how to prevent sexual violence essay

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Prevention of sexual violence among college students: Current challenges and future directions

Erin e. bonar.

a Addiction Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

b Injury Prevention Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Sarah DeGue

c Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA

Antonia Abbey

d Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

Ann L. Coker

e Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

Christine H. Lindquist

f Division for Applied Justice Research, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

Heather L. McCauley

g School of Social Work, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

Elizabeth Miller

h Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh & Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Charlene Y. Senn

i Department of Psychology and Women’s & Gender Studies Program, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Martie P. Thompson

j Department of Psychology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

Quyen M. Ngo

k Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Rebecca M. Cunningham

l School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Maureen A Walton

Preventing sexual violence among college students is a public health priority. This paper was catalyzed by a summit convened in 2018 to review the state of the science on campus sexual violence prevention. We summarize key risk and vulnerability factors and campus-based interventions, and provide directions for future research pertaining to campus sexual violence.

Results and Conclusions:

Although studies have identified risk factors for campus sexual violence, longitudinal research is needed to examine time-varying risk factors across social ecological levels (individual, relationship, campus context/broader community and culture) and data are particularly needed to identify protective factors. In terms of prevention, promising individual and relational level interventions exist, including active bystander, resistance, and gender transformative approaches; however, further evidence-based interventions are needed, particularly at the community-level, with attention to vulnerability factors and inclusion for marginalized students.

Introduction

Sexual violence remains a critical public health concern for students attending colleges and universities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines sexual violence as “a sexual act that is committed or attempted by another person without freely given consent of the victim or against someone who is unable to consent or refuse.” 1 (p.11) Such acts range from non-contact unwanted experiences (e.g., verbal sexual harassment) to forced penetration. The current paper generally focuses on contact-related behaviors. Unwanted sexual touching is the most prevalent form of campus sexual violence experienced by college students, followed by incapacitated (i.e., due to drugs/alcohol) rape, and attempted forced rape. 2 A clear understanding of the scope of this problem is hindered by: 1) use of official statistics to estimate its magnitude, as there is underreporting of sexual violence to campus authorities, 2) variation in definitions and measures of sexual violence in self-report surveys 3 – 7 , and 3) missing data on surveys. 8 Nonetheless, a recent review suggested that prevalence of sexual violence victimization on college campuses is approximately 5% for men and 25% for women. 8 These rates remain comparable to what has been found since researchers began systematically measuring college women’s self-reported victimization in the 1980s. 9

College students are an important focus for sexual violence prevention as 18 to 24 year-old females have the highest rate of sexual violence victimization compared to females of other ages 10 and 81.3% of female victims experience a first rape before age 25. 11 The college context positions students to be at risk through decreased parental monitoring, increased alcohol use, increased sexual activity, and exposure to peer norms about sexual violence. 12 , 13 Thus, sexual violence affects many college students, takes place in a high risk context of increasing independence and risk behaviors, and can result in many negative sequelae (e.g., psychiatric distress, academic problems). 14 – 16

It is critical to provide appropriate support for survivors 6 while also engaging in upstream prevention approaches to eliminate sexual violence. In 2018 the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center hosted a day-long event titled, the “Summit on the Prevention of Campus Sexual Assault.” The purpose of this summit was to better understand the state of campus sexual violence prevention science and to identify next steps for prevention under a public health model. Leaders in the field presented research data pertaining to sexual violence prevention for college students across levels of the social ecology. 17 Presentations focused on the public health framework for prevention, risk factors for campus sexual violence based on experimental and survey research, special considerations for marginalized students (i.e., sexual and gender minorities, racial/ethnic minorities), and evidence-based prevention programs delivered on campuses and in college communities. Interactions occurring during this summit catalyzed this subsequent summary paper, which included summaries provided by speaker authors, supplemented by additional literature. Key video excerpts are available on the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center’s website: https://injurycenter.umich.edu/event/summit-on-the-prevention-of-campus-sexual-assault/ .

Several recent reviews summarize the sexual violence literature, many including college students, focusing on: prevention programs, 18 – 22 violence against women, 23 risk factors for victimization and perpetration in college and general populations, 24 – 27 and, specifically, male-targeted sexual violence programs. 28 Reviews specific to campus sexual violence prevention have focused on topics such as campus response/policy 29 or more narrowly on prevalence, 2 , 5 or bystander programs, 19 , 20 with a notable exception addressing prevalence, prevention, response, and policy, broadly. 30 In light of these prior reviews and given the Summit’s focus, this paper broadly highlights key research findings to inform current campus sexual violence prevention efforts under a social ecological framework while recognizing that factors at a given level of the social ecology may also exert influence across levels. First, we summarize risk factors at the individual, relationship, and community levels, with particular attention to vulnerability among marginalized students (i.e., racial/ethnic minority students, LGBTQ students). Second, we describe key interventions across these levels. Finally, we provide directions for next steps in sexual violence prevention research and practice for colleges and universities, highlighting key technical packages. 31 – 33

Understanding risk factors for perpetration and victimization

To prevent sexual violence among college students, it is important to understand risk factors for perpetration and victimization identified in studies using survey and experimental research designs, across individual, relationship, and community levels. Note that although individual behaviors contribute to victimization risk when a perpetrator is present, sexual violence is never the fault of the victim as it cannot occur without a perpetrator.

Individual level risk factors

Individual level risk factors described here are summarized in Table 1 . Data suggest that men are more likely to perpetrate sexual violence with research lacking on risk factors for female perpetration, likely given the low rates of this behavior. 34 , 35 For men, risk factors for sexual violence perpetration with strong support include prior perpetration, sexual behaviors (e.g., multiple sexual partners, impersonal sex, motivation for sex, exposure to sexual media), and sexual- and violence-related cognitions (e.g., hostility toward women, hypermasculinity, rape myth acceptance). 24 Consistent with a prior review, 24 one recent study found that 19% of men reported sexual violence perpetration before college, with risk factors including sexual media consumption, alcohol misuse, and hypermasculinity. 36 Longitudinal research of sexual violence perpetration is infrequent, yet existing literature suggests that risk factors for perpetration, such as hostile masculinity, rape supportive beliefs, and pornography exposure, can change over the college years, and that these changes are associated with changes in the likelihood of sexual violence. 37 – 39 Studies also suggest protective factors that buffer against sexual violence perpetration. For example, empathy, an individual level construct, may be protective via moderating the relationship between some risk factors (e.g., perceived peer approval of forced sex, high risk drinking) and sexual violence perpetration. 40 Another study found that college men who felt they learned from committing prior sexual violence and felt remorse were less likely to perpetrate again within one year. In contrast, men who spoke about women in callous ways were more likely to perpetrate over time. 41

Summary of individual-level risk factors for sexual violence perpetration and victimization discussed

In addition to female sex, research suggests several individual risk factors for sexual violence victimization including indicators of lower socio-economic status (e.g., difficulty paying for basic needs). 15 , 35 Further, one study of college women found that over half of sexual violence cases occur in the context of victim and/or perpetrator intoxication 42 supporting acute intoxication as a risk factor. 24 Emerging research also suggests that sexual violence victimization in the year before college entry relates to increased hazardous drinking during the first year of college 43 which can further increase risk.

Consistent with these surveys, experimental studies provide clues about risk factors for perpetration. 44 , 45 Given the extensive literature linking alcohol consumption with sexual violence perpetration, 46 alcohol is the most frequently manipulated variable in laboratory studies. 27 Typically, men are randomly assigned to consume non-alcoholic or alcoholic beverages and are asked to read, listen to, or watch a sexual violence scenario before answering questions about how they would think, feel, and act in that situation. Compared to sober men, intoxicated men often have higher scores on measures of the woman’s sexual arousal and their own sexual arousal, anger, belief that the woman “owed them” sex, perceptions that the man in the scenario acted appropriately, and willingness to act similarly in that situation. 47 – 51 Men higher in hostility and sexual dominance are the most likely to respond in a sexually aggressive manner when intoxicated. 52 , 53 Thus, the effects of alcohol on cognitive processing appear to increase the likelihood that a man who is predisposed to be sexually aggressive will act in such a manner when intoxicated.

Beyond these general risk factors, marginalized students may differ in their experience of sexual violence vulnerability; thus, we highlight key topics of race and ethnicity and gender and sexual diversity below.

Racial and Ethnic Minority Students.

The association between race/ethnicity and risk of sexual violence victimization is complex given that the socio-historical context of race in the United States has had a long-standing impact on the economic, social, and health consequences experienced by marginalized communities. Racial categories intersect and are influenced by other variables across levels of social ecology (e.g., socioeconomic status, campus environments, cultural norms, alcohol consumption), the unique effects of which are difficult to isolate. Measurement differences across studies increase this complexity. Although small numbers make precise estimates difficult, American Indian/Alaska Native students appear to experience higher rates of sexual violence than other students. 54 Asian and Pacific Islander students appear to be at lowest risk. 55 , 56 One study found that Latino students (the largest minority group enrolled in U.S. post-secondary institutions 57 ) had lower rates of victimization than White students. 55 However, another study found generally comparable rates for Hispanic (12.2%) and non-Hispanic (11.6%) students, 56 making it difficult to discern a consistent pattern.

Regarding Black students (the second largest minority group in U.S. post-secondary institutions 57 ) results are mixed. One study found that they had higher odds of past-year sexual violence compared to White students, 55 another found comparable rates for White and Black students, 56 and others have reported lower rates for Black students compared to White students. 9 Data from the Campus Sexual Assault study (conducted at two traditionally White public universities), and a similar study at four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), suggest that racial differences in alcohol consumption and the extent to which survey questions account for alcohol-related incapacitation may clarify these inconsistencies. HBCU undergraduate women, versus those at non-HBCUs, had lower rates of incapacitated sexual violence (and overall sexual violence) yet comparable rates of physically forced sexual violence since entering college. 58 This difference appeared to be due to lower alcohol consumption among Black women (not unique factors of HBCUs), because no differences in sexual violence were found between Black women attending HBCUs and non-HBCUs and alcohol consumption was lower for Black women across school type. 58 Therefore, measurement nuances, particularly whether surveys query sexual violence when incapacitated due to substances, are important when attempting to understand racial/ethnic differences. Survey questions that do not assess sexual violence when incapacitated due to substances may undercount such experiences, producing estimates that primarily reflect physically-forced incidents.

Sexual and Gender Minority Students.

Sexual and gender minority college students are at elevated risk for sexual violence victimization prior to 59 , 60 and during college, 12 , 56 , 60 , 61 compared with heterosexual and cisgender students. Bisexual students experience disproportionate risk, with more than a quarter reporting sexual violence victimization, compared to 14% of gay and lesbian students and 11% of heterosexual students. 56 Students with multiple marginalized identities experience elevated victimization risk. A recent National College Health Assessment study found that Black transgender students had the highest predicted probability of sexual violence (58%) compared to the Latino (27%) and White (14%) transgender students. 55

Numerous social and contextual factors shape vulnerability to sexual violence among sexual and gender minority students. They often experience discrimination related to these aspects of their identities, 62 – 64 which fuels violence perpetration against them, 65 fosters feelings of internalized homonegativity 66 – 68 and hinders disclosure of victimization. 69 Social norms and attitudes also shape these students’ vulnerability to sexual violence. For example, bisexual students confront sexual objectification, 70 pressure to “prove” their sexuality, 71 and cultural narratives of hypersexuality. 70 These experiences are compounded by potential exclusion from both heterosexual and queer communities, 70 , 72 which makes care-seeking difficult. Male-identified survivors of sexual violence may be silenced by hypermasculinity norms that are incongruent with narratives of survivors as feminine and defenseless. 69 , 73 , 74 Such barriers are compounded for gay and bisexual male survivors, who face pressures to conform to hegemonic masculine norms. 75

