Campus sexual violence: Working to end it together: CDC strategies benefit schools, students
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* Julia Haskins

As the national conversation on sexual violence amplifies, the public has become more aware of the scope of the problem and its detrimental toll on survivors.

While recent discussion has largely focused on issues of consent and accountability, it has also opened the door to envisioning a culture in which sexual violence is not committed in the first place — a goal that can be worked toward through principles of public health.

“The media coverage of this issue is really helpful because it reaches people with the idea that this is a large-scale public health problem, it affects everyone and that hopefully what the next message we can convey is it’s preventable,” Sarah DeGue, PhD, behavioral scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told *The Nation’s Health.*

Sexual violence can be reduced through primary prevention, which seeks to reduce risk factors and boost protective factors against harmful behaviors. And few settings are as suited to primary prevention measures as higher education. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, sexual violence is more prevalent in higher education, with about 11 percent of all students experiencing rape or sexual assault on campus. Among undergraduate women, the rate is about 23 percent, and among men, about 5 percent.

![Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/nathealth/48/2/S1.1/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/48/2/S1.1/F1)

College students, faculty and community organizations can help end the culture of sexual assault and violence on campus, thanks to strategies and resources from CDC.

Photo by Blue_Cutler, courtesy iStockphoto

CDC offers resources specific to sexual violence prevention, including “Stop SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence” and “Sexual Violence on Campus: Strategies for Prevention.” Both resources highlight CDC’s evidence-based models for sexual violence prevention, which hinge on implementing broad, community-based strategies as well as developing a culture of safety and respect. Under CDC’s framework, prevention takes place throughout a social ecological model. In other words, there are actions that can be taken at the individual, relationship, community and societal levels to stop sexual violence.

“Public health underscores the importance of primary prevention,” CDC said. “A comprehensive approach with preventive interventions at multiple levels of the social ecological model…is critical to having a population level impact on (sexual violence).”

CDC’s guidelines reflect an increasing shift in ideology that anti-sexual violence advocates have long promoted: moving past federal compliance in responding to campus sexual violence toward stamping it out altogether.

“Our goal is fundamentally not to reduce liability, but to create a healthy environment for all members of the university community,” David Lee, MPH, director of prevention at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault and director of Prevent Connect, told *The Nation’s Health.*

In building such an environment, all campus community members need to consider the potentially harmful social and gender norms that have shaped their understanding of sexual violence. Students come to campus with a range of life experiences and ingrained beliefs, but colleges and universities can play an influential role in helping them reexamine the norms that foster a culture of sexual violence, Lee said.

“You have to be able to make people engage with you around this topic,” Drew Colling, MS, LCPC, director and campus assault prevention coordinator of the Student Advocacy Resource Center at the University of Montana, told *The Nation’s Health.* “For some people, it’s going to be the first time they’ve ever heard this information.”

It may also be the first time that many students are interacting with people from such a wide range of backgrounds and identities. Colleges and universities must strive for inclusive programming that speaks to the many experiences of community members, Colling said. A comprehensive discussion of sexual violence also includes the ways that sexual violence disproportionately impacts certain groups, particularly women, LGBTQ people and racial and ethnic minorities.

Helping students understand the roots of sexual violence is integral to a campus culture that does not tolerate sexual violence and other harmful behaviors. In such a climate, students and other community members are taught to intervene when someone appears to be in a dangerous situation, practice healthy behaviors in relationships and call out language that makes light of or perpetuates sexual violence.

“Having community standards...that are consistently reinforcing the values of looking out for each other, respect, kindness even — those are all things that act in a protective way in terms of curbing perpetration behaviors,” Kristen Houser, MPA, chief public affairs officer at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, told *The Nation’s Health.*

Making such values commonplace requires a commitment beyond a one-time first-year orientation session on sexual violence. It is important to build an infrastructure that can support comprehensive strategies over the long-term, DeGue said. That way, “everyone thinks preventing sexual violence is part of their job.”

CDC recommends consistent messaging throughout the higher education experience, delivered in multiple ways and across various platforms. That way, exposure to messaging about sexual violence becomes part of the campus mentality, with all community members expected to contribute to a safe, healthy environment.

The Love Pono program at Leeward Community College in Honolulu brings together leaders throughout the campus community to integrate anti-violence messaging and programming in different facets of student life. Love Pono, whose mission is “to provide a safe environment to help the Leeward Community College community build and maintain healthy relationships through education, intervention, campus and community resources and counseling,” weaves anti-violence action into the backdrop of numerous campus activities.

