The Importance of Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assault Prevention

After the introduction of the new federal mandates related to sexual  assault reporting and education on college campuses, the new mandates can be found here notalone.gov, there has been an increase in the number of bystander intervention programs that are being created to help prevent sexual assaults. Bystander intervention is when a witness to a potentially violent crime steps in and attempts to prevent the crime from occurring (Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault, 2010). I have created a bystander intervention training for the students at UT Dallas that addresses sexual assault, dating violence, suicide, and any other potentially violent act that may occur on campus. My goal is to let students know that they have the power to step in and prevent these acts from happening on their campus. While creating this program I found a video that shows how bystander intervention can play a role in preventing sexual assaults in situations that many college students may face. I believe this is a great example of what can be included in a bystander intervention training that includes sexual assault.

Preventing sexual assaults on college campuses does take a number of different approaches and educational components and bystander intervention should be one of them. If students step in in the situations shown in the video, there may be a reduced number of sexual assaults on college campuses across the country.

References

Notalone.gov (2014). Schools. Retrieved from www.notalone.gov

Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault (2010). Bystander intervention. Retrieved                                                     from http://mscasa.org/bystander-intervention/

Whoareyou.co.nz (2011). www.whoareyou.co.nz [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?                                  v=iUj2OHLAG3w

Brochure

Facts and Figures

It is known that sexual assaults occur in the United States, but exact numbers and figures are difficult to determine based upon the suspected number of unreported sexual assaults that occur (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network [RAINN], 2014). Approximately 60% of all sexual assaults are never reported to police (RAINN, 2014). Despite the lack of sexual assault reporting, it has been determined that a sexual assault occurs every 2 minutes in the United States resulting in over 230,000 sexual assaults each year (RAINN, 2014). 1 in 6 women will be a victim of sexual assault within their lifetime resulting in over 17 million American women that have survived a sexual assault or an attempted sexual assault (RAINN, 2014). Men can also be survivors of sexual assault. It is thought that many sexual assaults that occur among men go unreported, more often than sexual assaults against women (After Silence, 2011). Approximately 1 in every 33 men in the United States will experience sexual assault in their lifetime (RAINN, 2014). Among all sexual assaults, 90% occur between acquaintances, meaning that most survivors of sexual assault knew the assailant (RAINN, 2014).

Recently, the Department of Education published updated requires for higher education institutions regarding the reporting and handling of sexual assault cases among college students. These new regulations can be attributed to the high number of sexual assaults that have occurred on college campuses for a number of years (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). About 1 in 4 college women and 3% of college men have reported surviving sexual assault after the age of 14 (One In Four USA, 2011). In fact, 25% of all reported sexual assaults occur among women aged 18-25, ages of a traditional college student (RAINN, 2014). The culture of college campus and the behaviors of college students may be attributed to these high rates (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). Acquaintance or date rape tends to be the most prevalent form of sexual assault among college students (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). This can be linked to high rates of alcohol and drug use among college students than individuals aged 18-24 not attending college (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). The new federal regulations from the Department of Education will enforce increased education and prevention efforts provided to all college students and help regulate the reporting and judicial processes colleges and universities take when addressing sexual assault claims/reports among students (Not Alone.gov, 2014).

The effects that sexual assaults have adverse effects in survivors' lives (RAINN, 2014). Survivors of sexual assault are 3 times as likely to suffer from depression than someone who has not experienced  sexual assault (RAINN, 2014). Even more alarming, survivors are 26 times more likely to abuse drugs and 13 times more likely to abuse alcohol as a result of sexual assault (RAINN, 2014).

The effects of sexual assault on survivors and the alarmingly high rates of sexual assault among men and women are validation that sexual assault is a public health issue that needs to be addressed through education and prevention efforts. Increased efforts to educate the public about the incidence of sexual assaults and ways that they can be prevented will help reduce the number of survivors battling the lasting effects of sexual assault.

References

After Silence (2011). Male Surviviors. Retrieved from http://www.aftersilence.org/male-survivors.php

Franklin, C.A., Boufford, L.A.. and Pratt, T.C. (2012). Sexual assault on the college campus: Fraternity                     affiliation, male-peer support and low self control. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 39, 1457-                     1480. doi: 10.1177/0093854812456527

One In Four USA (2011). Sexual assault statistics. Retrieved                                                                                       from http://www.oneinfourusa.org/statistics.php

Not Alone (2014). Title IX compliance requirements. Retrieved from https://www.notalone.gov/schools/

Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (2014). Who are the victims?. Retrieved from
                https://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-victims 

How I Got Here

My journey in the health education field began at Oklahoma State University as an undergraduate when I had no idea what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I began college majoring in engineering, quickly realizing that the field was not for me despite my parent's influences in the field. I decided to take a semester to figure out what I wanted to declare as my new major by taking all general education courses. I figured I would have one shot at this if I wanted to graduate in 4-5 years. I ended up taking a health introduction class. I discovered the Peer Health Education program on campus and joined immediately to help me meet new people and get more experience in the field. Long story short, I changed my major to Health Promotion, completed 2 different peer health programs and worked as a student worker in the Health Education department. Five years later, I have been working as a Wellness Coordinator at The University of Texas at Dallas for nearly 4 years. Needless to say I found my passion and my career path and hope to continue in the filed for many years to come.

When I first became a health educator at a university I focused on the "typical" health education topics like alcohol, sexual health, nutrition and stress. As time went on the health education needs for the student body began to change. There was a greater need for prevention programming and efforts for subjects that were more related to mental health and personal safety issues. A few years ago I began offering presentations to students about consent, bystander intervention and personal safety issues that may arise in situations involving alcohol. Now, with the federal mandates of Title IX that were recently released, my daily duties are mainly focused on sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention. I have come to really enjoy informing students on the ways they can protect themselves, how they can protect others and provide a basic understanding of definitions related to sexual assault and relationship violence. I have a feeling that sexual assault prevention will continue to expand in the health education field and hope to provide the best approaches and programming possible to help prevent sexual assaults from occurring. This blog will help inform other health educators of the efforts I am currently applying to a college campus and pass along other helpful information. 

In my spare time (what is that?) I  spend time with my family and friends. I have a wonderful husband and a great circle of friends. There seems to always be a birthday, anniversary or holiday to celebrate so we are very busy nearly every weekend. I also have great friends at work so there is never a shortage of laughter and fun in my life. I hope the laughter and fun times continue for many years to come. What is life without laughter?