Relationship level risk factors

Relationship level risk factors described here are summarized in Table 2 . Risk factors for sexual violence perpetration at the relationship level include all male peer affiliation. 24 A meta-analysis suggested that males’ athletic and fraternity involvement increases risk for sexual violence supportive attitudes and perpetration. 76 As influenced via peer relationships, perceptions of peer attitudes and behaviors (e.g., peer approval of forced sex, peer sexual aggression, peer pressure for sex) are also associated with perpetration. 24 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 77 Longitudinal research shows that as perceptions of peer approval of forced sex and sexual coercion increase, so does likelihood of perpetration, whereas decreases in rape supportive peer norms are associated with a declining trajectory of perpetration. 38 , 39 Peer norms have also been manipulated in lab-based experiments, in which men are asked to select a film clip (sexually aggressive or not) to show to a confederate woman whom they believe is another study participant. Men are more likely to choose the sexually aggressive film when they are randomly assigned to first watch another man (a confederate) choose the film clip. 78 In simulated bystander situations, men randomly assigned to hear male confederates objectifying women are less likely to stop a female confederate’s exposure to a sexual video, as compared to men assigned to hear neutral statements about women. 79 Being in a casual or committed relationship (vs. single) is associated with more sexually aggressive behaviors among college men, particularly for those using alcohol prior to sex. 80 At the family relationship-level, pre-college factors such as child abuse and exposure to parental violence are risk factors for perpetration. 24

Summary of relationship-level risk factors for sexual violence perpetration and victimization discussed

Social situations involving drinking peers are important risk factors for perpetration and victimization. In lab studies 81 , 82 , intoxication can reduce bystanders’ recognition of dangerous situations. In surveys, alcohol consumption is associated with lower likelihood of bystander intervention. 83 , 84 Regarding victimization risk, being in a dating relationship confers risk as a large portion of sexual violence occurs with dating partners. For example, a recent study of 361 students found that 35% had experienced sexual violence from a dating partner 85 and that exposure to deviant peers (e.g., involved in crime) was associated with attempted rapes. Recent research has also identified meeting potential partners via dating apps and having “hook-up” type relationships as risk factors for victimization, 15 , 86 with more research needed to understand what factors drive these associations (e.g., are individuals who use dating apps also more likely to perpetrate sexual violence?). Prior victimization is a risk factor for future victimization as well. 15 , 35 Related to re-victimization, positive peer norms about hook-ups are associated with re-victimization among college women with prior sexual violence victimization. 87 Fraternity/sorority involvement is also a relationship-level risk factor for victimization. 15

Community, contextual, and institutional level risk factors

Given that sexual violence reporting rates vary across institutions, 56 an emerging focus in prevention-related research involves identifying risk factors at the campus and/or community level. 24 , 88 , 89 Such risk factors are typically measured via locations/policies related to alcohol consumption (e.g., drinking settings) that increase risk for sexual violence, individual perceptions of campus climate (e.g., inclusivity), and institutional characteristics (e.g., public vs. private). Research using these proxy-measures for community level factors provide direction for community-level interventions to address risk for sexual violence via policy, environmental changes, or institution-wide practices to change the culture of the campus and/or students’ broader community. To begin, although data from the National Crime Victimization Survey indicate that most incidents of female sexual violence victimization among college students occur at or near their home (38%) or the home of someone they know (29%), 10 campus environments that facilitate high-risk drinking are associated with increased risk. Longitudinal research shows that college men’s attendance in high risk drinking settings (bars/parties) is associated with perpetration. 90 A recent study from two New York campuses found that in cases of incapacitated sexual violence victimization, about half of women had just been at a party with the perpetrator before the event (versus 15.8% for non-incapacitated victimization), and nearly half (46.5%) said the incident occurred in a dorm (fraternity house: 10.5%; off-campus party/bar: 14.9%; other location: 28.9%). 86 Next, while athletic and Greek life involvement are identified as relationship-level risk factors, particularly because they are associated with attitudes that predict sexual violence perpetration (e.g., hypermasculinity, rape myth acceptance 76 ), more research is needed to clarify which types of events and/or features of the environment of these communities (e.g., parties, formal events) affect risk. 89

Second, while research documents elevated risk among sexual and gender minority students, 12 , 56 , 60 , 61 , 91 studies examining community-level factors, such as how campus climates may drive these disparities, are lacking. Studies using proxy-measures of campus inclusivity, namely sexual and gender minority students’ perceptions, provide clues to inform campus-level prevention interventions. For example, among students from 478 higher education institutions, perceived inclusivity of sexual and gender minority people on campus was associated with significantly lower odds of sexual violence for these individuals. 92 Inclusive climates may operate by reducing perpetration against sexual and gender minority students, increasing bystander intervention, or empowering students to use harm reduction strategies. 92

Finally, several studies examined institutional characteristics in order to infer community-level factors. One study found that institutional characteristics (public/private, 2-/4-year; metro/non-metro location) were not significantly associated with perpetration rates, 34 whereas another found significant differences with a relatively small magnitude (e.g., higher victimization rates at small vs. large, and private vs. public institutions). 56 Another study found that geographic region is associated with increased risk in some cases (e.g., Midwestern and Southern vs. Northeastern campuses), as was campus size (10,000–20,000 students versus <2,500), while research institutions had lower rates than bachelor’s institutions. 93 This study also identified several student body features associated with campus sexual violence rates, including higher campus-wide binge drinking rates, lower proportions of heterosexual students and higher proportions of younger students and females, higher number of sexual partners, and greater proportions reporting discrimination.

As most studies examine traditional universities, research is needed to examine community college characteristics (e.g., frequent evening classes, commuter factors such as walking to parking lots). Recent data from seven northeastern U.S. community colleges (N=800 students) suggest concerning rates of sexual violence victimization since enrollment (11% victimized via unwanted sexual contact, coercion, attempted and completed rape; 48% when including sexual harassment, relationship violence, stalking, etc.). 94 Students who were female, sexual and racial minorities, and under age 26 were more likely to report any victimization. 94 These data highlight unique characteristics of community colleges, which may reflect physical environments and/or differences in programs or policies related to sexual violence requiring further study.

Future directions

Table 3 summarizes future directions for research in regarding risk factors for campus sexual violence based on gaps in the above literature. These include: (1) conducting additional longitudinal studies including time-varying risk factors and evaluating victimization and perpetration trajectories for students of all genders; (2) using a developmental lens to examine malleable risk factors (e.g., alcohol consumption, peer norms), that can change during college; and (3) focusing on understudied risk factors at the community and contextual levels (e.g., physical and social/contextual environment), including in community colleges. Understanding community-level factors could inform implementation of effective prevention strategies across levels of the social ecology, particularly for marginalized students. Further, given variations in risk across sexual, gender, and racial/ethnic minority sub-groups, more research is needed to better understand how sexual violence manifests in these marginalized groups to inform prevention. We note that specific racial/ethnic groups should not be presumed to be at higher or lower risk without more consistent evidence. Further, students with disabilities comprise another marginalized population warranting future attention, given research suggesting that individuals with disabilities experience increased risk for sexual violence. 95 , 96

Summary of next steps for future research pertaining to risk factors and interventions

Finally, regarding experimental work, researchers are developing virtual reality paradigms which may allow for more nuanced and realistic responses. 97 , 98 The peer studies above demonstrate how constructs under consideration for interventions could be piloted in experimental studies. Some researchers find unexpected, harmful effects with high-risk individuals, hardening their attitudes when presented with messages intended to challenge beliefs about women or masculinity. 99 , 100 Thus, using experimental paradigms with updated technology to pilot potential prevention interventions may help identify and avoid unintended negative consequences.

Efficacious and Promising Prevention Programs

A remaining gap in campus sexual violence prevention work involves needing to expand and implement efficacious prevention approaches addressing risk for perpetration and victimization across genders and levels of the social ecology. Few approaches have been rigorously evaluated in college populations (i.e., with well-controlled designs, such as randomized controlled trials [RCTs]) and shown to reduce sexual victimization or perpetration or sexual violence risk factors. 18 , 19 , 22 We highlight key programs below targeting different levels of the social ecology (although some inherently address multiple levels).

Individual level

Few prevention programs focusing on sexual violence by potential perpetrators in college populations have strong evidence of effectiveness in reducing men’s perpetration behavior, with two promising exceptions. 101 , 102 RealConsent is an interactive, web-based program designed for college-age men to increase prosocial intervening behaviors, change attitudes and normative beliefs about sex, rape, and masculine gender roles, and increasing knowledge of consent. An RCT found that RealConsent was effective in decreasing sexual violence perpetration and increasing positive bystander behavior over 6 months. Similarly, the group-based Sexual Assault Prevention Program (1.5 hour program, 1 hour booster) which seeks to increase men’s empathy about sexual violence, decrease rape myth acceptance, increase consent knowledge, promote bystander intervention, and reduce normative misperceptions holds promise. 103 In addition to demonstrating efficacy on several risk factors (e.g., exposure to sexual media), relative to a control group, program recipients were less likely to perpetrate sexual violence over 4-months.

Other interventions focus on changing individual-level attitudes and behaviors to reduce the victimization risk 18 by teaching women how to recognize threat and bolstering self-efficacy to use self-defense strategies. 104 – 110 Few individual-focused programs demonstrate sustained behavioral outcomes. The Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) Sexual Assault Resistance program 105 is a notable exception that also includes curricula on positive sexuality. Designed for women of all sexual identities, based on feminist and social psychological theory 111 , 112 and prior research, 113 – 115 EAAA includes four group sessions delivered by female facilitators to: 1) decrease the time needed to assess a situation as dangerous and take action, 2) reduce emotional obstacles to taking the action necessary to get away, and 3) maximize use of verbal and physical self-defense tactics most likely to be effective. The program script asserts that perpetrators are entirely responsible for their behavior. After pilot studies showed promise, 116 – 118 a multi-site RCT 106 showed that EAAA increased women’s perception of their risk of acquaintance rape, knowledge, self-efficacy, and willingness to use self-defense strategies in hypothetical situations. EAAA also reduced the relative risk of attempted and completed rape (non-consensual oral, vaginal, or anal penetration) by 50% in the year following participation, as well as non-penetrative sexual violence. Program benefits persisted at least two years later. 107 Despite concern that programs for women may inadvertently increase perceptions of women’s responsibility for sexual violence, 119 participation in EAAA led to sustained decreases in rape myth acceptance and beliefs in female provocation or responsibility for rape. 107 The program worked both for rape survivors and women with no prior rape experience, and decreased self-blame if women were raped after EAAA. 120 A multi-site implementation study of EAAA is underway in Canada.

As called for in a recent review, 16 comprehensive prevention strategies should target multiple settings and risk factors, 121 with campus healthcare settings being important locations (e.g., health centers, counseling centers, Emergency Departments), potentially due to the medical and mental health consequences of sexual violence. 14 – 16 , 122 , 123 Therefore, we highlight ongoing work using a cluster RCT testing a brief trauma-informed, harm reduction intervention to reduce risk for alcohol-related sexual violence among male and female students receiving care from 28 college health centers. 124 The Giving Information for Trauma Support and Safety (GIFTS) intervention is being compared to a brief alcohol risk reduction counseling intervention. GIFTS uses a palm-size safety card with information about sexual violence and provides: (a) education and assessment regarding sexual violence (regardless of disclosure); (b) discussion of harm reduction behaviors to reduce risk of alcohol-related sexual violence for self and peers (including bystander intervention); and (c) supported referrals to survivor services. GIFTS builds on a growing evidence-base demonstrating effectiveness of survivor-centered clinic-based interventions in increasing recognition of abusive behaviors, knowledge of resources, and self-efficacy to enact harm reduction strategies, and among specific populations, reducing physical, sexual, and cyber relationship abuse victimization and reproductive coercion. 125 – 127 Although primarily targeted at the individual level as primary prevention, GIFTS is also intended to amplify campus prevention efforts by encouraging students who have witnessed sexual violence, to be more likely to intervene to interrupt a peer’s harmful behaviors and to provide support to peers who have been harmed. As secondary prevention, students with prior sexual violence exposure receiving GIFTS are expected to be more likely to disclose sexual violence during their clinic visit and report greater use of sexual violence-related services. 124

Relationship level

Bystander training addresses the relationship level of the social ecology by training individuals to intervene with others when they witness sexual violence or behaviors that increase sexual violence risk, such as use of sexist or objectifying language, endorsement of violence-supportive attitudes, or violence risk behaviors (e.g., heavy alcohol use). Engaged bystander programs seek to decrease sexual violence acceptance and build skills to increase bystander actions that can reduce sexual violence. As such, when well-implemented across a community (i.e., college campus), bystander programs can change perceived social norms around violence and encourage both men and women to take action to prevent it. The Campus SaVE legislation required training on college campuses that teaches “safe and positive bystander intervention that may be carried out by an individual to prevent harm or intervene” when there is a risk of violence. 128 A number of bystander programs have focused on men and women (e.g., Green Dot, 129 – 131 Bringing in the Bystander, 132 – 134 Know Your Power 135 ), while others use sex-specific training [e.g., the Men’s Program 136 – 138 and Women’s Program 139 , 140 ]. 21 Rigorously evaluated and effective bystander programs for colleges include Bringing in the Bystander 132 , 134 , 141 and Green Dot 129 – 131 ; we specifically highlight Green Dot below, as it was presented in our prevention Summit.

