The Crisis Of Campus Sexual Violence

Although awareness of campus sexual assault is at a historic high, institutional responses to incidents of sexual violence remain widely varied. The Crisis of Campus Sexual Violence provides higher education scholars, administrators, and practitioners with a necessary and more holistic understanding of the challenges that colleges and universities face in implementing adequate and effective sexual assault prevention and response practices. In this volume, a diverse mix of expert contributors provide a critical, nuanced, and timely examination of some of the factors that inhibit effective prevention and response in higher education. Chapter authors take on one of the most troubling aspects of higher education today, bridging theory and practice to offer programmatic interventions and solutions to help institutions address their own competing interests and institutional culture to improve their practices and policies with regard to sexual violence.

Survivors of campus sexual assault share the stories of how they confronted and overcame the trauma of being attacked. A 2014 report issued by the White House Council on Women and Girls included the alarming statistic that one in five female college students in the United States experiences some form of campus sexual assault. Despite more than fifty years of anti-rape activism and over two decades of federal legislation regarding campus sexual violence, sexual assault on American college and university campuses remains prevalent, underreported, and poorly understood. A principal reason for this lack of understanding is that the voices of women who have experienced campus sexual assault have been largely absent from academic discourse about the issue. In Campus Sexual Assault, Lauren J. Germain focuses attention on the post–sexual assault experiences of twenty-six college women. She reframes conversations about sexual violence and student agency on American college campuses by drawing insight directly from the stories of how survivors responded individually to attacks, as well as how and why peers, family members, and school, medical, and civil authorities were (or were not) engaged in addressing the crimes. Germain weaves together women's narratives to show the women not as victims per se but as individuals with the power to overcome these traumatic experiences.

We live in a moment of renewed and highly visible action on the issue of sexual violence. Rape culture is a real and salient force that dominates campus climates and student experiences. Canada has drafted a national framework, provincial legislation, and institutional policy to address incidences of sexual violence, and students have demanded that their universities respond. Yet rape culture persists on campuses throughout North America. Violence Interrupted presents different ways of thinking about sexual violence. It draws together multiple disciplinary perspectives to synthesize new conceptual directions on the nature of the problem and the changes that are required to address it. Analyzing survey data, educational programs, participatory photography projects, interviews, autoethnography, legal case studies, and existing policy, contributors open up the conversation to illustrate sexual violence on campus as a structural, cultural, and complex social phenomenon. The diversity of methodologies sets this study apart: a problem as complex and far-reaching as rape culture must be approached from a multitude of angles. Decades have passed since student advocates first called for "no means no" campaigns, but universities are still struggling to evolve. Violence Interrupted answers the call by bridging the gap between advocacy, research, and institutional change.

At least one in four women attending college or university will be sexually assaulted by the time they graduate. Beyond this staggering statistic, recent media coverage of “rape chants” at Saint Mary’s University, misogynistic Facebook posts from Dalhousie University’s dental school, and high-profile incidents of sexual violence at other Canadian universities point to a widespread culture of rape on university campuses and reveal universities’ failure to address sexual violence. As university administrations are called to task for their cover-ups and misguided responses, a national conversation has opened about the need to address this pressing social problem. This book takes up the topic of sexual violence on campus and explores its causes and consequences as well as strategies for its elimination. Drawing together original case studies, empirical research, and theoretical writing from scholars and community and campus activists, this interdisciplinary collection charts the costs of campus sexual violence on students and university communities, the efficacy of existing university sexual assault policies and institutional responses, and historical and contemporary forms of activism associated with campus sexual violence.

In this important book, Linder advances a power-conscious lens to challenge student activists, administrators, educators, and policy makers to develop more nuanced approaches to sexual violence awareness, response, and prevention on college campuses.

This invaluable reference text thoroughly examines the alarming epidemic of campus sexual assault, including a discussion of laws, high-profile cases, controversies, and proposed solutions. From the assault of a high school girl by a multitude of her peers in Steubenville, Ohio, to the alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, the ongoing and serious problem of sexual violence at U.S. educational institutions is well established. These horrific attacks continue in spite of the Title IX probe launched by the Obama administration in order to hold schools more accountable. Campus Sexual Assault: A Reference Handbook addresses the difficult questions about the widespread incidence of sexual assault among high school and college students. Written to be highly accessible to high school and undergraduate students, general readers, as well as individuals interested in the campus rape discourse, the book covers the background history of sexual assault on college campuses, discusses how laws regarding sexual assault and the cultural understanding of the crime have evolved over time, and outlines some of the highest-profile cases of sexual assault at U.S. schools. A perspectives chapter presents testimonials from those who by profession or experience have insight into the problem of sexual assault, giving voice to a Title IX investigator, a college counselor, a sexual assault nurse, and individuals who have been sexually assaulted. Readers will come away with a deeper appreciation of the gravity of the problem of campus sexual assault and grasp the causes of this societal issue to intelligently consider proposed solutions.

Amid the ongoing national conversation regarding campus sexual assault, this book thoughtfully explores existing programmatic interventions while wrestling with fundamental questions regarding the cultural shifts in our nation’s higher education institutions. Stressing the critical importance of student inclusion in policy decisions and procedures, scholars and experts provide complex and nuanced analyses of institutional practices, while exploring themes of race, sexuality, and sexual freedom. This volume addresses many of the unanswered questions in the present dialogue on campus sexual violence, including: What’s working and not working? How can outcomes be assessed or measured? What resources are needed to ensure success? This volume provides a truly fresh contribution for higher education and student affairs practitioners seeking to alter, design, or implement effective sexual assault prevention resources at their universities and colleges.

After 40 years of activists working to reduce sexual violence on college campuses, in 2014, the new Campus Anti-Rape Movement (CARM) finally put this issue on the national policy agenda. President Barack Obama credited “an inspiring wave of student-led activism” for catapulting campus rape into public consciousness. This book positions the new CARM within a long history of anti-sexual violence activism in the U.S. The authors describe the major events of this new movement and how it coalesced. The authors also analyze the new CARM through a social movement lens, and examine the role of new laws and social media in facilitating movement successes. The book argues that the new CARM laid the groundwork for the emergence of #MeToo, the highest profile campaign against sexual harassment/violence to date in U.S. history.