Are universities preventing violence against women?

Sexual harassment of women students is rife and violence against women in universities is commonplace. Are universities reflecting cultural norms of violence against women instead of shaping new norms

Strategy for addressing sexual and domestic violence in universities: Prevention and response

This document summarises the essential elements of an effective strategic approach to preventing, and responding to, sexual and domestic violence against women and related forms of violence and abuse in university settings. In order to respond to their institutional responsibilities, universities should address: prevention; policy; monitoring and reporting; providing and signposting specialist response and support pathways; and fostering culture change – which is key to preventing violence against women. In addition to this institutional response, it is important for student unions and other student–led organisations to work in conjunction with universities particularly in regard to shaping culture change

Evaluation of the Intervention Initiative: A bystander intervention program to prevent violence against women in universities

© 2018 Springer Publishing Company. Violence against women students is increasingly recognized as a significant public health and human rights issue. The Intervention Initiative is a facilitated bystander intervention educational program commissioned by Public Health England for use by all English universities to prevent violence, abuse, and coercion. The success of the program with firstyear law students at a large university in the South West of England was evaluated through course evaluation feedback and in a questionnaire study. Student experience was exceptionally good across all measures. In paired sample t tests, prosocial bystander behavior did not increase significantly from pretest to post-test immediately after taking part in the program. Rape myth acceptance, domestic abuse myth acceptance, and denial decreased significantly (p .599). Bystander efficacy, readiness to help, and responsibility increased significantly (p < .001; d = .408-.703), and intent to help increased significantly (p = .007, d = .248). Exposure to a concurrent social marketing campaign on campus had a significant strengthening effect on improvement of attitudes to rape myths (p = .010) but not any other outcome measures. No significant backlash was identified

Help students help themselves: The Intervention Initiative

Article about the Intervention Initiative: why it was developed and what theories it is based on

The Intervention Initiative: Student feedback February 2015

The Intervention Initiative is Bystander Education Programme that was taught to 1st year Law students in 2014/2015. This document outlines the students' feedback on the programme

The Intervention Initiative: Theoretical rationale

The theoretical rationale for each of the 8 sessions of the Intervention Initiative, a Bystander Intervention Programme. The purpose of this programme is to promote change in the social environment that facilitates rape and sexual assault and domestic violence in University and Further Education settings. Its focus is on encouraging men and women to change the social norms in their peer culture that support problematic and abusive behaviours

A review of evidence for bystander intervention to prevent sexual and domestic violence in universities

This literature review is intended to be useful to a range of audiences.The 3 aims of the review are to:- set out the rationale for using a bystander approach in sexual and domestic violence prevention work at English universities- verify that all current evidence for best practice has been assimilated in the preparation of ‘The intervention initiative’ toolkit for English universities, commissioned by PHE and developed by the research team undertaking the review- bring interested parties up to date with the most recent research relating to bystander intervention methods for addressing sexual and domestic violence in university settingsIt builds on the review of bystander approaches in support of preventing violence against women published in 2011 (Powell, 2011) which summarised the evidence-based features for effective bystander approaches in support of preventing violence against women

Investigation of the TOCA1-Cdc42 interaction

Transducer of Cdc42-dependent actin assembly protein 1 (TOCA1) is an effector of the Rho family small G protein Cdc42. It contains a membrane-deforming F-BAR domain as well as a Src homology 3 (SH3) domain and a G protein-binding homology region 1 (HR1) domain. TOCA1 binding to Cdc42 leads to actin rearrangements, which are thought to be involved in processes such as endocytosis, filopodia formation, and cell migration. We have solved the structure of the HR1 domain of TOCA1, providing the first structural data for this protein. We have found that the TOCA1 HR1, like the closely related CIP4 HR1, has interesting structural features that are not observed in other HR1 domains. We have also investigated the binding of the TOCA HR1 domain to Cdc42 and the potential ternary complex between Cdc42 and the G protein-binding regions of TOCA1 and a member of the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein family, N-WASP. TOCA1 binds Cdc42 with micromolar affinity, in contrast to the nanomolar affinity of the N-WASP G protein-binding region for Cdc42. NMR experiments show that the Cdc42-binding domain from N-WASP is able to displace TOCA1 HR1 from Cdc42, whereas the N-WASP domain but not the TOCA1 HR1 domain inhibits actin polymerization. This suggests that TOCA1 binding to Cdc42 is an early step in the Cdc42-dependent pathways that govern actin dynamics, and the differential binding affinities of the effectors facilitate a handover from TOCA1 to N-WASP, which can then drive recruitment of the actin-modifying machinery.JRW is supported by a Herchel Smith studentship. JLG is supported by a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship (WT095829AIA), European Research Council Starting Grant (281971) and Gurdon Institute funding provided by the Wellcome Trust (092096) and CRUK (C6946/A14492). HMF is supported by a Wellcome Trust PhD Studentship (WT099740Z12Z). We would like to thank Dr A Walrant for help with the pyrene actin assays and liposome preparation. We are also grateful to Dr J.R. Peterson (Fox Chase Cancer Center) for human TOCA1 clones.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology via http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M116.72429

Theory of change: The Intervention Initiative bystander intervention model for universities

Theory of change describing how the programme's teaching aims, activities and processes relate to intermediate and long-term outcomes of preventing violence against women in universities