Assessing the Impact of Mandatory Gender Violence Prevention Programs on College Campuses

Overview

This document outlines three major dimensions of a comprehensive approach to sexual violence prevention based on frameworks in public health and social change field:

1. Stages of Violence Perpetration or Victimization
2. Targeting Different Audiences
3. Multiple Hierarchical Levels

The purpose of compiling these different dimensions is to help those involved in prevention work to imagine ways of working at different levels in order to make their efforts more effective.  The report also includes an overview of six commonly used program types, shows how they fit into the theoretical frameworks introduced.

Primary Prevention Works in Concert with Secondary and Tertiary

This document also discusses the recent focus on primary prevention, validates its importance, and then calls attention to the need for expanding primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention simultaneously, as all three work in concert to change societal structures and norms that promote violent behavior (CDC 2004; Lonsway 2009).  For example, effective community sanctions for perpetrators simultaneously address tertiary prevention associated with repeat offenses, while also constituting primary prevention at the community level by demonstrating that the community norm is to not tolerate violence and to hold perpetrators accountable.  Additionally, this report outlines a way of classifying programs by stage of violence perpetration or victimization using the common terms of “before, during or immediately after, and after” violence is committed.  This parallels the public health terms of “primary, secondary, and tertiary” prevention, and focuses on the question: “What could prevent violence or further harm at each stage?”

Women’s Empowerment as Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Prevention

Women’s empowerment programs are also discussed, specifically, as they are often considered risk-reduction and secondary prevention.  This report points out ways that some women’s empowerment model self-defense classes engage in tertiary, secondary, and primary prevention as they empower survivors and potential victims, and counter a critical social norm that leads to violence against women: “Limited female roles, where from a young age females are often encouraged, through subtle and overt messages, to act and be treated as objects, used and controlled by others.” (Davis, Parks, & Cohen 2006; Lyles, Cohen, & Brown 2009)

Common Programs Rarely Target Perpetrators or Survivors

In terms of targeting different audiences, commonly used prevention programs least often target perpetrators of sexual violence, and survivors are also infrequently targeted.  This gap for survivors may be filled in part by individual counseling and advocacy services.  The lack of programs targeting perpetrators of sexual violence calls for universities to imagine ways to address this important audience, as most offenders are repeat offenders (Lonsway et al. 2009).

Need for More Programs Engaging Students who are Ready to Change

Commonly used programs also failed to target students who were in the later stages of readiness to change, where they have already made real, risk-reducing, changes to their behavior.  These audiences are highly aware of the problem, are ready to act, and need to reinforce their behavior changes.  More program models that engage students in activism, internships, peer educator roles, etc. could help universities move towards comprehensive prevention in this model.

Programs Rarely Address Community Risk Factors

Another important dimension of a comprehensive approach is acting on different hierarchical levels.  Commonly used programs only weakly addressed community level factors and did not address societal level factors, although they may have enhanced individual protective factors that guard against negative social norms at these levels.  In order to better address community-level factors, universities could improve policies that support survivors and hold perpetrators accountable.  Furthermore, mandatory programs and university-wide social norming campaigns may address community norms by reaching a large swath of the population and fostering healthy community norms.  It is important to emphasize that a comprehensive approach is not about doing one thing at each level, but rather about doing multiple things that address each risk and protective factor and each level.