The Relationship Between Sexual Victimization and Year in School in U.S. Colleges

Abstract

It is the conventional wisdom among some universities that the highest risk of sexual assault is in the first or possibly second year in school. While initially belief in this pattern was primarily based on anecdote, recently some attempts have been made to more systematically and quantitatively test the existence of a “red zone,” a time of heightened risk of sexual assault sometime near the beginning of a female student's time at the college. However, most of these studies have been conducted with relatively small convenience samples from single schools and have had conflicting results. Here, I test the red zone hypothesis using self-reported sexual victimization data with a large sample (∼16,000) drawn from 22 schools as part of the Online College Social Life Survey. To investigate the specific mechanisms responsible for the red zone, I separately test for the existence of a red zone for four different types of sexual victimizations: physically forced intercourse, attempted forced intercourse, unwanted intercourse when incapacitated, and unwanted intercourse due to verbal pressure. Within these categories, I separately address sexual victimization that occurred while hanging out and sexual victimization during a party. Prior literature has emphasized the role of parties in the increased risk of assault for freshman. While I find some evidence for this in the higher estimates for sexual victimization at a party, the freshman effect remains for other types of sexual victimizations, suggesting that the red zone is not easily attributable to a single mechanistic cause, but to more generalizable factors. With one exception, I find that the red zone does not extend into the sophomore year.

Sexual Assault on College Hookups: The Role of Alcohol and Acquaintances

“…Year in school had no effect, with the exception that seniors were at higher risk for incapacitated sexual assault compared to freshman. This finding conflicts with some research indicating a “red zone” of sexual assault risk for freshman women (Cranney ; Krebs et al. ).…”

“…Year in school had no effect, with the exception that seniors were at higher risk for incapacitated sexual assault compared to freshman. This finding conflicts with some research indicating a "red zone" of sexual assault risk for freshman women (Cranney 2014;Krebs et al 2007). However, it is consistent with research showing incidence rates for sexual assault across all time periods in school tend to be relatively flat (Fisher et al 2010;Flack et al 2008).…”

Does Alcohol Contribute to College Men’s Sexual Assault Perpetration? Between-and Within-Person Effects Over Five Semesters

“…These settings include women who are sexually vulnerable because of their intoxication (Graham et al, 2014;Testa & Livingston, 2009) and may offer peer support for sexual aggression (Swartout, 2013). Not surprisingly, college women's party attendance is associated with sexual victimization (Cranney, 2015;Franklin et al, 2012). Similarly, frequency of attending bars increases women's risk of sexual victimization independent of drinking (Pino & Johnson-Johns, 2009), and men frequently make sexual advances toward women in bars (Thompson & Cracco, 2008).…”

Does the Stigma of Hooking Up Predict Sexual Assault at College?

“…In addition, more control variables could have examined in the research, considering the variables in this study only contribute to 3.1 percent of variance in numbers of nonconsensual sexual experience reported. A possibility for future research is to control for race, region, and substance use (Cranney 2015;Flack et al 2007;Kalish 2013;Krebs et al 2009;Littleton et al 2009).…”