>, <a href="http://jezebel.com/5886537/two-assault-charges-makes-bus-hockey-team-look-pretty-bad">Boston University</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/20/outcry-at-loyola-after-students-learn-athlete-accused-of-rape-was-enrolled-for-three-years/?utm_term=.6d8a2e5099db">Loyola University at Chicago</a> and the Universities of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/uconn-sexual-assault-complaint_n_4133713.html">Connecticut</a>, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/01/03/delaware-sued-mishandling-athlete-rape-allegation">Delaware</a>, <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article67318452.html">Kansas</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/michigan-federal-investigations-sexual-assault_n_4860084.html">Michigan</a>, <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article345051/Sasha-Menu-Courey%E2%80%99s-parents-hope-Mizzou-learns-from-investigation.html">Missouri</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Missoula-Rape-Justice-System-College/dp/0804170568">Montana</a>, <a href="http://deadspin.com/lawsuit-unm-interfered-with-gang-rape-case-involving-f-1687067387">New Mexico</a>, <a href="http://wivb.com/2015/12/07/niagara-university-dean-of-students-placed-on-leave-as-investigation-begins/">Niagara</a>, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/bdavidridpath/2016/09/15/the-attitude-toward-sexual-and-athlete-violence-in-college-sports-must-change/#125b7503451d">North Carolina</a>, <a href="http://www.thecollegianur.com/article/2016/09/richmond-student-speaks-about-title-ix-case">Richmond</a>, <a href="http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/02/09/sweeping-sexual-assault-suit-filed-against-ut/79966450/">Tennessee</a> and <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/08/21/patrick-swilling-jr-letter-tulsa-idaho-sexual-assault-title-ix/14394481/">Tulsa</a>.</p>
<p>I would also argue that many colleges and universities have a problem in the form of a perverse incentive: Because of the relationship between higher education and sports, protecting student-athletes — especially in high profile sports — can be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/how-big-time-sports-ate-college-life.html">akin to protecting the institution itself</a>. </p>
<h2>The status quo</h2>
<p>Catharine MacKinnon’s comments, almost 30 years later, still have the ring of truth. Certain people can get away with sexual coercion and violence more often and more easily than others. On college campuses, hookup culture is part of why. </p>
<p>Intervening as a bystander is <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260513505210">difficult enough already</a>, but my research has shown that students are even less inclined to do so when it means confronting someone with substantially more social power. And when men and women are assaulted by high-profile athletes or other high-status students, they may fear that reporting will bring further suffering — this time at the hands of their peers and their institutions.</p>
<p>There are things we can do. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/SurveyReportwithAppendix.pdf">report submitted to the US Senate</a> showed that many colleges and universities aren’t currently in compliance with the law and fail to follow the best known practices for prevention, reporting and adjudication. </p>
<p>Institutions need to follow those practices consistently, even — and this is the hard part — when it harms their reputation or bottom line. </p>
<p>Of course, I expect there will still be the perverse incentives faced by administrators tasked with protecting both students and the institutions they represent, as well as the devotion students have to their schools’ star athletes. To my mind, colleges need to institutionalize <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/how-big-time-sports-ate-college-life.html">a different relationship between higher education and sports</a>. In other words, to make real inroads against sexual assault on campus, the status that both athletics and athletes enjoy should be reduced.</p>
<p>More broadly, in my view, students need to be enabled to question whether sex should be about status at all. Must casual sex be an inherently competitive game with winners and losers? Or, could partners be chosen for their generosity or a shared affinity? Students could place a premium on pleasure and personal growth instead of popularity. Until they change their minds about the role sex plays on campus, sexual misconduct will continue to be more regulated than prohibited.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Wade is the author of "American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus," published by WW Norton & Co.</span></em></p>Why are student-athletes so often at the center of sexual assault cases? A look at the culture of hookups, coverups, and who’s got game.Lisa Wade, Professor of Sociology, Occidental CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/737582017-03-01T03:22:50Z2017-03-01T03:22:50ZUniversity sexual assault policies are often ‘inconsistent’ and ‘confusing’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158853/original/image-20170301-19806-1qnz4qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Figures show that few reports of sexual assault have resulted in the expulsion of the perpetrator from the university.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of scathing reports have brought much needed attention to the issue of inappropriate polices and practices for responding to student reports of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault at Australian universities. </p>