The Green Dot program for colleges and high schools includes two phases: 1) a 50-minute motivational speech including definitions of sexual violence, its frequency, risk factors, and opportunities for prevention and intervention, designed for delivery to all students at a campus; and, 2) an intensive, interactive skill development bystander training, ideally delivered in groups of 20–25 over 4–6 hours using a Peer Opinion Leaders strategy (e.g., training by those whom others emulate or respect). For college students, Green Dot significantly reduced sexual violence acceptance and increased active bystander behaviors relative to those who did not receive Green Dot. 129 One college campus using Green Dot, relative to two with no bystander program, had significantly lower rates of sexual violence accounted for by a reduction in alcohol- or drug-facilitated sexual violence. 131 Similarly, over 4 years, rates of sexual violence were 25% lower in the Green Dot campus versus the two with no bystander program 131 ; this was primarily accounted for by reduced alcohol- and drug-facilitated sexual violence. This program also reduced sexual harassment, stalking, and psychological dating violence victimization and perpetration. 130 , 131

Community level

To date, no community-level interventions for campus sexual violence have been rigorously tested. A review 18 of over 140 sexual violence prevention programs (not restricted to college campuses) found that very few (<10%) addressed campus climate or policies. A study 142 of 24 four-year colleges in Georgia, found that only 14% had policies and practices that met compliance criteria for the Clery Act in 2014. Policies varied widely across institutions, despite increased public attention and federal guidance surrounding campus sexual violence after a 2011 Dear Colleague letter from the Department of Education.

Future Directions

Table 3 summarizes future directions for research on prevention interventions, based on gaps in the literature above. More research is needed to continue identifying effective primary prevention programming for campus sexual violence. Although bystander programs are effective at changing bystander attitudes and behaviors, 129 , 132 , 134 bystanders are present in few situations where sexual violence directly occurs (no more than 17%). 143 Combining bystander programs with programs helping students build knowledge and skills to intervene on their own behalf is warranted. 144 – 147 Similarly, programs targeting high-risk groups that address norms related to masculinity and sexual aggression in addition to bystander training may be suitable for college settings. For example, the coach-delivered Coaching Boys Into Men program for male athletes, was efficacious among middle school students in increasing bystander behaviors and decreasing relationship violence among those with a history of dating. In addition to potentially adapting such programs for college campus delivery, there is a need to examine whether the effects of this and other early prevention programs persist into the college years. 148 Next, implementation research that seeks to implement and identify essential elements of efficacious programs (e.g., using dismantling designs 149 ) and optimal program dose, across specific settings (e.g., dorms, online, classroom; community colleges, commuter or residential schools) and populations, would be an important contribution. Conducting cost-effectiveness analyses of efficacious programs can help ensure that prevention resources are well-utilized, and can assist communities in making informed implementation decisions. Collecting cost-related data during an evaluation can permit such analyses with limited need for additional resources. Finally, research identifying optimal implementation and dissemination strategies for efficacious programs is needed. Although a challenging task, evaluating comprehensive prevention strategies that include combining evidenced-based programming with broader initiatives to improve campus climate for marginalized students (e.g., programs that enhance inclusivity for sexual and gender minorities such as those targeting micro-aggressions, tailored prevention services for minority students at higher risk), could move the field forward.

As a limitation of the field, prior interventions often focused on men’s perpetration of sexual violence toward (presumably heterosexual) women, with future studies needed to enhance prevention for gender and sexual minorities. Moreover, research is needed regarding male victims of sexual violence who often have few resources and potentially more stigma (e.g. rape myths around male victims), and female perpetrators of sexual violence who are rarely studied (e.g., risk factors, motivations). 35 , 150 – 152 This gap could be addressed by qualitative work to better understand and broaden our understanding of gendered risk factors. Programming that better accounts for gendered risk factors is also needed, as gender-neutral programs may not sufficiently address well-established risk factors associated with traditional masculinity. 24 , 36 Further, given the variation in risk for sexual violence victimization for marginalized students, existing data can be used for sub-group analyses to inform tailoring programs for specific student populations. Few existing interventions are designed for marginalized populations specifically, 18 yet programs may be more effective when tailored to cultural beliefs and norms. 153 , 154

Finally, prior prevention programs generally fall within inner levels of the social ecology—addressing individual and relationship risk factors—with little known about what works at the community level. Individual-level efforts must be accompanied by universal, campus-wide efforts in partnership with the local community to make the college experience safer for all students, including vulnerable populations by addressing institutional and structural factors (e.g., racism, homophobia) that enhance risk. Alcohol policies on and off-campus can help mitigate sexual violence for students. 31 , 155 Engaging alcohol outlets by providing bystander training for bar staff has improved their positive bystander intentions and could benefit from research examining long-term outcomes. 156 Campus efforts to support equity across genders and marginalized identities via increasing representation amongst faculty and leadership can promote an inclusive campus culture. 31 Investing in programs (e.g. SafeZone 157 ) for sexual and gender minority students, and bolstering campus enforcement of sexual violence and anti-discrimination policies to be responsive to the lived experiences of sexual and gender minority students and other marginalized students, could be an important part of community-level interventions. Finally, it is noteworthy that an efficacious building-level program for middle school students that involved hot-spot mapping and intervention, Shifting Boundaries, 158 is currently being adapted for college campuses and could yield promising results.

Summary and Directions for Future Research

There is broad agreement that a comprehensive approach is necessary to prevent campus sexual violence. 31 , 121 , 159 , 160 Such an approach should address multiple goals including: changing societal attitudes regarding the continuum of behaviors that comprise sexual violence, 161 , 162 developing programs, policies, or other prevention approaches to stop perpetration and hold perpetrators accountable, 18 empowering potential victims with knowledge and skills to act on their own behalf to defend their sexual rights, 105 , 107 and facilitating the empowerment of bystanders to disrupt harmful social norms, intervene on others’ behalf, and support survivors. 130 , 132 , 134 Existing efforts have not fully mitigated the problem 163 , 164 with consistent rates of sexual violence for decades 9 , 165 and recent data documenting the high economic cost of sexual violence (over $122,000 lifetime cost per rape victim; $3.1 for all victims 166 ).

To build a comprehensive, efficacious approach, key gaps must be addressed with support for additional research. First, although substantial progress has been made to identify risk factors for sexual violence perpetration and victimization, 18 , 24 data on protective factors are generally lacking. 24 Protective factors include characteristics of the individual, their experiences, their relationships, or their environment that can reduce violence or buffer the effects of risk factors. Research identifying modifiable characteristics of the campus culture, environment, policies, or practices that are associated with lower levels of sexual violence is needed, and would improve the ability of colleges and universities to create environments that buffer risk, supporting the development of comprehensive strategies that address external spheres of the social ecology. Although we focus on college campus interventions, it is important to note that risk and protective factors are often established prior to college, and prevention efforts are needed before college entry across levels (e.g., schools, cultural norms, policy) and for the general community.

Second, few studies have examined risk factors or interventions that cut across levels social ecology, with examination of community-level factors and prevention approaches being particularly needed. For example, a CDC systematic review of sexual violence perpetration risk factors in the general population 24 identified 42 individual-level risk factors, 23 relationship-level factors, and only 2 societal/community-level factors. In a parallel manner, few studies have tested the efficacy of multi-component interventions across levels, with additional research needed. 18 , 167 The social ecological framework can be helpful in conceptualizing the problem of sexual violence and targeting prevention, while also considering that factors can interact across levels. Further, programs for both perpetration and victimization prevention that work across levels of the social ecology can be tailored to cultural considerations that may affect one’s risk of perpetrating sexual violence or being a victim, while also considering the different contexts in which sexual violence occurs (e.g., partnered relationships, among acquaintances, in and out of the party scene). Consistent with White House Task Force recommendations, 168 the CDC’s STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence 31 supported primary prevention programs that address different levels of social ecology by fostering healthy relationship skills, social norms that protect against violence, and protective environments as recommended best practices. STOP SV supports the idea that practitioners and communities may work together to identify the approaches best suited for local contexts.

Next, the majority of research focused on campus sexual violence focuses on the context of a male perpetrator and a female survivor, likely due to its high frequency. Conceptual models of perpetration and victimization may need to be expanded to fully incorporate the range of perpetrator-victim relationships. Additional support is needed for future research to increase representation of diverse students in efforts to inform adaptations of evidence-based programs that will be effective for reducing victimization among higher risk marginalized groups (e.g., sexual and gender minorities, students with disabilities, Black, Hispanic/Latino Students, and American Indian/Alaska Native students) with potential use of hybrid implementation-effectiveness designs 169 to more rapidly impact sexual violence rates. Although research findings are mixed regarding the impact of institutional characteristics on perpetration and victimization rates, 34 understudied institutional features or norms may differentially connote risk, particularly for marginalized individuals and men and women separately, and based on type of college setting, with community and commuter colleges being particularly under-represented.

In summary, we assert that comprehensive prevention from a public health perspective involves a set of coordinated multi-component strategies that address risk and protective factors across the social ecology, that complement and reinforce each other with consistent messaging from multiple sources across multiple contexts, including addressing the diverse student population (e.g., racial/ethnic, sexual and gender minorities, those with disabilities, those at community colleges and/or commuter schools). 18 , 88 Such strategies address risk characteristics of the individual and their relationships — which is typical in campus prevention efforts 19 — but also include community-level programs and structural/societal-level policies (e.g., Campus SaVE Act 128 ) that attempt to modify students’ physical and social environment. To build multi-level strategies aimed at transforming the current campus climate, we need a strong evidence base of risk and protective factors and effective strategies at all levels. In addition to the framework provided by the CDC technical package STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence, 31 the CDC guide Sexual Violence on Campus: Strategies for Prevention 32 and the National Collegiate Athletic Association toolkit 33 may be helpful to colleges and universities working to improve campus sexual violence prevention efforts.

Acknowledgements:

Meredith L. Philyaw-Kotov, Jessica S. Roche, & Bethany Pollock

Funding: This work was supported by a grant to the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Award Number R49-CE-002099. Dr. Coker was supported by funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Grant #U01CE15003; and by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human #R01HD075783. Dr. Ngo was also supported by funding from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development under Grant #R03HD087520; and by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism under Grant #K23AA022641. Dr. Senn was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sexual Violence and Project grants. Dr. Thompson was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH under Grant #R15HD065568 and #R03HD053444-01A1. Drs. Miller and McCauley were supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism under Grant #R01AA023260.

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Declaration of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

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Report: Solutions To Stop Sexual Violence Against Children

Susan Brink

Daniela Ligiero is CEO of Together for Girls, an organization that works to prevent violence against children. She was sexually abused as a child but kept silent until a made-for-TV movie gave her the courage to speak out. Catie Dull/NPR hide caption

Daniela Ligiero is CEO of Together for Girls, an organization that works to prevent violence against children. She was sexually abused as a child but kept silent until a made-for-TV movie gave her the courage to speak out.

Sexual violence against children happens everywhere: in wealthy enclaves, in slums, in suburbs, in rural villages.

Invariably, it happens in secret: in the privacy of family homes, in dark corners of schools and churches, and in murky shadows at neighborhood, community, sporting and scouting events.

It happens often, and periodically groups put out reports to call attention to the issue. "That's usually where the story stops," says Daniela Ligiero, CEO and executive director of Together for Girls , an organization that works to prevent violence against children. "But there's a lot to be done to prevent it. We want to showcase solutions."

Together for Girls, in partnership with the Oak Foundation and the Equality Institute, organizations with similar goals of preventing violence against children, examined scientific studies and sought expert opinion to compile a review of evidence. Their report, "What Works to Prevent Sexual Violence Against Children," was released Nov. 19.

It presents a much-needed guide for policymakers around the world, says Regan Hofmann , acting director of the U.S. Liaison Office, UNAIDS. "The global community has been hungry for a resource clearly outlining cost-effective, evidence-based solutions to prevent sexual violence against children and adolescents," she says.

Beyond 'Good' Vs. 'Bad' Touch: 4 Lessons To Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

We spoke with Ligiero about the report. Research details included from the report are bracketed.

