Assessing understanding of sexual assault resources and response among health sciences students

Background: The widely published statistic of 1 in 5 represents the number of women on college campuses who have been sexually assaulted (White House Office of the Press Secretary, 2014). Many colleges and universities have been attempting to address the sensitive topic of sexual assault for quite some time; however, sexual violence still remains prevalent on campuses throughout the United States (Allen, Ridgeway, & Swan, 2015). Many of the roadblocks an institution faces in its efforts may stem from a lack of understanding of the true nature of student attitudes surrounding the topic of sexual assault. The specific needs of community members, such as student knowledge on reporting policies, attitudes towards prevention, knowledge of existing survivor resources, and perception of community attitudes, must be understood and examined in order to improve campus response in terms of prevention, resources, and support (The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, 2014). Therefore, it is the aim of this study to assess students’ existing knowledge of policies and procedures at JMU. Additionally, this study aims to identify resources and individuals, whether they be peers, professors, law enforcement, and the like, which students feel most inclined to turn in the aftermath of a sexual assault, as well as to understand why they feel as such. Methods: A total of 13 focus groups were held, each consisting of 5-11 Health Science major students at James Madison University (JMU). Semi-structured questions were posed as prompts during a facilitated discussion during focus group meetings. With participant consent, the in-person group meetings were recorded utilizing a digital recorder. The recorded data research file was then encrypted and transcribed by the researcher post meeting. Results: Overall, students were able to identify sexual assault survivor resources available at JMU; however, unless students were part of residence life, they did not seem to know very much about the services they actually provide. A call for advertisement and increased visibility of reactive resources was made evident as many of the identified qualities desired in an ideal survivor resource could be found in already existing resources available on campus. Additionally, students indicated a desire for the prevention program Dukes Step Up to be more comprehensive and take on a more serious tone, as well as the desire for a follow up continued education prevention program. Participants showed high interest in meeting with administration to gain knowledge about their strides towards combating sexual violence

Study Examines Sexual Assault Survivor Experiences

The Alaska Department of Public Safety is working with the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center to better understand how sexual assaults reported to the Alaska State Troopers are handled and perceived, and which factors shape the likelihood of achieving justice for sexual assault victim-survivors. A final report including recommendations for practice improvement is expected mid-2020.Questions of justice / SAKI research in Alaska / Understanding experiences and perceptions / Reference

Beyond Silence, Towards Refusal: The Epistemic Possibilities of #MeToo

There are many ways to understand the meanings of the #MeToo movement. Analyses of its significance have proliferated in popular media; some academic analyses have also recently appeared. Commentary on the philosophical and epistemic significance of the #MeToo movement has been less plentiful. The specific moment of the #MeToo movement in which Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony garnered a widespread social media response from sexual violence survivors highlighted the power of a particular form of epistemic response, what I call ‘epistemic refusal.’ In breaking our silence, those of us who are sexual violence survivors have used this strategy to refuse the dominant epistemic structures that have kept us tightly in check. Mass informal disclosure of survivor status represented in conjunction with hashtags such as #MeToo, #WhyIDidntReport, and #BelieveHer creates space for epistemic, ethical, and political community between survivors of sexual violence by denying hegemonic epistemic discourses of contemporary rape culture. Regarding Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony and the social media response it garnered, analysis of three main elements proves particularly illuminating: the nature of mass informal disclosure of sexual violence, what the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport reveals about refusing silence, and what the hashtags #BelieveHer and #BelieveSurvivors can show us about what it takes to begin to overcome epistemic gaslighting

Landscapes of violence: women surviving family violence in regional and rural Victoria

In this research, family violence survivors have identified issues and barriers they have encountered, and have provided suggestions in regards to how both the criminal justice system and the broader Victorian community might assist survivors and help prevent family violence. Overview This project combines the findings of two studies undertaken by the Centre for Rural and Regional Law and Justice. Drawing on and extending the findings in Women\u27s experience of surviving family violence and accessing the Magistrate\u27s court in Geelong, Victoria (2013), this report extends the research in terms of geographic areas, issues covered and range of participants. It examines the experiences of, and outcomes for, women survivors of family violence in regional and rural Victoria, considering their contact with, and perceptions of, government agencies (including Victoria Police, the Victorian Magistrate\u27s courts and the Department of Human Services) as well as private and community advocates (legal services, women\u27s services and family violence services) and healthcare professionals. Through this research, survivors have identified issues and barriers they have encountered in escaping family violence, and have provided suggestions in regards to how both the criminal justice system and the broader Victorian community might assist survivors and help prevent family violence. As well as being informed by survivors, this publication includes insights provided by government and non-government practitioners and organisations who have offered their views on this report\u27s key findings and recommendations. In addition to the generous contributions of these participants, this report utilises relevant data and emerging research in an effort to identify best practice responses to family violence; improve access to justice, support and safety; and protect and promote women\u27s rights and entitlements

A Content Analysis of Youth Internet Safety Programs: Are Effective Prevention Strategies Being Used?