<p>In a 2017 report to the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/projects/university-sexual-assault-and-sexual-harassment-project">Australian Human Rights Commission</a>, the advocacy group, <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5762fc04f5e231826f09afae/t/58b3d08ddb29d6e7a2b8271d/1488179368580/Connecting+the+dots.pdf">End Rape on Campus (EROC) Australia</a>, with co-author, journalist and advocate Nina Funnell, point to the high numbers of sexual assaults occurring against Australian university students – both on and off campus. </p>
<p>Although we do not currently have reliable statistics on the victimisation rates of sexual violence in Australian universities, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) more broadly report that <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4906.0Chapter5002012">1 in 5 women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15, compared to 1 in 22 men</a>. </p>
<p>ABS and police data show that women aged 16 to 24 are at most risk of sexual violence, most commonly at the hands of a known man.</p>
<h2>How do universities tackle the issue?</h2>
<p>Much concern has been expressed about the ways in which reports of sexual violence are being handled by Australian universities. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jan/20/university-employed-man-for-three-months-after-he-pleaded-guilty-to">one notorious case</a> in 2015, James Cook University came <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-23/university-staffer-student-rape-james-cook-university-promoted/8203976">under fire</a> for promoting a staff member who had been charged with raping an Indigenous student and then continuing to employ him for three months after he had pleaded guilty and was awaiting sentencing. </p>
<p>A spokesperson for the university told The Conversation: “At the time he took on the new role, in early 2016, the university was unaware he had been charged with the offence.”</p>
<p>JCU has since commissioned an external, independent investigation to confirm the timeline of events and what actions were taken within the university.</p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/a/32833222/less-than-2-of-sexual-assaults-led-to-expulsion-sn-university-foi-reveals/#page1">Channel 7’s Sunday Night program</a> investigated reported rates of sexual assault and harassment at Australian universities through freedom of information (FOI) requests, showing that over the past five years, there have been 575 official complaints of sexual assault and harassment recorded (145 reports specifically on rape). </p>
<p>Yet out of 575 reports, only six of these resulted in the expulsion of the perpetrator from the university. </p>
<p>The inappropriate handling of these cases contributes to underreporting, regardless of whether the violence occurs on or off campus. </p>
<h2>Few students formally report sexual assaults</h2>
<p>In 2016, <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/dam/corporate/documents/campus-life/emergencies-and-personal-safety/safer-community-for-all-final-report.pdf">Sydney University</a> found that only 1% of their students who had experienced a sexual or indecent assault ever made a formal report to their university. </p>
<p><a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nus/pages/144/attachments/original/1454369041/Talk_about_it_Survey_Report.pdf?1454369041">The National Union of Students survey from 2015</a> likewise reported that just 6% of victims reported the incident to their universities, and less than 5% reported the incident to police. </p>
<p>These figures are perhaps not surprising since rape survivors are among the least likely of all crime victims to report to the police, with some studies revealing that between <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4906.0Main+Features12005%20%28Reissue%29?OpenDocument">15-20% of survivors</a> end up making a formal complaint to police. </p>
<h2>Universities advise on ‘how not to get raped’</h2>
<p>The EROC Australia report also points to problematic advice, information and support given to sexual violence survivors who disclose to university staff. </p>
<p>These might include accusatory statements, inappropriate questioning about the details of the assault, minimisation, blame, telling the survivor what to do, and overstepping the boundaries. According to one survivor:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The first person I told asked me how much I had been drinking. The second person I told said that I would be ruining his life. The third person I told said it wasn’t a university issue. The fourth person I told asked me why I had waited so long to tell anyone.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is also concern about the <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5762fc04f5e231826f09afae/t/58b3d08ddb29d6e7a2b8271d/1488179368580/Connecting+the+dots.pdf">university safety tips</a> that “often employ ‘stranger danger’ myths, focus heavily on alcohol consumption, and fail to address commonly-held, dangerous beliefs about gender”.</p>
<p>For example, universities advise students to “not give mixed messages” with eye contact, voice, posture and gestures. They are told to avoid getting intoxicated or to pay half of the bill on a date to reduce obligations. </p>
<p>Students are also advised to walk in well-lit areas, carry personal alarms and “rape whistles” and “be prepared to scream and shout if attacked”.</p>
<p>The problem is that these prevention messages are often directed at the victim and what she or he can do to avoid being raped, rather than the perpetrator. </p>