I understand that it was a personal epiphany that led you to your life's work to prevent childhood sexual abuse. Tell me about that.

I started being sexually abused at the age of 6 by a close family friend. For many years I lived in silence. I was terrified. I was living in Paraguay at the time. Without getting into detail, it was genital touching, rape — everything. It didn't start off being violent and gruesome, but slowly it escalated. In my own way, I was trying to let my parents know that I didn't want to be alone with this man. I wasn't heard. The abuse ended after three or four years when we moved to the United States.

By 16, I was suicidal, depressed, starting to experiment with drugs and alcohol. I lived in silence. Then I saw a made-for-TV movie. I don't even remember the name of it. I'm 44 now, but that movie opened up this whole journey. It was about a girl, an adolescent, who was sexually abused by her dad. Eventually, people discovered the abuse, and she was able to access support. For the first time I felt like I wasn't alone. It helped me have the courage to speak about it. And finally, I got help and support.

What you experienced was clearly sexual abuse. Within this report, how do you define sexual abuse of children?

We were trying to have a big umbrella. Sexual violence consists of a range of sexual acts against a child, including but not limited to incest, rape, sexual violence in the context of dating and intimate relationships, sexual exploitation and online sexual abuse.

For some kinds of abuse — incest and rape, for example — the definition is pretty clear. But there can be differences of opinion among people who live in cultures where very young girls become brides about whether child marriage is sexual abuse. In most of those cultures, it's very young girls marrying older men. [Around 15 million girls are married before the age of 18. Some countries are moving to strengthen laws to protect young girls from forced marriage. Malawi, for example, in 2015 increased the minimum age of marriage to 18.]

How common is it for children around the world to experience sexual abuse?

Some form of sexual abuse — including inappropriate touching, incest, child pornography and rape — happens each year to 120 million girls age 18 and younger around the world, or 1 in 10. [That's according to a 2014 UNICEF report, "Hidden in Plain Sight." ] Global estimates for sexually abused boys are not available because few countries collect that data. But a 2013 analysis in the International Journal of Public Health looked at the problem in 24 high- and middle-income countries and found that from 8 percent to 31 percent of girls under 18 in those 24 countries were victims of sexual abuse, as were from 3 percent to 17 percent of boys.]

Are there areas of the world where sexual abuse of children is especially prevalent?

It's bad everywhere, and there are millions of children affected. In areas of conflict, war and poverty, the prevalence is higher. Childhood sexual violence is the single largest silent pandemic of our time. It needs to be addressed everywhere. Several of our partners contributed to the Economist Intelligence Unit's report "Out of the Shadows: Shining Light on the Response to Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation." [The Economist Intelligence Unit is an arm of the Economist media group that includes The Economist magazine; it provides research and analysis that it believes to be of interest to businesses, the financial sector and governments. Its report highlights steps that 60 countries are taking to stop child sexual abuse.]

Can you give me some specific examples of interventions that work?

A couple of interventions used in schools are effective. These are age-appropriate approaches where you work with students, focusing on facts about sexual abuse and telling them what to do if they feel uncomfortable. Some interventions focus on kids as bystanders and suggest what they can do if they see something inappropriate. Programs teach younger kids basics like, for example, the difference between safe touching and unsafe touching. [The report notes that programs might teach that an acceptable touch is a hug or kiss from moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas, if the child wants them. But that an unacceptable touch is a touch underneath clothing or a touch anywhere that makes the child feel uncomfortable or scared.]

For older kids, a program called "Safe Date" is designed to prevent dating violence. It teaches kids about healthy relationships and gets kids talking to each other, practicing conversations about sex and helping girls feel empowered.

Parenting programs can be effective. They teach mothers and fathers how to have conversations with their kids. They encourage parents to believe their children when they express concerns about, for example, being alone with someone.

In the community, abuse would go down if all youth-serving groups, such as schools, YMCAs, sports and scouting organizations, had mandatory background checks for staffers. Those groups also should have mechanisms in place for staffers or kids to report abuse. Most organizations that work with children don't have these safeguards in place. Just think about [the Olympic women's gymnastics team doctor] Larry Nassar . He was able to abuse athletes for more than 30 years. [Nassar was convicted of sexually abusing more than 250 girls, most of them on the U.S. women's gymnastic team.]

Are there interventions intended to reduce child sexual abuse that backfire and do more harm than good?

We know that laws that require sex offenders to register do not work for juveniles. Those laws, when directed at boys under the age of 18, don't deter future abuse. Instead, they increase the incidence of suicide among the juveniles who must register. For those young perpetrators, individual and group treatment can be effective deterrents, studies have shown

Back to your personal story. Would any of the interventions you've studied have helped you when you were being abused as a little girl?

If someone in my school had talked about this, I would have felt less alone. If my parents had been taught to listen to their children's fears, it would have helped. I was on sports teams and in Girl Scouts, and people talked about avoiding strangers. But no one talked about what to do if someone close to you was doing this. That would have helped.

We need to get uncomfortable and have some of these conversations with children.

Susan Brink is a freelance writer who covers health and medicine. She is the author of The Fourth Trimester and co-author of A Change of Heart.

Correction Nov. 20, 2019

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Larry Nassar as an orthopedic surgeon. Nassar is an osteopathic physician.

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A Health Equity Approach to Preventing Sexual Violence

Sexual harassment, abuse, and assault can have short- and long-term physical, emotional, and psychological effects on a person’s well-being and impact an entire community, from the culture and connections between people to the economic toll. Preventing sexual violence means we all must address deep-rooted abuses of power that contribute to inequities in health, safety, and well-being. A health equity approach to preventing sexual violence means that we need to both understand and address the factors that contribute to violence and safety and factors that expose some communities — especially communities that have been historically oppressed — to higher rates of sexual violence.

Watch the Prevent Connect webinar here:

How Can I Protect My Child From Sexual Assault?

Para leer en español, haga clic aquí .

Sexual abuse can happen to children of any race, socioeconomic group, religion or culture. There is no foolproof way to protect children from sexual abuse, but there are steps you can take to reduce this risk. If something happens to your child, remember that the perpetrator is to blame—not you and especially not the child. Below you’ll find some precautions you can take to help protect the children in your life.

If your child is in immediate danger, don’t hesitate to call 911. If you aren’t sure of the situation but you suspect the child is being harmed , you can take steps to gauge the situation and put an end to the abuse.

Be involved in the child’s life.

Being actively involved in a child’s life can make warning signs of child sexual abuse more obvious and help the child feel more comfortable coming to you if something isn’t right. If you see or hear something that causes concern, you can take action to protect your child.

• Show interest in their day-to-day lives . Ask them what they did during the day and who they did it with. Who did they sit with at lunchtime? What games did they play after school? Did they enjoy themselves?
• Get to know the people in your child’s life . Know who your child is spending time with, including other children and adults. Ask your child about the kids they go to school with, the parents of their friends, and other people they may encounter, such as teammates or coaches. Talk about these people openly and ask questions so that your child can feel comfortable doing the same.
• Choose caregivers carefully . Whether it’s a babysitter, a new school, or an afterschool activity, be diligent about screening caregivers for your child.
• Talk about the media . Incidents of sexual violence are frequently covered by the news and portrayed in television shows. Ask your child questions about this coverage to start a conversation. Questions like, “Have you ever heard of this happening before?” or “What would you do if you were in this situation?” can signal to your child that these are important issues that they can talk about with you. Learn more about talking to your kids about sexual assault.
• Know the warning signs . Become familiar with the warning signs of child sexual abuse , and notice any changes with your child, no matter how small. Whether it’s happening to your child or a child you know, you have the potential to make a big difference in that person’s life by stepping in .

Encourage children to speak up.

When someone knows that their voice will be heard and taken seriously, it gives them the courage to speak up when something isn’t right. You can start having these conversations with your children as soon as they begin using words to talk about feelings or emotions. Don’t worry if you haven't started conversations around these topics with your child—it is never too late.

• Teach your child about boundaries . Let your child know that no one has the right to touch them or make them feel uncomfortable — this includes hugs from grandparents or even tickling from mom or dad. It is important to let your child know that their body is their own. Just as importantly, remind your child that they do not have the right to touch someone else if that person does not want to be touched.
• Teach your child how to talk about their bodies . From an early age, teach your child the names of their body parts. Teaching a child these words gives them the ability to come to you when something is wrong. Learn more about talking to children about sexual assault .
• Be available . Set time aside to spend with your child where they have your undivided attention. Let your child know that they can come to you if they have questions or if someone is talking to them in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable. If they do come to you with questions or concerns, follow through on your word and make the time to talk.
• Let them know they won’t get in trouble . Many perpetrators use secret-keeping or threats as a way of keeping children quiet about abuse. Remind your child frequently that they will not get in trouble for talking to you, no matter what they need to say. When they do come to you, follow through on this promise and avoid punishing them for speaking up.
• Give them the chance to raise new topics . Sometimes asking direct questions like, “Did you have fun?” and “Was it a good time?” won’t give you the answers you need. Give your child a chance to bring up their own concerns or ideas by asking open-ended questions like “Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

To speak with someone who is trained to help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or chat online at online.rainn.org .

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Child Sexual Abuse

When a perpetrator intentionally harms a minor physically, psychologically, sexually, or by acts of neglect, the crime is known as child abuse.

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Every 68 seconds, another american is sexually assaulted., 91¢ of every $1 goes to helping survivors and preventing sexual violence..

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What works to prevent sexual violence against children: Evidence review

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Together for Girls, in partnership with The Equality Institute and the Oak Foundation , undertook a systematic review of proven solutions and best practices to prevent and respond to sexual violence against children and young people.

Published in 2019, the review was completed in collaboration with a group of experts and allied organizations, highlighting evidence-based solutions from around the world, including a girls' empowerment initiative in India, justice reform in Guatemala, and a school-based education program in the United States. We chose to adopt a social-ecological framework, adapted specifically for childhood sexual violence — taking into account various dimensions from the individual to the societal context — as an effective way to understand both the problem and effective solutions.

Evidence review

Executive summary

Interventions listed in this package will need to be adapted to meet a country or community’s specific conditions and characteristics. For further guidance on implementation considerations see the INSPIRE framework (page 82-90).

What is gender-based violence – and how do we prevent it?

Each year on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women kicks off 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is present in every society around the world and takes many forms. As a violation of human rights, we have a moral imperative to stop all forms of violence against women and girls. In crisis, whether conflict or natural disaster, the risk of GBV increases, and so – therefore – does our collective need to act to prevent GBV before it happens or respond to the needs of women and girls when it does.

The IRC has been working specifically to prevent and respond to GBV since 1996, meaning we have over 25 years of experience. 

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by all forms of gender-based violence. Below, we consider why this happens, and what we can do to prevent it. 

What is gender-based violence? 

Gender-based violence (GBV) is an umbrella term for harmful acts of abuse perpetrated against a person’s will and rooted in a system of unequal power between women and men. This is true for both conflict-affected and non-conflict settings.

The UN defines violence against women as, ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

Over one-third of women and girls globally will experience some form of violence in their lifetime . However, this rate is higher in emergencies, conflict, and crisis, where vulnerability and risks are increased and most often family, community, and legal protections have broken down.

Harm caused by GBV comes in a variety of visible and invisible forms—it also includes the threat of violence. 

GBV can manifest in a variety of ways. Some of these include: physical violence, such as assault or slavery; emotional or psychological violence, such as verbal abuse or confinement; sexual abuse, including rape; harmful practices, like child marriage and female genital mutilation; socio-economic violence, which includes denial of resources; and sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse.

What is Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)?

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), or ‘domestic violence’ is an all-too-common form of violence against women and girls. It refers to any behavior from a current or previous partner that causes harm—including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors.

Globally, the UN reports  that one in four women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime, and IRC research has shown that it is the most common form of violence against women and girls in humanitarian contexts.

Who is most at risk?

Gender-based violence can happen to anyone. However, it disproportionately affects women and girls. Those in crisis settings are at a double disadvantage due to their gender and their situation.

Women and girls from other diverse and marginalized communities face an even greater risk where gender inequality intersects with other forms of oppression.

Those at higher risk include:

• Women and girls living with disabilities
• Young and adolescent girls
• Older women
• People who identify as LGBTQ+
• Women of ethnic minorities
• Refugees and migrants

While we reference these different identities separately, each person holds multiple identities at once. For example, a woman who lives with a disability might also be an older refugee. 