ABSTRACT: Almost half of youth in the U.S. report receiving internet safety education (ISE) in their schools. Unfortunately, we know little about what educational messages make a difference in problems such as cyberbullying, sexting, or online predators. To consider directions for improving effectiveness, a content analysis was conducted on materials from four ISE programs. Results indicate that ISE programs are mostly not incorporating proven educational strategies. Common ISE messages have proliferated without a clear rationale for why they would be effective. It is recommended that program developers and other stakeholders reconsider ISE messages, improve educational strategies, and participate in evaluation. The field must also consider whether ISE messages would be better delivered through broader youth safety prevention programs versus stand-alone lessons

Female Students’ Perceptions of Sexual Victimization in the College Environment

Research indicates that sexual victimization is a significant problem on college campuses in the United States. Ranging from unwanted sexual contact to rape, sexual victimization of female students is not only a pervasive issue in the college environment, but it also may lead to devastating short- and long-term consequences for survivors, including physical, psychological, and emotional implications. In an effort to better understand the scope of this issue, the researcher attempted to conduct a comprehensive study about female students’ perceptions of sexual victimization at a mid-size, Northeastern, Catholic, liberal arts college. Participants’ recommendations for ways in which colleges can educate students and provide better resources for survivors were a significant result of the study, along with findings concerning the role of alcohol and victimization myth beliefs. Implications for future research and policy include assessing the effectiveness of current sexual assault education and prevention initiatives, as well as further examining the contributing factors to incidences of sexual victimization in the college environment

Discounting Women: Doubting Domestic Violence Survivors’ Credibility and Dismissing Their Experiences

In recent months, we’ve seen an unprecedented wave of testimonials about the serious harms women all too frequently endure. The #MeToo moment, the #WhyIStayed campaign, and the Larry Nassar sentencing hearings have raised public awareness not only about workplace harassment, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, but also about how routinely women survivors face a Gaslight-style gauntlet of doubt, disbelief, and outright dismissal of their stories. This pattern is particularly disturbing in the justice system, where women face a legal twilight zone: laws meant to protect them and deter further abuse often fail to achieve their purpose, because women telling stories of abuse by their male partners are simply not believed. To fully grasp the nature of this new moment in gendered power relations—and to cement the significant gains won by these public campaigns—we need to take a full, considered look at when, how, and why the justice system and other key social institutions discount women’s credibility. We use the lens of intimate partner violence to examine the ways in which women’s credibility is discounted in a range of legal and social service system settings. First, judges and others improperly discount as implausible women’s stories of abuse, based on a failure to understand both the symptoms arising from neurological and psychological trauma, and the practical constraints on survivors’ lives. Second, gatekeepers unjustly discount women’s personal trustworthiness, based on both inaccurate interpretations of survivors’ courtroom demeanor and negative cultural stereotypes about women and their motivations for seeking assistance. Moreover, even when a woman manages to overcome all the initial modes of institutional skepticism that minimize her account of abuse, she often finds that the systems designed to furnish her with help and protection dismiss the importance of her experiences. Instead, all too often, the arbiters of justice and social welfare adopt and enforce legal and social policies and practices with little regard for how they perpetuate patterns of abuse. Two distinct harms arise from this pervasive pattern of credibility discounting and experiential dismissal. First, the discrediting of survivors constitutes its own psychic injury—an institutional betrayal that echoes the psychological abuse women suffer at the hands of individual perpetrators. Second, the pronounced, nearly instinctive penchant for devaluing women’s testimony is so deeply embedded within survivors’ experience that it becomes a potent, independent obstacle to their efforts to obtain safety and justice. The reflexive discounting of women’s stories of domestic violence finds analogs among the kindred diminutions and dismissals that harm so many other women who resist the abusive exercise of male power, from survivors of workplace harassment to victims of sexual assault on and off campus. For these women, too, credibility discounts both deepen the harm they experience and create yet another impediment to healing and justice. Concrete, systematic reforms are needed to eradicate these unjust, gender-based credibility discounts and experiential dismissals, and to enable women subjected to male abuses of power at long last to trust the responsiveness of the justice system

Reassessing balance: News coverage of Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood scandal before and during #metoo

Sexual abuse became an important part of news coverage in the months leading up to Donald Trump’s presidency and continued to dominate news cycles with the emergence of the #metoo movement. Yet, it remains to be seen whether the increasing amount of stories about sexual abuse have actually advanced social justice. We conducted content and textual analyses of newspaper, cable television, and online coverage of the Access Hollywood scandal before and during the #metoo movement (N = 1890) to understand how the journalistic objectivity norm of balance via issue dualism influenced reporting on sexual abuse. Television and right-leaning media had the highest levels of rape myth acceptance in their coverage for both time periods. The use of issue dualism advantaged Trump as Bill Clinton and other prominent accused men shifted focus away from Trump and largely overlooked the women coming forward against Trump. The objectivity norm of balance reduced and politicized this complex issue, as well as gave power to Trump’s retaliation while minimizing the serious accusations that have been brought against him