<p>The danger in this advice is that many survivors may be deterred from reporting since they may feel they are at fault, or that what happened to them doesn’t really count as “rape”, particularly if the perpetrator is a known person. </p>
<h2>Is this a university responsibility?</h2>
<p>Australian universities have a patchwork of policies and practices for responding to reports of sexual violence. According to <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5762fc04f5e231826f09afae/t/58b3d08ddb29d6e7a2b8271d/1488179368580/Connecting+the+dots.pdf">EROC Australia</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Australian universities’ policies and procedures regarding sexual assault and harassment are often overlapping, confusing, inconsistent, incomplete, or in some cases non-existent. This means that it is extremely difficult for students who have been sexually assaulted to identify where they can get help at the university, who they can report the assault to, and what formal complaint procedures are”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="http://www.endrapeoncampusau.org/university-policies/">reporting policies and processes</a> vary between different Australian universities. </p>
<p>Some universities require that all reports of rape and sexual assault are reported to police, which might be directly against the survivor’s wishes. </p>
<p>In other cases a survivor wants the incident to be reported to police, but has been discouraged either formally or informally to do so. </p>
<p>Some universities advise survivors to meet informally with the perpetrator. </p>
<p>On the <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2015/408&RendNum=0">University of Sydney’s website on Student Complaints Procedures</a>, students are advised that before making a formal complaint they should seek to resolve the issue informally by approaching “the person you believe is responsible and tell[ing] them what the issue is; ask[ing] them to stop; or to behave differently”. </p>
<p>This advice is highly inappropriate in rape or sexual assault cases and can lead to further harms.</p>
<p>In all Australian universities, survivors have the option of going through an internal process that investigates an alleged breach of the institution’s disciplinary code or code of conduct, often through inviting the student to appear before a panel to give evidence. </p>
<p>An internal investigation cannot involve forensic evidence and a perpetrator cannot be deprived of his or her liberty. However, an alleged perpetrator can be reprimanded, suspended, expelled or dismissed from the university if the panel decides on the “balance of probabilities” that the act occurred. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2016/guidance-for-higher-education-institutions.pdf">If conducted appropriately</a>, these internal procedures can ensure fairness to both the survivors and the alleged perpetrators. </p>
<p>While not all survivors will want to pursue this avenue, it should be made available as one of range of different options. </p>
<p>Universities can also implement interim measures to exclude an alleged perpetrator from university premises pending the outcome of a formal complaints process.</p>
<p>Overall, the <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5762fc04f5e231826f09afae/t/58b3d08ddb29d6e7a2b8271d/1488179368580/Connecting+the+dots.pdf">EROC Australia report</a> criticises the “inappropriate outcomes” and “lenient punishments” that universities impose on perpetrators in internal investigations. </p>
<p>FOI data reveal that punishments have variously involved: fines, community service, apology letters, or moving the perpetrator to a different residential hall. In other cases, the perpetrator received a formal warning or a “note on file”.</p>
<h2>Promoting pro-active and supportive university environments</h2>
<p>As educational centres, universities are well placed to address the problem of sexual violence. </p>
<p>Measures should focus on: awareness, support, education and prevention, and responses or remedies. </p>
<p>When students report that they have been a victim of a rape or sexual assault, it is important that these disclosures are received in a supportive and caring environment. </p>
<p>Training and support needs to be provided to staff members so that they give reassurance and information about the avenues available to survivors to empower them to make the right choices. </p>
<p>Emphasis needs to be placed on listening, and above all, protecting the confidentiality of survivors. </p>
<p>Universities have a duty of care to students and staff, regardless of where the rape or sexual assault took place, and regardless of whether the perpetrator was a student or staff member at the time of the assault.</p>
<h2>What can universities do better?</h2>
<p>Above all, universities need to take a proactive approach to tackling sexual violence on campus. Recommendations include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Clear and consistent institutional policies on how to respond to, and report on, disclosures of sexual violence, regardless of whether the incident occurred on campus and regardless of whether the perpetrator was a student or staff member at the university. These policies should be trauma-informed and survivor-centric.</p></li>
<li><p>A designated person (or team) with special expertise on sexual violence and who can conduct internal investigations.</p></li>
<li><p>Mandatory training for university counsellors in responding to disclosures of sexual assault; and training to help support staff and student leaders that is delivered by qualified expert services.</p></li>
