Given the seriousness of campus gender-based violence, and the limitations regarding existing federal legislation, many states are considering new legislation to strengthen their college and university's policies regarding such violence. Using content analysis, the present research examined the proposed legislation from the 2014-2015 legislative cycle (N = 70) and identified themes regarding legislative aims. The range of merits and potential challenges pertaining to the bills proposed by state legislatures as well as those that were recently signed into law are then discussed. Recommendations for the proliferation of some regulations and caution regarding the extension of other legal mandates are provided. Keywords victim services, victimization, sexual assault, rape, qualitative researchSeveral decades of rigorous scholarship have demonstrated that sexual assault among U.S. college students is pervasive. For example, a 2006 victimization survey by Kilpatrick, Resnick, Ruggiero, Conoscenti, and McCauley (2007) generated a pastyear prevalence rate of 5.15% for rape among college women at one U.S. university, compared with a rate of .94% for women in the general U.S. population. Other victimization survey-based research regarding lifetime prevalence rates for sexual assault has demonstrated that 20% to 25% of U.S. college women experience a sexual

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Since the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and the racial justice protests that followed, many institutions, including the academy, pledged their support for policies and practices that combat on-going racial injustice. Social justice and anti-racism initiatives abound on college campuses, including programming, hosting speakers, and proposing required ‘diversity’ classes for all students. For all this rhetoric, college and university administrators have remained silent when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices as they relate to research. And yet, extant research documents the ways in which racial and gender biases have consistently shaped every level of research from the development of the research question, to the diversity (or not) of the sample, the availability of funding, and the probability of publishing. In this paper we focus on one aspect of the research process: the assembling (or not) of diverse research teams. We explore the benefits that diversity in research teams brings to the integrity of the data as well as the obstacles to both assembling a diverse research team and managing it successfully. Specifically, this paper focuses on the myriad ways in which diversity in research teams is treated as a set of boxes to check, rather than an epistemology that underscores positionality and power. We present a series of case examples that highlight the ways in which diversity, equity, and inclusion are successfully and unsuccessfully achieved in research teams, both in terms of outcomes and experiences. These case examples focus specifically on power relations along all forms of diversity, including race and gender as well as rank. The case examples also serve to unpack the ways in which research teams can rely on positionality as a tool for addressing power at three distinct levels: in conducting social science research generally, between the researcher and the “researched,” and among the research team itself.

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the United States are obligated to address sexual assault on campus under the Clery Act and Title IX, and a recent surge in societal interest in sexual assault among college students has prompted many IHEs to bolster their response. Little systematic information exists about IHEs' sexual assault policies and services and whether they align with feminist‐based models of advocacy. This study examined annual security reports and student handbooks and codes of conduct for a nationally representative sample of 4‐year IHEs (N = 387) and assessed IHEs' responses to sexual assault on college campuses through the lens of a feminist‐based organizational model. Findings indicate that policies for the sampled IHEs include a mean of 12 of 17 policy components' aligned with feminist models, and 4% of sampled IHEs include all 17 components. Implications for improving IHEs' responses to sexual assault in ways consistent with feminist models are discussed.

The Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) aims to empower law enforcement officers to screen victims of domestic violence for potential lethality and connect them to service providers. This research surveyed domestic violence victims seeking legal services ( n = 141) to assess whether LAP receipt is associated with greater rates of self-protective measures, service use, or empowerment, and to examine victims’ perspectives on the LAP process. Findings indicate no relationship between receipt of the LAP and use of self-protective measures or victim empowerment, mixed evidence between receipt of the LAP and service utilization, and room for improvement regarding how law enforcement officers explain the LAP to victims. Implications are discussed.