This is why it’s important to understand the concept of intersectionality — that a person faces different kinds of discrimination and risks due to a combination of their identities like gender, race, religion, age.

It is crucial to understand intersectionality when working to determine and provide prevention and response services. For instance, research has found that adolescent girls living in displacement are particularly at risk  of being overlooked in emergency settings, where they may fall between the cracks of child protection services and those aimed at adult women.

What causes gender-based violence in crisis settings?

Gender inequality, and the norms and beliefs that violence against women and girls is acceptable, cause gender-based violence. There are also many factors that increase the risk of GBV, with women and girls living through crises experiencing an increase in both the frequency and severity of GBV.

This is because the same conditions that contribute to conflict and forced displacement also accelerate GBV. These include:

Research from What Works found that when families are pushed into poverty, harmful practices like child marriages increase . Young girls may be pulled out of education for marriage, to help with domestic tasks or to generate an income. Unemployment and economic distress in the household can increase instances of IPV, as well. 

2. Breakdown of services

A collapse of community structure and the rule of law means women can find themselves without social support and protection systems in violent situations. It can also result in women and girls traveling great distances in search of food, water or fuel, further increasing risk of sexual harassment and assault.

3. Conflict and war

Rising numbers of conflicts globally are driving an increase in conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Without the rule of law, CRSV is often carried out with impunity. Armed forces may use rape as a weapon of war. Other forms of CRSV include sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and other forms of sexual violence. 

4. Displacement

Women living in refugee camps and other temporary accommodation can face safety issues that put them at greater risk. This can include having no locks on bathroom doors, joint male and female facilities, and inadequate lighting.

Women living as refugees may have to find new livelihoods, which can lead to an increased risk of exploitation. 

Displaced women and girls in emergencies are often less visible . They’re not always included in national surveys or reports, which means their needs go unmet. 

5. Stress in the home

Intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence women experience in humanitarian settings. IRC research suggests that IPV and child maltreatment and abuse occur more frequently when families experience an inability to meet their basic needs, alcohol and substance abuse and inconsistent income.

Effects of gender-based violence

Violence has a long lasting effect on survivors and their families. Impacts can range from physical harm to long-term emotional distress to fatalities . Rape and sexual assault can result in unwanted pregnancies, complications during pregnancy and birth, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

Social and economic fallout from GBV can lead to a loss of livelihood and increased gender inequalities in the long term. Reporting or seeking services for GBV can lead to further threats of violence, social stigma and ostracization. GBV is also a key barrier to women and girls accessing other lifesaving services, such as food, shelter and healthcare. 

Crises are not short-term occurrences . Climate-related disasters can create recurrent crises and many women and girls who are forcibly displaced can end up living in temporary accommodation for years. 

This exposes women and girls to GBV for longer and can draw out and compound the effects of that violence for decades, hampering long-term resilience and empowerment.

Preventing gender-based violence

While GBV continues to be a huge risk that women and girls face daily, there are ways to prevent it. Some of these include:

• Keeping girls in school
• Empowering women economically
• Using feminist approaches to tackle gender inequality, including in the home
• Providing women and girls with safe spaces
• Giving women cash support
• Engaging male allies
• Including women in decision-making at leadership level
• Supporting local women-led and women's rights organizations

Comprehensive GBV services need to be established quickly in times of crisis to protect women and girls and reduce their exposure to violence, while increasing their chances of recovery and resilience.

Humanitarian organizations should bring a feminist approach to programming , that takes into account the unequal power balance between genders when designing support and interventions for crisis-affected populations. 

Yet, despite knowing the scope of the problem, the serious and at times fatal effects of GBV, and that we can prevent and respond to it, GBV is still not prioritized with enough urgency during humanitarian responses. In 2021,  just 28% of GBV funding requirements were met , the lowest proportion reported over the previous four years and down from 32% in 2020.

The IRC response

The IRC prioritizes the needs of women and girls across its programming. We work to support the resilience and dignity of women and girls exposed to violence in crisis settings in over 50 countries worldwide. 

The IRC delivers essential healthcare, GBV case management and psychosocial support to survivors, including through safe spaces and outreach teams. In 2022, we provided 177,404 women and girls with psychosocial support and registered 43,817 GBV survivors for case management, ensuring that they receive necessary emotional, medical, psychosocial and other support services throughout their recovery journey.

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Preventing Sexual Assault

There are many different ways that you are able to help prevent sexual and relationship violence and create a culture that promotes respect, consent and boundaries. 

Make sure that you personally are getting consent, respecting boundaries and practicing healthy relationship qualities :

• If you are initiating a relationship or sexual interaction make sure you have clear permission for each step. Learn more about affirmative consent here .
• Assess your relationships, both romantic and platonic, to make sure you are practicing healthy actions a relationship, such as open communication, respect, trust, independence and being supportive. Learn more about healthy relationships here .  
• Respect when someone declines an advance or sets a boundary. Rejection can be really difficult, but it is important that you still respect someone’s decision, even if you do not agree with it or it is not the outcome that you were hoping for 
• Seek professional help now if you are emotionally, verbally, physically or sexually abusive to others, or have been in the past. (24/7 resources: The Barnes Center at The Arch Counseling: 315.443.8000 or Vera House: 315.468.3260).

Learn more about rape culture and societal attitudes and beliefs that normalize violence. Some examples of these attitudes and beliefs include sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, rape myths, victim blaming and objectification : 

• Have the courage to look inward. Question your own attitudes. Try hard to understand how your own attitudes and actions might inadvertently perpetuate violence, and work  toward changing them. Connect with the many resources on campus to assist in this exploration. 
• Think critically about the media that you are consuming and have conversations with friends and family about social issues/pressures and what each of us can do to work toward ending sexual and relationship violence.
• Think before purchasing any magazine, renting any video, subscribing to any website, or buying any music that portrays people in a sexually degrading or abusive manner.  
• Mentor and teach boys about how to be men in ways that allow men to freely access a full range of emotions and behaviors. Lead by example.

Be a prosocial bystander and intervene. There are many different strategies that you can use to safely intervene :

• If a friend, classmate or teammate is disrespectful or abusive to others, consider your options. For instance, you might try to talk with your friend and urge them to seek help. If you don’t know what to do, consult one of the many resources on campus.
• If you hear or see something that is promoting rape culture, be a prosocial bystander and intervene.
• If you suspect that someone close to you is being abused, stalked or has been sexually assaulted, ask if you can help. 
• Learn more here .

Get involved or be an ally to those who are working to end all forms of violence. Support the efforts of campus and community-based organizations :

• Attend Wellness Leadership Institute workshops, other campus workshops, Take Back the Night and other public events to learn more about relationship violence, sexual violence, stalking and sexual harassment 
• Attend programs, take courses, watch films, read articles and books about gender roles and about violence. Attend workshops and programs aimed at reducing bias and hate crimes and increasing awareness of diversity issues on college campuses.
• Be an ally to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities by speaking out against bias and hate language. Support and involve yourself in LGBT organizations and causes. Connect with the LGBT Resource Center on campus at 315.443.3983. Raise money for rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other community organizations that work to end violence.  If you belong to a team, a fraternity or sorority, or another student group, organize a fundraiser. 
• Join one of the many Recognized Student Organizations that address these issues such as Femme Noire, I’m That Girl, It’s On Us, Pride Union, Sex S.Y.M.B.A.L.S. or S.A.S.S.E. Student Association 
• Volunteer with community resources such as Vera House Inc ., Planned Parenthood , and others in the community. 
• Consider applying to become a Peer Educator Encouraging Health Relationships  and Sexuality. Applications open in January for the following academic year. 

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How can i protect myself from sexual abuse.

There are steps you can take to help protect yourself from abuse. These include creating and using a safety plan for risky situations, being aware of risks for abuse , and managing vulnerability associated with those risks. 

Safety planning

The increased independence you may experience during adolescence comes with a heightened need to look after and take care of yourself, including by having a safety plan to protect yourself from sexual abuse.  Safety plans are a collection of actions that can help you prepare for, and defensively respond to, instances where your boundaries are threatened.

Safety planning prepares you for situations where your boundaries are threatened.

The time to have a plan is before something happens.

Safety plans can include actions like the following:

• Identify your boundaries
• Practice saying “no” with a clear and forceful voice
• Defend your boundaries even with the smallest violation
• Speak up if a relationship with a friend, peer, or adult begins to change and move in directions that make you uncomfortable. Trust your feelings
• Say “no” if you find yourself doing things you do not feel right about and find a way to exit the situation
• Recognize that you have a right to stop someone from doing something to you, even if you allowed the behavior to happen before
• If you are going out:
• Know everyone you are going out with
• Know where you are going before you leave to go out
• Identify ways of physically exiting a space once you arrive
• Have a buddy and agree on a signal to alert them that you need help
• If you are drinking, pour your own drink and monitor how intoxicated you are becoming
• Have a backup plan in case your initial plan does not work

Know when you get out of a risky situation you are demonstrating to others that you are in control and have your own power. Even if it can be embarrassing to not go along with what other people are doing or wanting from you, protecting yourself makes you someone to be admired by others. 

When you get out of a risky situation you are demonstrating that you are in control and have your own power.

Vulnerability.

Acknowledging one’s own vulnerability to sexual abuse can be difficult (see How can I recognize risks? ). But recognizing this vulnerability is an important component of protection as it can help you be aware of and identify things that may place you at increased risk of being abused.

Recognizing vulnerability can help you be aware of and identify things that may place you at increased risk of being abused.

If having a safety plan can be thought of as the first rule of protection, then having an awareness of vulnerability and risk is the second rule. 

How can I protect myself from sexual abuse? 

Manage vulnerability

• Rule one. Have a safety plan
• Rule two. Be aware of what can increase vulnerability 
• Many, if not most, factors that increase one’s vulnerability to sexual abuse cannot be controlled because they are aspects of the person, family, or environment that cannot be changed

Protect yourself away from home

• Travel with a buddy and have a safety plan together
• Do not be alone with an adult at any time, including coaches, chaperons, or other youth’s parents

Prevention + Safety + Empowerment + Research

AGNI is publishing this essay as part of The Ferrante Project.

“What would happen,” the poet Muriel Rukeyser asks in her oft-quoted poem “Käthe Kollwitz,” “if one woman told the truth about / her life? / The world would split open.” Over the past few years, I’ve begun to question the truth of that statement, especially as it relates to telling the truth about sexual violence. What is the purpose and function of writing about rape? More to the point, what to me is the purpose and function of writing when writing about my rape?

These questions grew more painful to consider after I published my first book, which examined the long-term effects of violence and survival, and more painful still when I learned this book had ended up on the reading lists of various feminist tastemakers on Twitter, one of whom noted that she was using the book as a writing prompt for her students’ exploration of violence. Thus my personal experience was to become a jumping-off point for others’ creativity, my descriptions of my assault disseminated and refracted through the exercises of strangers so they could understand the effects of such violence themselves. My assault would thus become both symbol and trope, something that could be parsed and imitated until all the rage and humanness drained out of it.  I had always known, of course, that this one of the possible outcomes of publishing such a book, especially one that ended up in the maw of social media. But actually reading this student’s response to my essay, in which my assault was reimagined and repeated back to me in her language, made me feel both sickened and small.

Speak truth to power, writers and non-writers alike declaim, and now I’ve seen this phrase trickle through the feeds of people on Facebook and Twitter. The aim is to tell the truth of our lives as we see it, as directly and with as little remorse as possible. Such an outpouring of personal testimony has indeed cracked open the world, in part by reminding participants in social media that the things most American institutions want to forget about our nation—its violence against people of color, its killing of LGBTQ people, its seemingly implacable hatred of women and their bodies—stubbornly persist. There is indeed a power and value to truth-telling. But truth-telling relies on narrative, and narrative telling—even supposedly artless, immediate telling—is in fact crafted. It wants a particular response, and nothing crafts language so effectively as a Web format that requires you to express yourself in 280 characters or less, and sells these truth-telling nuggets in a stream of visual media, making it impossible for the audience to focus on any but the most extreme, compelling, and direct language.

Social media and truth-telling both encourage the reader, primarily, to emote. And having emoted, having felt all the things and thought all the thoughts the writer has asked us to think and feel within that limited format, we can walk away from the engagement satisfied with the blunt, brute fact of our feelings. Social media offers a veneer of authenticity that claims the authority of survivorship and thus makes autobiography and resilience satisfactory political goals.

