Sexual Violence in Canada: Statistics, Policies, Sexual Consent Education at Canadian Universities

• In Event: Sexual Violence in Various contexts

Abstract

In North America one in three women over age 15, has experienced sexual violence during her lifetime. Although one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted during their stay at a post-secondary institution, more than 90% of those victims do not report to school authorities. The lack of reporting by students is consistent with the lack of reporting with the general population where only 1 in 10 sexual assaults is reported to police. More importantly, 98% of perpetrators are male and none of these statistics has changed in over 30 years. As a result of these facts, I ask what can be done differently – what can universities do to reduce the numbers of victims and potential perpetrators?
Over the course of three years, I used a multi-method approach to explore sexual consent education at over 120 universities across Canada. I also gathered students’ perspectives who consistently reported that more sexual consent education is needed, that everyone should complete this education, and it should be mandatory. I developed a sexual consent education module that applies a prevention and education approach. It is accessible, online, and could be added to the existing repertoire of prevention and education programming already available. I challenge universities to also consider making such a consent education module mandatory for students, staff, and administration. If universities require mandatory completion of cybersecurity training, then they should also require mandatory sexual consent education and violence prevention training.

Author

• D Scharie Tavcer, Mount Royal University