Clarifying Consent: Primary Prevention of Sexual Assault on a College Campus

Abstract

Although more universities are developing policies for students regarding consent for sexual behavior in response to the problem of sexual violence on campus, many students seem either unaware of these policies or what they mean for actual behavior. Policies are only as effective as peoples' understanding and use of them. The current study aimed to evaluate the utility of a prevention education program focused on teaching students about consent. Two hundred and twenty undergraduates, composing a control group, a shorter treatment group, and a longer one, participated in the study. The findings showed the greatest knowledge gain for participants in the longer treatment group that included a discussion of the policy and participation in an activity dealing with its implications. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Toward the Next Generation of Bystander Prevention of Sexual and Relationship Violence

“…They need to build knowledge about what sexual and relationship violence are. Underlying this knowledge is also providing information about consent-what it is and how to actively seek and receive it (Borges et al 2008). People need to feel responsible and a key piece of this is helping people see that the problems of sexual and relationship violence happen where they live.…”

Alcohol and Sexual Consent Scale: Development and Validation

“…Even with such measures, some students seem to be either unaware of or unable to grasp the implications associated with such policies within their own sexual situations. 26 To extend this movement and potentially provide some clarity, the current study sought to examine attitudes toward consent in alcohol-in-volved sexual interactions among college students.…”

“…Recent measures that examine sexual consent include the Sexual Consent Attitudes Scale, 19 the Sexual Consent Behaviors Scale, 19 the Same-Sex Sexual Consent Scale, 27 the implication of consent, 26 and the Behavioral Intentions Questionnaire. Other researchers have presented vignettes and scenarios 17 for respondents to indicate the degree to which they believed that sexual consent had been obtained and/or was provided.…”

Location, libation and leisure: An examination of the use of licensed venues to help challenge sexual violence

“…Running alongside, it has been recognised that rape prevention work must move beyond offering risk-reduction advice to women, to focus instead on the behaviours of men and the legal knowledge they should possess in order to reduce sexual offending (Stern Review, 2010). Whilst multiple structural, personality, situational and pharmacological factors are associated with the likelihood of perpetrating sexual offences (See Abbey et al, 2004;Finney, 2004), primary rape prevention advocates argue that legal knowledge deficits amongst all men aged 18-24 should feature as part of a wider effort to reduce sexual offending (Borges et al, 2008).…”