Demonstrates how colleges routinely deny students fair hearings in sexual assault cases and define sexual assault in an unconstitutionally broad manner.
We live in a moment of renewed and highly visible action on the issue of sexual violence. Rape culture is a real and salient force that dominates campus climates and student experiences. Canada has drafted a national framework, provincial legislation, and institutional policy to address incidences of sexual violence, and students have demanded that their universities respond. Yet rape culture persists on campuses throughout North America. Violence Interrupted presents different ways of thinking about sexual violence. It draws together multiple disciplinary perspectives to synthesize new conceptual directions on the nature of the problem and the changes that are required to address it. Analyzing survey data, educational programs, participatory photography projects, interviews, autoethnography, legal case studies, and existing policy, contributors open up the conversation to illustrate sexual violence on campus as a structural, cultural, and complex social phenomenon. The diversity of methodologies sets this study apart: a problem as complex and far-reaching as rape culture must be approached from a multitude of angles. Decades have passed since student advocates first called for "no means no" campaigns, but universities are still struggling to evolve. Violence Interrupted answers the call by bridging the gap between advocacy, research, and institutional change.
"In this practical guide for higher education professionals who work in student affairs, the authors lay out a community-based model aimed at eliminating sexual misconduct of all kinds on college campuses"--
The only comprehensive resource for families dealing with campus sexual assault. "Mom, there’s something I need to tell you” is just the beginning. After Campus Sexual Assault: A Guide For Parents addresses how, when, and why students tell their parents about having been sexually assaulted. Giving and getting the news can be messy. Although parents often are stunned by the news, it’s important to provide stability and safety at this vulnerable time. Based on years of research and scores of quotes from students, mothers, fathers, and campus service providers, this book sheds light on campus culture today, the range of actions that comprise campus sexual assault, and the many impacts on victims and their families. Importantly, this book offers compassionate guidance for navigating the often-tumultuous time that follows an assault. Although colleges and universities have developed resources for students who have been sexually assaulted, parents are largely left to fend for themselves. Whether through their own sense of stigma, wanting to protect their child’s privacy, or other reasons, parents rarely turn to others for support. This experience can be stressful and isolating. By understanding the impacts of campus sexual assault and learning from others who have been through the trauma and its aftermath, together, parents and children can develop strategies for healing and growth.
Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. What We Don't Know about Campus Sexual Assault -- 2. The Paradox of Embodied Agency -- 3. Managing Identity -- 4. Telling Friends and Family -- 5. Seeking Justice -- 6. The Beautiful Process of Empowerment -- 7. Agency and Campus Sexual Assault: The Way Forward -- Appendixes -- A. Participant Demographics and Case Details -- B. Methodological Notes -- C. Supplementary Ideas -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W
This volume provides guidance for higher education and student affairs practitioners seeking to alter, design, or implement sexual assault prevention resources at their universities.
Although awareness of campus sexual assault is at a historic high, institutional responses to incidents of sexual violence remain widely varied. In this volume, a diverse mix of expert contributors provide a critical, nuanced, and timely examination of some of the factors that inhibit effective prevention and response in higher education. Chapter authors take on one of the most troubling aspects of higher education today, bridging theory and practice to offer programmatic interventions and solutions to help institutions address their own competing interests and institutional culture to improve their practices and policies with regard to sexual violence. The Crisis of Campus Sexual Violence provides higher education scholars, administrators, and practitioners with a necessary and more holistic understanding of the challenges that colleges and universities face in implementing adequate and effective sexual assault prevention and response practices.
Sexual assault on the campuses of universities and private schools appears to be on the rise. Alcohol and fraternities are easy targets, but the issue is much more complicated. Despite attempts made by administrators to define consent clearly, it can be a legal gray area. Students condemned by a school’s excessively broad definition of sexual assault can be branded rapists long after graduation. Victims must face their attackers on campus because administrators prefer to keep incidents out of the hands of law enforcement. Through balanced viewpoints, this powerful anthology addresses the complexities of an issue that has important social repercussions.
Campus Sexual Violence: A State of Institutionalized Sexual Terrorism conceptualizes sexual violence on college campuses as a form of sexual terrorism, arguing that institutional compliance and inaction within the neoliberal university perpetuate a system of sexual terrorism. Using a sexual terrorism framework, the authors examine a myriad of examples of campus sexual violence with an intersectional lens and explore the role of the institution and the influence of neoliberalism in undermining sexual violence prevention efforts. The book utilizes Carole Sheffield’s five components of sexual terrorism (ideology, propaganda, amorality, perceptions of the perpetrator, and voluntary compliance) to describe how the "ivory tower stereotype" and adoption of neoliberal values into education contribute to an environment where victimization is painfully common. Cases such as those from Michigan State University and Baylor University are used as examples to highlight institutional culpability and neoliberal value systems within higher education, as well as illustrating the pervasiveness of rape culture that contributes to a system of sexual terrorism. Crucially, the book focuses on systems of inequality and oppression, and uses an intersectional perspective that recognizes victimization experienced by multiple marginalized groups including women, LGBTQ+, and racially minoritized people. Building on campus violence research and institutional harm research, the authors define campus sexual violence as a serious social problem based in structural inequality and advocate for civic responsibility at the institutional level and the development of institutional advocates. Weaving together theoretical and practical perspectives, the book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sociology, criminal justice, women’s and gender studies, social/political policy, victimology, and education. It will also be of use to those working in higher education administration and other student life and student health professions.