<li><p>Clear referral pathways, that includes knowledge of external local services and an array of different options for survivors.</p></li>
<li><p>Transparent and publicly available data reporting.</p></li>
<li><p>Removal of reporting/lodging times for internal misconduct processes.</p></li>
<li><p>Greater communication to all parties about the processes and outcomes.</p></li>
<li><p>Appropriate advice and information to survivors through a comprehensive and trauma-informed website.</p></li>
<li><p>Primary prevention campaigns that: focus on consent and respectful relationships; raise awareness of the nature, scope and prevalence of sexual violence (both off and on campus); and promote proactive bystander intervention to challenge problematic behaviours and attitudes.</p></li>
<li><p>Support of further research into sexual violence.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These strategies will contribute to lesser rates of offending, greater reporting of victims and more transparency for universities. </p>
<p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5762fc04f5e231826f09afae/t/58b3d08ddb29d6e7a2b8271d/1488179368580/Connecting+the+dots.pdf">EROC Australia</a> also recommends that national standards be created for best practice responses to sexual violence. </p>
<p>This is alongside the establishment of a national complaints mechanism where an individual can complain to a federal agency about inappropriate responses to rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by their university.</p>
<p>•<em>If you or someone you know is impacted by rape or sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit <a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au/">www.1800RESPECT.org.au</a>. In an emergency, call 000.</em></p>
<p>• <em><strong>Correction: The original version of this story contained an inaccurate sentence about the promotion of a then James Cook University staff member charged with rape. This article was updated and corrected on March 2, 2017 with additional details including information about an external review into the case.</strong></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Henry receives funding from the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Prevention messages by universities are often directed at the victim and what she or he can do to avoid being raped. This may then deter reporting of the incident.Nicola Henry, Senior Lecturer in Legal Studies, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/609132016-06-16T09:55:17Z2016-06-16T09:55:17ZStanford sexual assault: what changed with the survivor’s testimony<p>As the case against Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted a woman when she was unconscious, unfolded in court, his attorneys <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/07/brock-turner-statement-stanford-rape-case-campus-culture">presented him</a> as a young man whose inexperience with alcohol and desire to fit in with his teammates led to a drunken night of consensual sex.</p>
<p>Following Turner’s conviction and six-month sentence, the victim <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra">released her 12-page</a> courtroom statement to Buzzfeed and it went viral. The sympathy she received kept the story in the news. </p>
<p>Details that have emerged in the aftermath of the trial – about the crime, Turner’s robust partying past and predatory sexual behavior, as well as his parents’ statements pleading for leniency in sentencing – <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/07/stanford-sexual-assault-letters-brock-turner-judge">reveal, I would argue, the extent</a> to which the judge’s decision to go easy on Brock Turner was grounded not in the facts of the case, but in a protective orientation toward young, privileged, white men.</p>
<p>My research into how women’s testimony about sexual assault is discredited demonstrates that facts are only one element in rape prosecutions. Facts are often not enough to offset cultural stereotypes about rape in court. </p>
<h2>Biases that work against women</h2>
<p>In numerous cases, including <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/17/steubenville-rape-trial-verdict_n_2895541.html">recent high school</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/magazine/have-we-learned-anything-from-the-columbia-rape-case.html?_r=0">college rape cases</a> involving athletes, victims are routinely exposed to legal processes that leave them feeling revictimized.</p>
<p>In my forthcoming book, <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/tainted-witness/9780231543446">“Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives,”</a> I examine how women who bring forward accounts of sexual assault and harassment find their credibility attacked.</p>
<p>Phrases like “he said/she said” or “no one knows what really happened” <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-victimization-of-women-9780199765102?q=Michelle%20Meloy&lang=en&cc=us">are used commonly</a> to describe rape as a matter of interpretation. Such phrases actively harm women’s credibility in general and erode our capacity to engage with the truth of specific cases. They allow savvy defense teams to substitute bias against women for the facts of actual cases and to turn sympathy towards perpetrators. </p>
<p>Because these stereotypes have entered the law and permeate everyday life, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/6/19/1217232/-Beyond-The-Shadow-of-a-Doubt-Applying-The-Wrong-Legal-Standard-To-Establishing-Consent-in-Rape-Case">doubt has become a legal weapon</a> that can be used against any woman who testifies about rape. And in criminal cases, like rape, reasonable doubt is the standard the evidence must meet. </p>