A memoir about sexual assault guarantees a certain amount of attention, because it is sensational and because writing about violence encourages a kind of voyeurism. But while this may be one possible response, it is not this writer’s desire to make the reader participate in the imagined reconstruction of violence. And reconstructing another person’s trauma is not what we teach other budding writers about the purpose of testimonies of violence, in particular the testimonies of violence that women might produce. If anything, we argue, women’s testimonies should inspire not empathy (or not only empathy) but political outrage, in large part because women’s autobiographical writing has been so effectively suppressed over centuries. Women’s writing about violence serves as a public novelty, one which, if it does not always receive the social stamp of high art, at least promises an authentic expression of rage, of grief, of endurance and survival, and—most powerfully—of hope.

But I’m not actually that interested in resilience. I want jail time for offenders. I want politicians tossed out of office, priests defrocked, federal judges fired and replaced. I want a country that doesn’t treat violence against women as sexual entertainment.

Over the past year, I’ve begun to hate the book I published. The more I read from and talk about it, the more politically and aesthetically suspicious my own writing appears to me. Who had I written it for? Who did I really imagine as its audience? The project started, in part, as a reaction to the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which got me thinking about the ways in which sex discrimination has shaped my working life, which got me thinking about the sexual assault I experienced as a twenty-year-old woman at a coat factory where I worked one summer as a down stuffer along with several itinerant workers, one of whom attacked me. The book was finally published around the time that our current president, then a presidential candidate, admitted to grabbing women “by the pussy,” which made the #MeToo hashtag started by Tarana Burke in 2006 erupt into a firestorm. Into this storm my book was tossed, and while I was happy at first to add my voice to the movement, over time I began to feel that the book sounded less like me than an automated reply. Using the same language that has characterized the experience of so many other women certainly brings me into community with them, but that shared language also makes the stories of survivors feel depressingly interchangeable and flat.

Perhaps this flattening is created in part by our social expectations about female psychology and women’s writing, in particular our assumption that women’s writing is primarily or only autobiographical, not imaginative, and that it stems from an institutionally disadvantaged position that we equate with pain. This, too, enrages me. It feels as though, because I am female, I was born into this language and psychology; as a woman and a writer, I am a grievance waiting to be heard and endured. At times it feels that the best I can do is pay close attention to that grievance, to give it a slightly different shape and coloration. By writing about my assault, I confirm the most inarguably authentic position of the not-male, and also the not-white: the pained, the wounded, the helpless, the small .

To speak about one’s assault in a way that feels actually authentic is to thread the needle through an incredibly slender eye, made ever more narrow: by the pressure of therapeutic services, which argue that such narratives are not only good, but necessary for psychic healing; political and social institutions, where truth-telling makes for good rallying cries and possible legislation; and by social media, which argues for ever more devastating expressions of the self to be streamed and consumed and disseminated.

Effective writing about violence shares many of the aesthetic traits of political language, which is to say its directness resists excessive or subtle interpretation. It compresses time and context in order to focus on the moment at hand. Writing about violence authenticates itself through the performance of immediacy and vivid feeling. This is what suggests truth—and it is surprisingly, distressingly easy to duplicate.

The social media performances of grief, selfhood, and outrage I daily read feel suspiciously like masquerades. In my feeds, writers try to outshine and outthink the politicians and abusers inspiring our outrage, using language whose nuance rarely rises above theirs. In this way, we are shackled to victimizing doubles. As much as I despise the self-help books, the prayer circles, the thin whine of grief on Twitter and its overuse of the word trauma , the only identity that seems unable to be challenged or shamed is that of the victim. Thus I and others willingly write into and about how we have been diminished or shamed, to stop ourselves from being attacked by those claiming to be more morally progressive online, because the only way to keep yourself safe within that group, it seems, is to become the witting accomplice to your own self-objectification.

Refracting and repeating narratives of violence also risk downplaying or even ignoring matters of race and class in favor of the sensational act itself, even as race and class make violence a more or less likely experience for a person to have. It is not lost on me, for example, that I come from a middle-class family and was attacked by someone skirting the poverty line, that what brought us together was a coat factory that relied on both our labor to exist: me, the mixed-race college student earning money for her next year’s tuition; my attacker, a white man who moved from job to job, city to city, aimless and resentful of the opportunities I would have in a world he imagined pandered to minorities. It is not lost on my either that the stories we repeat most often online are those told by and about middle and upper middle class white women. Our retweeting and sharing of these stories replicates the culture’s co-opting of Tarana Burke’s #MeToo hashtag into the world of (largely) white and (largely) middle-class feminism.

The young student, consciously or unconsciously, performed this co-option when she imitated my writing. She understood that some part of writing about and against violence, especially the violence that women experience, is imitative and coercive. One does not have to be a victim of violence to render that violence believably or powerfully. The actual experience of an assault may be private, it may reveal the world to be artless and cruel, but the sharing of it depends entirely on creative skills, detailed images, and ideas of identities that can be appropriated.

 Even as I write this, it strikes me that perhaps I’m wrong to think we’ve become numb to, or jaded about, female narratives of pain. I think back to that look on Arizona senator Jeff Flake’s face in the elevator as he fled the Kavanaugh hearings, the moment when a protester pried apart the elevator doors to demand he hear about the assault she’d survived. I see again the pain twist across his face. Perhaps the reason the #MeToo movement hasn’t achieved more substantial victories for women is not that its language has started to feel formulaic, but that it really is too painful for people to witness. It’s too painful because it asks those who have not suffered to imagine the limits of their physical invulnerability—to realize, if only empathetically, that their sense of self-protection is a fantasy. We turn away from the language of violence not because it has become anodyne, but because we see how easily each of us can be made a victim.

“Perhaps writers like us really can change the world,” one young woman wrote to me recently in a private Twitter message. “Your book inspired me to tell my own story. You can check out my feed.” I thumbed down the screen to read it, the words of this stranger who, like me, was humiliated and hurt, raw and furious, her own terrible story wedged now between video grabs from a Trump rally and a trailer for John Wick 3 . I stopped reading and her story flickered past. I wrote privately to thank her, added a few glib notes of praise, and told her I hoped she’d continue writing. Then I deleted her message.

The Ferrante Project: The freedom of anonymity brings together sixteen women writers of color (alongside sixteen visual artists in a linked project with the Warhol Museum) who anonymously contributed new works in response to, or critique of, the cult of personality, posturing, and preemptive celebrity of writers at the expense—sometimes—of the quality and provocation of the work itself. This is a collaboration between Aster(ix) and CAAPP: Center of African American Poetry and Poetics.

Contributors include Angie Cruz, Sarah Gambito, Dawn Lundy Martin, Khadijah Queen, Ru Freeman, Ayana Mathis, Vi khi nao, Cristina García  Cathy Linh Che, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Deborah Paredez, Emily Raboteau, Paisley Rekdal, Natalie Díaz, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, and Jamey Hatley.

This page collects the works of anonymous writers published by  AGNI.

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How to Identify and Prevent School Violence

Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Ann-Louise T. Lockhart, PsyD, ABPP, is a board-certified pediatric psychologist, parent coach, author, speaker, and owner of A New Day Pediatric Psychology, PLLC.

Yasser Chalid / Getty Images

Recognizing the Signs of School Violence

School violence refers to violence that takes place in a school setting. This includes violence on school property, on the way to or from school, and at school trips and events. It may be committed by students, teachers, or other members of the school staff; however, violence by fellow students is the most common.

An estimated 246 million children experience school violence every year; however, girls and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately affected.

"School violence can be anything that involves a real or implied threat—it can be verbal, sexual, or physical, and perpetrated with or without weapons. If someone is deliberately harming someone or acting in a way that leaves someone feeling threatened, that‘s school violence,” says Aimee Daramus , PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist.

This article explores the types, causes, and impact of school violence and suggests some steps that can help prevent it.

Types of School Violence

School violence can take many forms. These are some of the types of school violence:

• Physical violence , which includes any kind of physical aggression, the use of weapons, as well as criminal acts like theft or arson.
• Psychological violence , which includes emotional and verbal abuse . This may involve insulting, threatening, ignoring, isolating, rejecting, name-calling, humiliating, ridiculing, rumor-mongering, lying, or punishing another person.
• Sexual violence , which includes sexual harrassment, sexual intimidation, unwanted touching, sexual coercion, and rape .
• Bullying , which can take physical, psychological, or sexual forms and is characterized by repeated and intentional aggression toward another person.
• Cyberbullying , which includes sexual or psychological abuse by people connected through school on social media or other online platforms. This may involve posting false information, hurtful comments, malicious rumors, or embarrassing photos or videos online. Cyberbullying can also take the form of excluding someone from online groups or networks.

Causes of School Violence

There often isn’t a simple, straightforward reason why someone engages in school violence. A child may have been bullied or rejected by a peer, may be under a lot of academic pressure, or may be enacting something they’ve seen at home, in their neighborhood, on television, or in a video game.

These are some of the risk factors that can make a child more likely to commit school violence:

• Poor academic performance
• Prior history of violence
• Hyperactive or impulsive personality
• Mental health conditions
• Witnessing or being a victim of violence
• Alcohol, drug, or tobacco use
• Dysfunctional family dynamic
• Domestic violence or abuse
• Access to weapons
• Delinquent peers
• Poverty or high crime rates in the community

It’s important to note that the presence of these factors doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will engage in violent behavior.

Impact of School Violence

Below, Dr. Daramus explains how school violence can affect children who commit, experience, and witness it, as well as their parents.

Impact on Children Committing Violence

Children who have been victims of violence or exposed to it in some capacity sometimes believe that becoming violent is the only way they‘ll ever be safe.

When they commit violence, they may experience a sense of satisfaction when their emotional need for strength or safety is satisfied. That‘s short-lived however, because they start to fear punishment or retribution, which triggers anger that can sometimes lead to more violence if they’re scared of what might happen to them if they don’t protect themselves. 

Children need help to try and break the cycle; they need to understand that violence can be temporarily satisfying but that it leads to more problems.

Impact on Children Victimized by School Violence

Victims of school violence may get physically injured and experience cuts, scrapes, bruises, broken bones, gunshot wounds, concussions, physical disability, or death.

Emotionally speaking, the child might experience depression , anxiety, or rage. Their academic performance may suffer because it can be hard to focus in school when all you can think about is how to avoid being hurt again.

School violence is traumatic and can cause considerable psychological distress. Traumatic experiences can be difficult for adults too; however, when someone whose brain is not fully developed yet experiences trauma, especially if it’s over a long time, their brain can switch to survival mode, which can affect their attention, concentration, emotional control, and long-term health. 

According to a 2019 study, children who have experienced school violence are at risk for long-term mental and physical health conditions, including attachment disorders, substance abuse, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and respiratory conditions.

The more adverse childhood experiences someone has, the greater the risk to their physical and mental health as an adult.

Impact on Children Who Witness School Violence

Children who witness school violence may feel guilty about seeing it and being too afraid to stop it. They may also feel threatened, and their brain may react in a similar way to a child who has faced school violence.

Additionally, when children experience or witness trauma , their basic beliefs about life and other people are often changed. They no longer believe that the world is safe, which can be damaging to their mental health.

For a child to be able to take care of themselves as they get older, they need to first feel safe and cared for. Learning to cope with threats is an advanced lesson that has to be built on a foundation of feeling safe and self-confident.

Children who have experienced or witnessed school violence can benefit from therapy, which can help them process the trauma, regulate their emotions, and learn coping skills to help them heal.

Impact on Parents

Parents react to school violence in all kinds of ways. Some parents encourage their children to bully others, believing that violence is strength. Some try to teach their children how to act in a way that won’t attract bullying or other violence, but that never works and it may teach the child to blame themselves for being bullied. 

Others are proactive and try to work with the school or challenge the school if necessary, to try and keep their child safe. 

It can be helpful to look out for warning signs of violence, which can include:

• Talking about or playing with weapons of any kind
• Harming pets or other animals
• Threatening or bullying others
• Talking about violence, violent movies, or violent games
• Speaking or acting aggressively

It’s important to report these signs to parents, teachers, or school authorities. The child may need help and support, and benefit from intervention .

