This dissertation study examined the mechanisms inside and outside of school that propel and disrupt student entry to domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST). Specifically, this study focused on punitive and isolating responses from school adults that push certain students away from school success and into mechanisms that lead to DMST, such as the…

Colleges across the country are striving to ensure student safety, promote cultures of consent, and maintain compliance with the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (Campus SaVE Act) through sexual violence prevention programs and education (Cox, 2018). These concepts are already complicated, but colleges and universities often gear their…

Background: Undergraduate women are at high risk of experiencing a sexual assault during their college years. Research has established a strong link between sexual victimization and psychologic distress. While the relationship between sexual victimization and distress is known, little is known about how the use of university-affiliated sexual…

Sexual assault is a major issue on college campuses throughout the United States. Approximately 28% of women report being assaulted at some point during their college careers, while 2-4% of men report being victims. In order to address this ongoing problem, the government issued the Campus SaVe Act, which states that colleges are required to…

One in four women will be victim/survivors of sexual assault by the time she graduates college (Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski 1988). In the decades since this shocking statistic was revealed colleges and universities have spent time, money, and resources to address sexual assault. Unfortunately, little has changed and it continues to be an epidemic…