<p>Yet even when the facts in a case confirm guilt, as they did in the case against Brock Turner, who was caught in the act of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, defense teams can rely on bias: that women send “mixed signals” about sex, that women say no and mean yes, that women regret sex and cry rape. </p>
<p>None of these cliches is grounded in evidence. Overwhelmingly, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/04/19/400185648/jon-krakauer-tells-a-depressingly-typical-story-of-college-town-rapes">women tell the truth</a> about sexual violence. The majority of rapes <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Missoula.html?id=Q1WWBgAAQBAJ">will never be prosecuted</a> and, when they are prosecuted, the majority of rapists will not be convicted. </p>
<p>Why, then, are the stereotypes that women “cry rape” so durable? When the crime is rape, why are women doubted? </p>
<h2>Here’s what the Turner case shows</h2>
<p>The Brock Turner trial offers an opportunity to examine a familiar and successful set of strategies his legal team employed in the rape defense. These strategies shift responsibility from perpetrators to victims. </p>
<p>While there are numerous strategies, here are the three that predominate: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Blame the victim: This includes attacking her entire history and turning everything in her life into a sordid example of her loose morals. The focus especially is on what she wore and what she drank, as if the natural consequence of getting drunk is not an awful hangover but a sexual attack. This shifts responsibility from her attacker to her. </p></li>
<li><p>Elicit sympathy for the accused: Emphasize his many accomplishments and bright future (including his career as a promising athlete). Attach the word “ruin” to the risk to the perpetrator’s future and reputation and not to the victim’s. Ensure his visual image makes him appear as clean-cut and respectable as possible. </p></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Promote doubt: Instead of focusing on the facts in the case, capitalize on cultural stereotypes about women’s unreliability. Distort evidence in order to equalize the victim and perpetrator (e.g., they were both at the party, they were both drinking, they both left at some point, they both were part of a sexual “encounter”). Create a parallel story that suggests it’s all a matter of interpretation. </li>
</ul>
<p>For example, on the night Turner was arrested, he gave a statement that said he did not know the victim. Later, new elements were added to Turner’s testimony to create the illusion of consent, including alleging the victim, who did not regain consciousness until after being in the hospital for three hours, consented because she “rubbed my back.” </p>
<p>Turner’s light sentence distills the legal notion that women are not to be trusted and men’s – especially white men’s – reputations are not to be marred by what Dan Turner, the rapist’s father, called “<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/06/06/father-student-convicted-rape-steep-price-20-minutes-action/85492660/">20 minutes of action.</a>” </p>
<p>To be sure, these legal strategies are used because they work. The law allows them. We are susceptible to them because no one wants to see an innocent person wrongfully accused. However, the commonality among numerous cases allows us to understand the rape defense for what it is: a cynical and legally effective use of cultural stereotypes about rape and women’s unreliability to deflect blame from rapists and lighten their sentences. </p>
<h2>Testimonies from the past</h2>
<p>Although women are often doubted, lose in court or see perpetrators given light sentences, and endure having their lives distorted and sensationalized, their testimony can have a second act.</p>
<p>Anita Hill <a href="http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,167355,00.html">was smeared</a> after testifying during Clarence Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearing that he <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/20/anita-hill-scandal-almost-sank-clarence-thomas/">sexually harassed her</a> as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” Yet journalists Jill Abrahamson and Jane Mayer’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/11/books/books-of-the-times-the-thomas-hill-question-answered-anew.html">investigative study</a> found no evidence of what Clarence Thomas’s supporters accused her of. Instead, Thomas’s own behavior, including his penchant for pornography and hitting on women who worked for him, was confirmed. </p>
<p>Similarly, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was not charged in criminal court for sexually assaulting Nafissatou Diallo. She <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/10/dominique-strauss-kahn-case-settled">pressed her claim</a> against him in civil court, where the standard of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, and received a settlement for undisclosed damages. </p>
<h2>How the victim fought back</h2>
<p>What can be done to expose the rape defense for the cynical misogyny it traffics in?</p>
<p>No one has done this better than the young woman Brock Turner assaulted. In her moving courtroom statement, she detailed the trauma she experienced and its impact on her and her family. She also exposed and countered every strategy that had been used against her in a singular feminist voice.</p>