Preventing School Violence

Dr. Daramus shares some steps that can help prevent school violence:

• Report it to the school: Report any hint of violent behavior to school authorities. Tips can be a huge help in fighting school violence. Many schools allow students to report tips anonymously.
• Inform adults: Children who witness or experience violence should keep telling adults (parents, teachers, and counselors) until someone does something. If an adult hears complaints about a specific child from multiple people, they may be able to protect other students and possibly help the child engaging in violence to learn different ways.
• Reach out to people: Reach out to children or other people at the school who seem to be angry or upset, or appear fascinated with violence. Reach out to any child, whether bullied, bullying, or neither, who seems to have anxiety, depression, or trouble managing emotions. Most of the time the child won’t be violent, but you’ll have helped them anyway by being supportive.

A Word From Verywell

School violence can be traumatic for everyone involved, particularly children. It’s important to take steps to prevent it because children who witness or experience school violence may suffer physical and mental health consequences that can persist well into adulthood.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing school violence .

UNESCO. What you need to know about school violence and bullying .

UNESCO. School violence and bullying .

Nemours Foundation. School violence: what students can do .

Ehiri JE, Hitchcock LI, Ejere HO, Mytton JA. Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence . Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2017;2017(3):CD006347. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006347.pub2

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Understanding school violence .

Ferrara P, Franceschini G, Villani A, Corsello G. Physical, psychological and social impact of school violence on children . Italian Journal of Pediatrics . 2019;45(1):76. doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0669-z

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

I want to keep my child safe from abuse − but research tells me I’m doing it wrong

Founder and Executive Director, Center for Violence Prevention Research; Affiliate Faculty with the Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire

Disclosure statement

Melissa Bright receives funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Childhood Foundation (via work with Stop it Now!).

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Child sexual abuse is uncomfortable to think about, much less talk about. The idea of an adult engaging in sexual behaviors with a child feels sickening. It’s easiest to believe that it rarely happens, and when it does, that it’s only to children whose parents aren’t protecting them.

This belief stayed with me during my early days as a parent. I kept an eye out for creepy men at the playground and was skeptical of men who worked with young children, such as teachers and coaches. When my kids were old enough, I taught them what a “good touch” was, like a hug from a family member, and what a “bad touch” was, like someone touching their private parts.

But after nearly a quarter-century of conducting research – 15 years on family violence, another eight on child abuse prevention, including sexual abuse – I realized that many people, including me, were using antiquated strategies to protect our children .

As the founder of the Center for Violence Prevention Research , I work with organizations that educate their communities and provide direct services to survivors of child sexual abuse. From them, I have learned much about the everyday actions all of us can take to help keep our children safe. Some of it may surprise you.

Wrong assumptions

First, my view of what constitutes child sexual abuse was too narrow. Certainly, all sexual activities between adults and children are a form of abuse.

But child sexual abuse also includes nonconsensual sexual contact between two children. It includes noncontact offenses such as sexual harassment, exhibitionism and using children to produce imagery of sexual abuse. Technology-based child sexual abuse is rising quickly with the rapid evolution of internet-based games, social media, and content generated by artificial intelligence. Reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children of online enticements increased 300% from 2021 to 2023 .

My assumption that child sexual abuse didn’t happen in my community was wrong too. The latest data shows that at least 1 in 10 children, but likely closer to 1 in 5, experience sexual abuse . Statistically, that’s at least two children in my son’s kindergarten class.

Child sexual abuse happens across all ethnoracial groups, socioeconomic statuses and all gender identities. Reports of female victims outnumber males , but male victimization is likely underreported because of stigma and cultural norms about masculinity .

I’ve learned that identifying the “creepy man” at the playground is not an effective strategy. At least 90% of child sexual abusers know their victims or the victims’ family prior to offending. Usually, the abuser is a trusted member of the community; sometimes, it’s a family member .

In other words, rather than search for a predator in the park, parents need to look at the circle of people they invite into their home.

To be clear, abuse by strangers does happen, and teaching our kids to be wary of strangers is necessary. But it’s the exception, not the norm , for child sexual abuse offenses.

Most of the time, it’s not even adults causing the harm. The latest data shows more than 70% of self-reported child sexual abuse is committed by other juveniles . Nearly 1 in 10 young people say they caused some type of sexual harm to another child . Their average age at the time of causing harm is between 14 and 16.

Now for a bit of good news: The belief that people who sexually abuse children are innately evil is an oversimplification. In reality, only about 13% of adults and approximately 5% of adolescents who sexually harm children commit another sexual offense after five years . The recidivism rate is even lower for those who receive therapeutic help .

By contrast, approximately 44% of adults who commit a felony of any kind will commit another offense within a year of prison release .

What parents can do

The latest research says uncomfortable conversations are necessary to keep kids safe. Here are some recommended strategies:

Avoid confusing language. “Good touches” and “bad touches” are no longer appropriate descriptors of abuse . Harmful touches can feel physically good, rather than painful or “bad.” Abusers can also manipulate children to believe their touches are acts of love.

The research shows that it’s better to talk to children about touches that are “OK” or “not OK,” based on who does the touching and where they touch. This dissipates the confusion of something being bad but feeling good.

These conversations require clear identification of all body parts, from head and shoulders to penis and vagina. Using accurate anatomical labels teaches children that all body parts can be discussed openly with safe adults. Also, when children use accurate labels to disclose abuse, they are more likely to be understood and believed.

Encourage bodily autonomy. Telling my children that hugs from family members were universally good touches was also wrong . If children think they have to give hugs on demand, it conveys the message they do not have authority over their body.

Instead, I watch when my child is asked for a hug at family gatherings – if he hesitates, I advocate for him. I tell family members that physical touch is not mandatory and explain why – something like: “He prefers a bit more personal space, and we’re working on teaching him that he can decide who touches him and when. He really likes to give high-fives to show affection.” A heads-up: Often, the adults are put off, at least initially.

In my family, we also don’t allow the use of guilt to encourage affection. That includes phrases like: “You’ll make me sad if you don’t give me a hug.”

Promote empowerment. Research on adult sexual offenders found the greatest deterrence to completing the act was a vocal child – one who expressed their desire to stop, or said they would tell others.

Monitor your child’s social media. Multiple studies show that monitoring guards against sexting or viewing of pornography , both of which are risk factors for child sexual abuse. Monitoring can also reveal permissive or dangerous sexual attitudes the child might have.

Talk to the adults in your circle. Ask those watching your child how they plan to keep your child safe when in their care. Admittedly, this can be an awkward conversation. I might say, “Hey, I have a few questions that might sound weird, but I think they’re important for parents to ask. I’m sure my child will be safe with you, but I’m trying to talk about these things regularly, so this is good practice for me.” You may need to educate them on what the research shows.

Ask your child’s school what they’re doing to educate students and staff about child sexual abuse. Many states require schools to provide prevention education; recent research suggests these programs help children protect themselves from sexual abuse .

Talk to your child’s sports or activity organization. Ask what procedures are in place to keep children safe . This includes their screening and hiring practices, how they train and educate staff, and their guidelines for reporting abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a guide for organizations on keeping children safe .

Rely on updated research. Finally, when searching online for information, look for research that’s relatively recent – dated within the past five years. These studies should be published in peer-reviewed journals .

And then be prepared for a jolt. You may discover the conventional wisdom you’ve clung to all these years may be based on outdated – and even harmful – information.

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• Child sexual abuse prevention
• Child safety

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Focusing on prevention: Ending violence against women

Violence against women and girls is rooted in gender-based discrimination, social norms that accept violence, and gender stereotypes that continue cycles of violence. To date, efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls have mainly focused on responding to and providing services for survivors of violence . However, prevention—addressing the structural causes, as well as the risk and protective factors, associated with violence—is pivotal to eliminating violence against women and girls completely.

Prevention is the only way to stop violence before it even occurs. It requires political commitment, implementing laws that promote gender equality, investing in women’s organizations, and addressing the multiple forms of discrimination women face daily. The evidence about prevention has evolved considerably over the past decade, including as a result of various initiatives supported by UN Women.

Our solutions

UN Women has played a key role in developing evidence-based policy and programming guidance on prevention of violence against women and girls . As part of its prevention strategy, UN Women focuses on early education, respectful relationships, and working with men and boys, especially through, and in, the media, sports industries, and the world of work.

UN Women helps conduct research on attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours of men and boys, as well as young people, related to various forms of violence, and supports advocacy, awareness-raising, community mobilization, and educational programmes, as well as legal and policy reforms.

In Asia and the Pacific , for example, UN Women works with other UN agencies on the Partners for Prevention programme that aims to reduce the prevalence of gender-based violence in the region through behaviour and attitudinal change among boys and men, as well as increased institutional capacity and policy enhancements.

In partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts , and with inputs from young people, UN Women has also designed a curriculum—Voices Against Violence—for those aged 5–25 years. The curriculum includes tools to help young people understand the root causes of violence in their communities , and to help educate and involve their peers and communities in preventing violence against women and girls.

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A framework to underpin action to prevent violence against women The joint UN framework draws together contemporary knowledge and practice in violence prevention. Its focus is on addressing the root causes as well as risk and protective factors associated with violence against women.  More

Voices against Violence Putting young people at the heart of prevention efforts, UN Women and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have launched this non-formal curriculum to end violence against women and girls, designed for various age groups ranging from 5 to 25 years. More

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Justice Department Announces Framework for Prosecutors to Strengthen National Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

The Justice Department today announced an important new resource for prosecutors. The Framework for Prosecutors to Strengthen Our National Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Involving Adult Victims , written by prosecutors for prosecutors, sets out five principles that, if implemented, will lead to better outcomes for victims, safer communities, and greater accountability for perpetrators of sexual assault and domestic violence.

“When investigating and prosecuting the heinous crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence, prosecutors must pursue justice in a manner that does not retraumatize victims and survivors,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This framework for prosecutors reflects the Justice Department’s commitment to strengthening our collective response to sexual assault and domestic violence, and to setting the standard for how prosecutors should respond to victims and survivors.”

Declinations of meritorious allegations may result from misconceptions about how crimes involving sexual assault and domestic violence are committed and reported, how victims give their accounts, and the evidence required to prove their accounts beyond a reasonable doubt. This guide addresses that phenomenon by discussing: (1) relying on the evidentiary value of the victim’s account to frame the investigation; (2) the fundamental importance of prosecutors, investigators, and victim specialists working together and meeting with victims; (3) using the law and evidentiary rules effectively; (4) being thoughtful about what justice and accountability look like; and (5) sustaining a productive, healthy, and committed workforce by redefining success– all of which are rooted in a prosecutor’s primary obligation to seek the truth and uphold the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

“Achieving justice for victims and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence is one of the Department’s highest priorities,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “This guide provides a framework that we encourage prosecutors throughout the country to use when evaluating, investigating, and prosecuting these critically important cases.”

More than 120 state, Tribal, military, and federal prosecutors, as well as advocates, academics, and investigators from an array of jurisdictions were consulted in developing this guide. The principles set forth in this guide are designed to encourage and assist prosecutors of all levels of experience to handle cases involving sexual assault and domestic violence. This guide further serves as a complement to the Justice Department’s 2022 updated guidance on Improving Law Enforcement Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence by Identifying and Preventing Gender Bias .

“The Justice Department is committed to strengthening the prosecution of sexual assault and domestic violence crimes and ensuring a trauma-informed approach to working with victims,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “This guide provides a practical, accessible framework that prosecutors can use when evaluating, investigating, and prosecuting these crimes. We thank everyone who contributed to this guide for sharing their expertise and experience and for their years of dedicated work to address and combat sexual assault and domestic violence.”

“The framework announced today reaffirms our commitment to expanding access to justice for all survivors, who deserve respect and the right to be heard,” said Director Rosie Hidalgo of the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). “Enhancing the prosecution response to sexual assault and domestic violence in a trauma-informed manner is a key piece in ending gender-based violence, as part of a broader coordinated community response that includes services and support for survivors, and can have a real, immediate impact on the safety of survivors and entire communities.”

In conjunction with this guide, OVW launched a new webpage with resources designed to assist prosecutors in implementing the guide and its principles.

OVW provides leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to reduce violence through the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act and subsequent legislation. Created in 1995, OVW administers financial and technical assistance to communities across the country that are developing programs, policies, and practices aimed at ending domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. In addition to overseeing federal grant programs, OVW funds national training and technical assistance and undertakes initiatives in response to special needs identified by communities facing acute challenges. Learn more at www.justice.gov/ovw .

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Australia's new consent campaign gets a lot right: But consent education won't be enough to stop sexual violence

T he Australian government has recently launched Consent Can't Wait , a campaign focused on supporting sexual consent communication between adults and young people.