And it is not just students doing the work. Faculty, staff and students all collaborate on initiatives to make their campus safer and educate community members.

“We need to know our part and we need to know our role and we need to be very supportive of our students,” Lexer Chou, MA, head of the Love Pono committee and student life coordinator at Leeward, told *The Nation’s Health.*

Anti-violence messaging shows up in many creative ways on the Leeward campus. For Valentine’s Day, Love Pono wrapped statements about healthy communication around large pillars on campus. The group also partnered with a creative writing class to offer extra credit to students who performed poems about healthy relationships. Guerilla marketing is another common strategy, allowing Love Pono to quickly disperse its anti-violence messaging to a wide audience. Even a short PSA or social media post can help reinforce the campus’ commitment to safety and well-being.

Campus sexual violence is often viewed as the domain of traditional stakeholders such as a student advocacy resource center, women’s center or rape crisis center. While such entities have the expertise and resources to bolster sexual violence prevention efforts, they alone cannot solve the problem. CDC offers a list of potential partners, including alumni groups, athletic programs, sororities and fraternities.

And just as sexual violence does not occur solely on college and university campuses, “preventing sexual violence is not only the job of the campus community,” Houser said.

Under CDC’s framework, the collaboration of organizations both on and off campus is vital to a comprehensive anti-sexual violence strategy. Local health departments are one such partner, serving as a link between campuses and the larger community, DeGue said. She also noted that health departments can help colleges and universities take advantage of CDC’s Rape Prevention and Education program, among other resources. Public health workers can help colleges and universities collect and analyze data to better understand trends in campus sexual violence as well as provide recommendations on prevention models. Experts in epidemiology may also be particularly useful as more colleges and universities use campus climate surveys to assess student health and wellness.

There are critical partners besides local health departments and survivor-centered organizations. Non-traditional community partners are not only influential in a campus’ sexual violence prevention strategy, but also necessary for a comprehensive approach. The local cafe or movie theater may not be obvious choices for a public health partnership, but it is important to consider where students live, work and play off campus and how such factors are related to sexual violence. Off-campus establishments such as bars and restaurants, for example, can take the lead on bystander intervention efforts and alcohol safety.

“What’s happening on campus is not dissimilar from what’s happening in the community,” Julie Patrick, national partners liaison for the Raliance anti-sexual violence coalition, told *The Nation’s Health.* “Campuses need to be more engaged and aware of how they fit into this larger community.”

Involving the greater community beyond campus also underscores the notion that no single person or entity bears all the responsibility for preventing sexual violence. In addition, people who have experienced sexual violence need to know they have support available.

“Sexual (violence)…creates a sense of shame and stigma that results in isolation,” Houser said. “If we’re not spreading the wealth around all the different kinds of places students are seeking support and communicating with others, we may be inadvertently adding to that isolation.”

There is no one-size-fits all approach to addressing sexual violence on campus. Strategies will inevitably differ based on factors such as student demographics, campus location and other characteristics of a college or university. A sexual violence prevention program would probably be applied in a different way at a four-year institution than it would at a two-year institution, or in a rural setting compared with an urban one.

![Figure2](http://www.thenationshealth.org/http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/nathealth/48/2/S1.1/F2.medium.gif)

[Figure2](http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/48/2/S1.1/F2)

Faculty, staff and students are collaborating on initiatives to make their campuses safer and educate community members.

Photo by Skynesher, courtesy iStockphoto

However colleges and universities approach sexual violence prevention, it is imperative that they use evidence-based practices such as those illustrated in CDC’s guidelines, DeGue said. While there are few evidence-based practices available to higher education institutions, the ones that do exist have a greater likelihood of effectiveness and can also be adapted based on the individual needs of the campus.

“On a college or university campus, it is important to implement strategies and approaches that have shown impact on risk and protective factors for sexual violence,” CDC said. “The approaches listed in the technical package may not have efficacy evidence in a campus context, but many approaches can be tailored for the setting and still be promising for sexual violence outcomes.”

CDC’s framework serves as a starting point for institutions that want to make sexual violence prevention a priority on campus and shows what is possible through the lens of public health. It may seem overwhelming to create an entire cultural shift, but it can be done through the small, actionable pieces that CDC has outlined, Patrick noted.

“We have lots of opportunities to build the kind of culture of respect that we all want, and college campuses can play a huge role in the way that that gets created,” she said.

For more information and tools for preventing sexual violence on campus, visit [www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence](http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association