Best Practices for Responding to and Preventing On-Campus Sexual Violence (original) (raw)

Shaffer, C. S., Edge, M. F., Hannibal, K. B., Douglas, K. S., & Viljoen, J. L. (2019, November). Best practices for responding to and preventing on-campus sexual violence. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, Niagara on-the-Lake, ON. Sexual violence against college women continues to be a pervasive public health issue with approximately one in five women experiencing sexual assault and one in nine women experiencing rape while in college. With national conversation turned toward sexual assault on college campuses, knowledge on how to identify, prevent, and address these incidents is important for faculty, staff, students, and campus law enforcement. Thus, the current review was undertaken to identify best practices for responding to and preventing on-campus sexual violence. First, we discuss motivations, attitudes, and behaviors related to on-campus sexual assaults (e.g., objectification or depersonalization of girls and women, obsessive or addictive pornography or sex focus, misogynistic ideology, grooming behaviors, using substances to obtain sex, lack of empathy). Second, we discuss campus policies that encourage reporting (e.g., policies and reporting procedures that should be easy to find on a campus website, efforts to mitigate victim fear concerning perpetrator reprisal) and prevention (e.g., improved security measures, programs that encourage bystander intervention or address norms that support or facilitate sexual violence). Third, we discuss procedures to effectively investigative, adjudicate, and sanction perpetration (e.g., dual jurisdiction between school and community law enforcement, investigative training of law enforcement officers). Finally, we conclude with a discussion of services to provide support to victims (e.g., counseling, peer support).