The College Sexual Violence Epidemic: Examining Prevention and Response Procedures
ORCID: 0009-0004-2690-913X
Abstract
A 2019 survey conducted by the Association of American Universities reported the prevalence rate of college sexual violence at approximately 13%. Additional college sexual violence research has found that there is often a significant discrepancy between rates of sexual violence and usage rates of post-assault resources (Stoner & Cramer, 2019). Given previous statistics on college sexual violence and emerging statistics on intimate partner violence, the COVID-19 pandemic likely exacerbated this existing discrepancy. Prior college sexual violence research has found that students are much more likely to access sexual violence resources if they have already received comprehensive information about those resources (e.g., C. Spencer et al., 2020). Further, it is critical that these resources reflect the most recent guidelines established by relevant federal legislation, such as the Clery Act and Title IX. One examination of universities’ implementation of these policies found that only 11% of colleges were fully compliant (Griffin et al., 2017). Thus, continual evaluation of the quality of implementation of sexual violence policies and prevention programming is warranted. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to explore and identify, through qualitative content analysis grounded in naturalistic methodology, potential barriers to implementing these measures effectively. Results were conceptualized through theory-based categories that illuminated several barriers pertaining to the presentation of relevant data and key prevention programming. Practical implications of these results as well as limitations of this research are explored before suggesting directions for future research. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).