Campus Sexual Assault Prevention: What Research Shows About Effective Approaches

Sexual assault on college campuses has received intensive research, policy, and public attention over the past two decades. Studies using validated measures find that approximately one in five undergraduate women reports experiencing sexual assault during college, and rates for other gender identities are also significant. The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act and Title IX guidance have created federal requirements for campus prevention, education, and response programs. Research on the effectiveness of different prevention approaches and institutional response practices provides an evidence base for policy that is still being developed and refined. Defining sexual assault for research purposes involves definitional choices that significantly affect prevalence estimates. Studies using broad definitions including any unwanted sexual contact produce higher prevalence estimates than those using narrower legal definitions, and studies using behaviorally specific questions that describe acts without using legal terminology produce higher rates of positive responses than those using the term sexual assault itself. This methodological complexity does not undermine the basic finding of high prevalence, which has been replicated across many studies using different methodologies, but it does complicate direct comparisons across studies. Risk factors for sexual assault perpetration have been studied in research that examines what predicts whether individuals perpetrate sexual assault. Studies find that a small proportion of men account for a large proportion of perpetration, and that these individuals typically have multiple victims. Risk factors for perpetration include prior sexual aggression, hostile attitudes toward women, endorsement of rape myths, heavy alcohol use, and social network norms that support sexual aggression. These findings suggest that prevention should attend to the small, repeat perpetrator population as well as addressing broader attitudinal and normative factors. Bystander intervention programs, which train students to recognize and safely interrupt situations that could lead to sexual assault, have emerged as one of the most studied and most evidence-supported prevention approaches. Programs including Green Dot and Bringing in the Bystander have been evaluated in randomized and quasi-experimental studies and found to increase bystander intervention intentions and behavior, reduce victim blame, and in some evaluations reduce self-reported sexual violence. These programs reflect research finding that peer norms and social accountability are powerful influences on sexual behavior, and that training observers to intervene can change the social environment in ways that reduce assault. Alcohol's role in sexual assault is well-documented. Research finds that a substantial proportion of sexual assaults involve alcohol use by the perpetrator, the victim, or both, and that alcohol use is associated with perpetration through multiple mechanisms including reduced inhibition, impaired judgment about consent, and the cultural script in some social environments that alcohol use by women signals sexual availability. Prevention approaches that address alcohol as a context for assault, including alcohol harm reduction programming and the physical and social design of campus environments where drinking and assault co-occur, are part of a comprehensive prevention approach. Trauma-informed responses to sexual assault survivors are associated with better survivor outcomes and higher rates of reporting. Research on survivors' experiences with campus disciplinary processes, campus victim services, and law enforcement finds that survivors who experience these processes as supportive, respectful, and sensitive to trauma are more likely to complete their involvement in the process, to access additional support services, and to report positive wellbeing outcomes. Processes experienced as retraumatizing, characterized by victim-blaming, unnecessary reliving of traumatic details, or indifference to survivor safety, are associated with withdrawal from the process and worsening of trauma symptoms. Title IX policies and procedures have been subject to significant and shifting federal guidance since the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter that significantly expanded institutions' obligations under Title IX. Changes in the evidentiary standard required for sexual misconduct findings, the rights of both complainants and respondents in disciplinary proceedings, and the definition of sexual harassment requiring institutional response have been revised across multiple administrations. Research on the effects of these policy changes on reporting rates, institutional response quality, and campus climate is ongoing. Primary prevention programs that address the underlying attitudes, norms, and belief systems that contribute to sexual violence are recommended by researchers as a necessary complement to bystander intervention and survivor support. Programs that challenge rape myths, promote healthy relationship skills, and engage men as allies in creating campus cultures that do not support sexual violence show evidence of attitude change. The challenge for prevention research is demonstrating that attitude change translates into behavioral change and ultimately into reductions in assault rates, which requires larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods than most studies have been able to achieve.