What Do We Know About Our Campus Sexual Predators?: Preliminary Survey Data

• In Event: Gendered Violence Among Students

Abstract

Campus sexual assault is a growing epidemic in this country. It prevents students from having a safe learning environment and can be an extremely traumatic event for the victim. The statistic that approximately one in five women will be sexually victimized while attending college is now widely accepted and disseminated. Appropriately, the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act and expansion of Title IX have required institutions of higher education to acknowledge that this crime is occurring, provide applicable services when it does, and develop prevention strategies to combat it.
The majority of research in this area focuses on victim responses to their sexual assault experience, but there is not as much known about the perpetrators of these crimes. The current research surveyed undergraduates at a southwest state university, and in addition to asking questions about their sexual experiences, attempted to measure their college socialization and attitudes about gender roles/masculinity. A small sample of male survey respondents reported sexually victimizing another student and provided data about their college experience and attitudes about gender roles and masculinity. Results from this survey will be discussed in the context of prevention programming for college campuses.

Authors

• Brooke de Heer, Northern Arizona University

• Sarah Prior, Michigan State University