What you probably already know: Despite years of efforts to prevent sexual assaults across college campuses (think Columbia University’s groundbreaking Sexual Citizens framework adopted by other universities), sex offenses remain pervasive. In a first-of-its-kind study published in the Journal of American College Health, young women attending college, particularly those residing on campus, face a higher risk compared to their non-enrolled counterparts. Thirteen percent of all students on college campuses between the ages of 18 and 24 experience rape or sexual assault, according to RAINN — the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and operator of the National Sexual Assault Hotline — including 26.4% of female undergraduates. The risk for male college students is also significantly higher than for those not enrolled.
Why it matters: Cultural shifts have led to the mainstreaming of misogyny on social media. Journal of American College Health researchers Kathryn O. DuBois, PhD, and Amelie Pedneault, PhD, say the rise of the “manosphere’s hateful language and scary rhetoric has become increasingly toxic toward women.” The Journal notes that social media platforms give extreme misogynists platforms not available to them just a decade ago, adding that college campuses have turned into battlegrounds in the fight for gender equality. A recent global survey found that fully a third Gen Z men (those currently between the ages of 18 and 28, the same demographic of most college students) agree that a wife should always obey her husband.
What it means: Columbia University cites several peer universities who’ve adopted sexual violence prevention strategies based on research developed from faculty at its Mailman School of Public Health. Both the University of Michigan and Cornell University now offer undergraduate courses based on Sexual Citizens, a book about the factors influencing young people’s sexual relationships. The University of Maryland Baltimore County launched a course based on the research called “Consent, Respect and Sexual Citizenship,” focusing on creating a culture of respect across campus.
What happens next: Prevention strategies have created “an opportunity to decrease student vulnerability when seeking social spaces and late-night bites,” says La’Shawn Rivera, executive director of Columbia’s Sexual Violence Response initiative. “Sexual Citizens offered evidence-based support for the strategies that the university continues to prioritize, showing that our approach to these issues is both necessary and effective.” As The Journal of American College Health puts it, “Specifically, college officials should bolster their sexual violence prevention efforts for women residing on campus through situational crime prevention,” adding that the focus must include offender motivations rather than actions by the victims. They “should be used to design prevention efforts to increase perpetrators’ perceived certainty of apprehension and to eliminate their rationalizations for sexual violence on campus.”