<p>She sounded both like herself, and, powerfully, through her decision to remain – thus far – anonymous, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/6/8/11887500/brock-turner-victim-anonymous">she sounded</a> like every woman.</p>
<p>She explicitly turned the “he said/she said” format against Brock Turner, countering six disclaimers from his statements. Here is the first one: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You said, ‘Being drunk I just couldn’t make the best decisions and neither could she.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She followed with her rebuttal: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked. Having too much to drink was an amateur mistake that I admit to, but it is not criminal. Everyone in this room has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much, or knows someone close to them who has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much. Regretting drinking is not the same as regretting sexual assault. We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. That’s the difference.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Once the victim’s statement left Judge Persky’s courtroom, it entered the court of public opinion. Vice President Joe Biden <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/06/read-joe-bidens-open-letter-stanford-suvivor-sexual-assault">published an open letter</a> to the victim, her statement was read in its entirety in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stanford-sexual-assault-victim-letter-congress_us_5758d597e4b00f97fba74969">the congressional record</a>, a <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_29997198/judge-aaron-persky-prospective-jurors-refuse-serve">petition to recall Judge Persky</a> is circulating, at least 10 potential jurors in his courtroom have refused to serve and evidence of Brock Turner’s alcohol and drug use <a href="http://www.today.com/video/brock-turner-rape-case-court-docs-show-history-of-drug-alcohol-use-702056003959">continues to surface</a>. On June 14, Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed a peremptory challenge against Judge Persky to <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/14/482103187/california-judge-in-stanford-rape-trial-removed-from-new-sex-assault-case">remove him</a> from deciding whether a former Kaiser Permanente surgical nurse should be tried for the alleged sexual assault of a sedated patient.</p>
<p>The ideology of gender bias operates under the deceptive cover of common sense in everyday life and as reasonable doubt in criminal court. In this way, the rules of evidence are biased against women. However, one of the most important outcomes of the current public attention is that we see how a new voice can disrupt the recycling of the the same old story. </p>
<p>In this case, the testimony of the woman survivor has galvanized student activists at Stanford, catalyzed protest against Judge Persky and promises to continue to expose systemic bias against women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60913/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leigh Gilmore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women’s testimony about sexual assault is often doubted and discredited. Here’s how the voice of the Stanford assault survivor changed an old narrative.Leigh Gilmore, Distinguished Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Wellesley CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/608142016-06-09T14:33:22Z2016-06-09T14:33:22ZStanford sexual assault: how social media gave a voice to the victim<p>The internet has erupted in fury after the sentencing of Brock Turner, a star athlete for the Stanford University swim team, who was convicted of three sexual offences, and more specifically of assaulting an unconscious, intoxicated 23-year-old woman behind a dumpster. Judge Aaron Persky <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/outrage-in-stanford-rape-case-over-dueling-statements-of-victim-and-attackers-father.html?_r=0">only sentenced Turner to six months in county jail</a>, noting that a harsher sentence would have a “severe” impact on him. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.ukMaa7m21#.caxXXyWGK">victim’s court statement to Turner</a> – a powerful, harrowing 12-page account of the impact the crime has had on her – went viral, with more than 13m views on Buzzfeed alone. So too, did a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/06/05/3784913/stanford-sexual-assault-dad-letter/">letter by Turner’s father</a>, defending his son – lamenting how his life should not be ruined by “20 minutes of action”. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/06/brock-turners-friend-pens-letter-of-support.html">letter by Turner’s female friend,</a> Leslie Rasmussen, was also released, claiming “rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists”. Cue <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36459504">further internet furore</a>. </p>
<p>Online campaigns to recall Judge Persky have earned over 500,000 signatures. Think pieces, blog posts, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/justice/2016/06/06/stanford-rape-survivor-letter-brock-allen-turner-ashleigh-banfield-orig.cnn">CNN videos</a>, and <a href="http://www.theonion.com/video/college-basketball-star-heroically-overcomes-tragi-19097">spoofs by The Onion</a> have been circulated and recirculated on social media, fuelled by vigorous discussions on Facebook and Twitter – marked by hashtags like <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/brockturner">#BrockTurner</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Stanfordrapevictim&src=typd">#Stanfordrapevictim</a>. </p>
<h2>Talking about rape</h2>