Advertisements will run on television, in cinemas, online and on social media, encouraging adults to check their understanding of consent. Videos pose questions such as "how do I bring up consent?", "do I have to ask every time?" and "what if we've been drinking?", before finally asking "if we don't know the answers, how will our kids?".

The campaign website provides a range of resources designed to equip adults to have conversations with each other, and with young people.

While this campaign has a lot of positives, consent education won't be enough to stop sexual violence on its own.

What motivated this campaign?

In launching this campaign, the government has cited statistics showing one in five women and one in 16 men have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 . One in two women and one in four men have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime .

These statistics don't account for the experiences of trans and gender diverse people. In Private Lives 3 , a survey on the health and well-being of queer people in Australia, 64% of non-binary people, 55% of trans men and 42% of trans women had experienced sexual assault.

A lack of understanding of sexual consent is considered a major reason why sexual violence occurs. One report noted almost half of people living in Australia who were surveyed were confused about what consent actually means for sex and intimacy.

In a separate survey , more than one in four young people in Australia agreed that "when a man is very sexually aroused, he may not realize that the woman doesn't want to have sex."

What the campaign does well

The campaign is a welcome update to the infamous milkshake video in 2021, which formed part of the Respect Matters campaign. This video was heavily criticized for its confusing messages and trivializing of consent.

Conversely, Consent Can't Wait takes a simple, direct and carefully worded approach that's not only directed at young people, but at adults as well.

This is perhaps what makes the campaign unique. Most consent campaigns have largely focused on supporting young people, but can forget that sexual violence occurs in all age groups, and that adults play an important role in shaping young peoples' understandings and attitudes towards consent.

Adults are often asked to lead conversations around consent with young people. However, they may not have a good understanding of the issue. Many adults today in their 30s and older are unlikely to have had a comprehensive sex education that included conversations about consent during their formative years. Being an adult who has sex does not automatically equate to a good understanding of consent.

The campaign includes guides on how adults should talk to each other and how they should talk to young people about consent. It includes interactive activities that unpack common questions ("what is sexual consent?") and bust myths about consent such as "you only need to check for consent the first time."

There's also a " community kit " that includes flyers for spreading awareness, and a resource hub with links to sexual health and sexual violence services. Guides are translated into more than 15 languages while specific guides are provided for First Nations communities.

The campaign includes diverse representations of people with disabilities, queer couples, and people across different ages and cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Consent education is a start, but not enough

While the campaign should be commended for its simple and straightforward messages about consent, there's one crucial aspect missing.

Sexual violence is often not just the result of a lack of consent. For decades, research has shown sexual violence is rooted in misogyny (hatred of or prejudice against women ), femmephobia (hatred of femininity), queerphobia (fear and hatred of LGBTIQA+ people), and a sense of sexual entitlement .

It's tempting to think these issues don't persist in 2024. But the rise of incel culture (men who feel entitled to sex with women but angry they cannot get it), and the continued influence of people such as Andrew Tate (who believes women belong in the home and are a man's property, among other things), all point to broader societal issues.

The recent incident in Melbourne where boys were caught with derogatory lists rating the sexual attractiveness of girls in their school similarly highlights the currency of these problems.

We know most sexual violence is perpetrated by men, against other men, women, and trans, non-binary and gender diverse people. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows 2.5 million people who have experienced sexual violence reported a man as the perpetrator, compared to 353,000 who said it was a woman. Meanwhile, 2 million women said their assailant was known to them, as opposed to a stranger.

In Private Lives 3 84% of LGBTIQA+ participants who experienced sexual violence in the previous 12 months reported a cisgender man as the perpetrator.

While power is discussed in the campaign, I believe this discussion is vague, less central than it should be, and ignores the role of gender and culture.

Understanding and respecting consent are different things

A recent study I conducted with colleagues showed young men and women in Australia do understand consent, but don't necessarily apply this knowledge in the moment. Rather, a range of other factors impact how they might navigate consent (or choose not to) in sexual situations.

Other research has shown men do understand what consent is, the issue is actually respecting it .

Educating about consent is important. This campaign, alongside mandated consent education in schools, is overall a very good start.

But it will not necessarily reduce sexual violence if we don't recognize that the heart of sexual violence isn't necessarily about a lack of understanding. It is, and continues to be, about a perceived entitlement to bodies.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Provided by The Conversation

Domestic Violence

25 statements that portend intimate partner violence, these are the words of power and control to watch out for..

Posted May 26, 2024 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

• What Is Domestic Violence?
• Find a therapist to heal from domestic violence
• Rates of domestic violence, or intimate partner violence, are increasing each year.
• Prevention efforts require knowing the red flags of power and control and believing victims the first time.
• There are common phrases used by abusers to maintain the secrecy and silence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive problem affecting millions worldwide regardless of race, age, and socioeconomic status. IPV includes a progressive pattern of abusive behavior that can be physical, emotional, psychological, and/or sexual .

Some may find it surprising that in this modern era, women are abused sexually and physically more than ever before. Nearly one in two women (47.3% or 59 million) in the United States report experiencing IPV at some time during their lifetime (Leemis et al., 2022). According to the World Health Organization, one in three women (30%) globally experience some physical or sexual violence . In the U.S., more than 50% of female rape survivors were raped by an intimate partner (Leemis et al., 2022).

Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, which equates to more than 10 million survivors annually (CDC, 2022). In national surveys, 32.5% of women (40.5 million) reported severe physical violence including being hit (18.9%), beaten (15.2%), kicked (12.2%), slammed against something (24.4%), hurt by choking or suffocating (16.2%), burned on purpose (2.8%), or having had a knife (3.9%) or gun (4.7%) used on them (Leemis et al, 2022).

The statement by Cassie Ventura after recent release of the video showing physical assault by her former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs is notable: “My only ask is that everyone open your heart to believing victims the first time.”

Her words imply that she was not believed until a video became proof.

Domestic violence “broke me down to someone I never thought I would become,” Ventura explained. She advises, “Reach out to your people, don’t cut them off. No one should carry this weight alone.”

In the U.S., police receive more than 20,000 calls from domestic violence hotlines each day (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence fact sheet)​. However, many victims suffer in silence, never reaching out for help.

Often, warning signs emerge early in relationships. It would be wise for all young adults to learn them and heed them.

According to the Duluth Model , the root of IPV is power and control. Abusers keep their partners silent and submissive through a variety of tactics, including isolation from others. Usually, there is a distinct difference in the abuser’s behavior when alone and when around people. Controlling and argumentative behaviors can escalate into physical and sexual assault at any time. An abuser uses promises, threats, coercion, fear , and even tears to maintain secrecy, silence, power, and control.

Words to Watch Out For

If a partner’s words and behaviors feel controlling, unpredictable, fear-inducing, and coercive, it's time to reach out for help immediately. The National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-7233, offers free, 24-hour, confidential support services.

The following words are potential red flags to IPV:

You don’t need to be around those people. Your family (or friends) are toxic.

The world is not safe. I need to protect you. Ask me before you do anything.

We will be together forever. I’ll make all your dreams come true. I’ll take care of you forever. You can quit your job–it’s terrible anyway.

I can’t live without you. If you ever leave, I’ll kill myself.

If you love me, you will do this (sexual act or other sacrifice).

You are really hurting me like I’ve never felt before. You are evil.

You better answer immediately when I text or call you.

Who are you texting? Give me your phone.

If you cheat on me, you will pay.

My job stress makes me angry. It’s not my fault.

My ex was totally crazy.

No, you cannot have another drink.

Do not wear that. You have no fashion taste. Put this on.

No, you cannot go home. You need to stay here with me. It will look bad. I’m driving us home.

You cannot be friends with that guy. I’m blocking him on your phone.

You are too loud and obnoxious. People think you talk too much. Keep your mouth shut.

Those women are not your friends. Stay away from them.

All couples fight. You are overreacting. It’s all your fault.

Don’t you even pretend to be scared. I’ll give you something to be scared about.

I will ruin you if you tell anyone.

The kids will never see you.

I am the man of this household. You had better do what I say, or you will be on the streets.

You will end up with nothing and alone.

Nobody likes you. Everyone loves me.

You have no one. No one will believe you.

Many victims of intimate partner abuse rationalize , deny, or minimize their partner’s words, behaviors, and interactions. Women often say, “I thought he would change. He promised things would be different,” or “I stayed because he told me I was the love of his life.”

Survivors of IPV may express the following fear-based thoughts that minimize, deny, or excuse abusive behaviors and keep them stuck in dangerous relationships:

He’ll change. He promised.

This time will be different.

He’s helped me so much—I owe him.

I’m unhappy, but what choice do I have?

He’ll ruin me. He’ll ruin my life.

He might really hurt me if I leave.

I’ll never see my kids or family if I leave.

My career or my life will be over.

He might kill me. I don’t know what to do.

If you or anyone you know is experiencing any form of abuse, please call for help immediately. You do not have to weather this alone. There is hope—outside of the relationship. Change requires belief (the first time) and empowered action to protect and heal. Prevention efforts must evolve beyond #metoo into #NoMore

Leemis RW, Friar N, Khatiwada S, Chen MS, Kresnow M, Smith SG, Caslin S, & Basile KC. (2022). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2016/2017 Report on Intimate Partner Violence. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cheralyn Leeby, Ph.D., LMFT, has over 30 years of training and experience as a Florida Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She is an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida, Brooks College of Health, Department of Behavioral Health.

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At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

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Government launches new campaign to get you to talk to your kids about consent

The federal government will be encouraging parents to talk with children of all ages about consent with a new campaign launching today.

Ads on social media, billboards and television will direct parents towards a new website, consent.gov.au, where they can read discussion guides for how to discuss consent with their kids.

Research commissioned by the government to guide the consent campaign found that while parents see consent as something important to discuss with their children, two in five wouldn't intervene if they saw or overheard a non-consensual act.

Eighty-six per cent of the 2,031 participants agreed adults should be speaking more about consent with young people but a majority weren't confident in actually doing so.

A third of adults said they believed the importance of consent had been "blown out of proportion," which researchers said presented another roadblock to conversations with kids.

What will the campaign involve?

Ads for Consent Can't Wait will be rolled out on billboards, social media and television, featuring questions like 'Is a kiss consent to more?' and 'What if we've been drinking?' urging parents who don't know the answers to head to consent.gov.au.

There's a 20-page guide for adults to talk to children of varying ages about consent, using prompts like "Even if your friends said yes to the wrestling game, if someone says 'stop', you have to stop straight away … Can you think of a time you needed to stop a game?"

There is also a 13-page guide for how to speak with other parents about talking to young people and consent, with conversation starters including "how do you talk to your kids about awkward topics?" and "at what point during a sexual encounter are you meant to ask for consent?"

The government's panel advising on the campaign included Sydney Medical School's Dr Melissa Kang (who formerly wrote the Dolly Doctor column ), Laurel House sexual assault service's Kathryn Fordyce and consent campaigner Chanel Contos, among others.

'We're living in a divided society'

According to the research conducted by marketing data company Kantar Public for the government, Australians are more aware of discussions around consent than a few years ago but not everyone is on the same page about what it actually means.

Researchers said this was due to confusion around what constitutes consent, how to approach the topic with young people and general discomfort around issues to do with sexual violence.

"There seems to be such a blurry line for what constitutes as consent," said one participant.

"The conversations and the rhetoric you hear every day … it's like, 'what?'."

Another participant said "we're living in a society that still has this stigma … we're living in a divided society."

But while many participants said they felt the issue had been "blown out of proportion" 77 per cent said it was personally important to them and even more think adults need to talk with young people about it.

Campaign comes amid criticism

The new campaign comes amid criticism of the federal government by frontline violence workers for not investing enough in women's safety services.

The budget included funding over two years for a "rapid review" of best practice for preventing violence against women including sexual violence.

But frontline services, legal centres and sexual violence response organisations said the government must do more with some labelling Labor's claim of substantially boosting funding to women's safety as "trickery and deception."

Consent Can't Wait follows the Stop It At The Start campaign, which encouraged parents to teach children respectful attitudes to help stop violence against women, started by the former Coalition government in 2016 and continued by Labor.

That campaign will continue alongside Consent Can't Wait, though researchers from the University of Technology Sydney have questioned how effective such campaigns are in having an impact on rates of sexual, family and domestic violence.

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