<p>As a researcher <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/researchAndExpertise/researchHighlights/societyMediaAndScience/Rape-survivors.aspx">studying the impact of social media on discussions about rape</a>, I am watching a spectacular case study unfold in real time. As an activist, it feels like one case has finally sparked the conversation we need to have about sexual assault – a crime which affects millions of people. And as <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/dark-chapter-my-rape-regrowth-and-recovery-1.2366419">a rape survivor myself</a>, it feels like for once, the victim’s voice is being publicly heard and valued.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O-l9QwPrH2E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>When <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/woman/as-a-tourist-in-belfast-my-rape-was-shock-news-so-why-did-you-forget-about-it-and-me-so-quickly-28495088.html">my own rape took place eight years ago in Belfast</a>, a much smaller scale media flurry ensued. Like the recent Stanford victim, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8040762.stm">I found myself Googling news stories on my assault</a>, and felt the surreal displacement of reading what complete strangers <a href="http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/12289">were saying</a> publicly about something very personal which had happened to me. And yet, nowhere in any of that coverage was there a place for myself, the victim, to speak. </p>
<p>Traditional media provides little platform for the victim’s side of the story to be heard. There is an assumption we are weak, ashamed, our lives ruined. And when there is the opportunity to speak, we are expected to summarise within a few soundbites, a brief interview, or a short number of words the enormity of an event that has changed our lives forever. </p>
<p>Daytime talk shows and news programmes may provide exclusive interviews with “brave” survivors, but often these focus on the individual emotional suffering of their experience, without linking their case to larger systemic problems in how our society handles sexual assault. And yet, who else but the survivors can provide firsthand knowledge of the many ways in which our criminal justice systems, our educational institutions, and our public discourses fail to adequately address the reality of rape and sexual assault? </p>
<h2>Helping to heal</h2>
<p>What is remarkable about the Stanford assault victim’s statement is that it was circulated uncut, at 7,244 words, and that it tells her whole story on her own terms. In so doing, it provides a poignant, elegant, undiminished account of the many small and big injustices rape survivors have to face on a daily basis. Despite its length, within the course of a few days, millions had read her statement and were continuing to share and comment on it. </p>
<p>That is the power of social media. Unlike television, radio, or print journalism, there is no concern over column inches or expensive airtime, so individual writing can be expansive and more thorough. Social media can document the much longer term, often lifelong impact of rape on a survivor’s life. </p>
<p>It is clear from my own research, that social media allows readers to connect the dots, between their own experience and the ones they read about, which can be an important part of the healing process. And without social media, we may never have known about the many women who came forward <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/31/bill-cosby-sexual-abuse-claims-57-women-dates-public-accusations">with allegations against Bill Cosby</a>.</p>
<p>In the case of Brock Turner, social media has amplified the many thoughts of the public on all sides of the story. Feminists and rape survivors have been vocal in support of the victim, but so too, have “meninists” and rape apologists in undermining her claims. Likewise, we are hearing from legal scholars and racial inequality activists, comparing Brock Turner’s sentence <a href="https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/brock-turner-rape-case-sentencing-racial-bias">to those of black men unjustly imprisoned for rape</a> or <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-brock-turner-cory-batey-show-race-affects-sentencing-article-1.2664945">black men found guilty in similar circumstances</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of your own stance, these are all legitimate voices and the opinions of real people – the same people who might be <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-jury-bias-preventing-justice-for-rape-victims-60090">serving on a jury</a>, or reacting to a rape allegation and choosing to believe or ridicule it.</p>
<p>These recent outpourings on social media have served as a barometer for what the general public actually thinks about rape. Due to its intersections on class, privilege, criminal justice, and elite institutions, this particular rape has ignited a widespread and furious debate – but one which, most importantly, has at its centre a “voice” from the victim herself. And in that sense, this case is a game changer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Winnie M Li is Co-Founder of the Clear Lines Festival, a not-for-profit, voluntary organisation dedicated to addressing sexual assault and consent through the the arts and discussion. She receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for her academic research. </span></em></p>The Stanford rape case ignited a social media fury and started discussions around rape that are long overdue.Winnie M Li, PhD researcher in the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.