Within scholarship and public discourse, the concepts sex work and sexual violence are often conflated. More specifically, sex work is specifically framed as sexual violence that relies on a prevalent oppression paradigm analytic with respect to erotic labor(ers). This necessarily impacts research and scholarship on sex workers, and it informs the…

In the United States, the issue of sexual violence has become increasingly politicized, which poses challenges and dangers for those working toward addressing the root causes of inequity. In this piece, I use scholarly personal narrative to share two of my experiences with conducting work on sexual violence, and how doing so from critical…

Objective: Much is known about how alcohol increases the risk of sexual assault or intimate partner violence victimization during college. This research qualitatively explores perceptions about how alcohol influences "disclosures about these events" to informal supports. Participants: Participants included college students who received a…

Dating violence and sexual assault are topics of concern on college campuses and although they are often viewed as separate issues, they are overlapping constructs within the construct of interpersonal violence. Research suggests that people perpetrate dating violence and sexual assault for the same reasons. However, campus programming frequently…

Background: Racism is a public health crisis impacting the health and wellbeing of adolescents. Finding valid tools to measure race-based discrimination, a form of racism, is necessary to accurately assess the effectiveness of programs aimed to reduce those experiences. Objectives: Our objective was to evaluate measurement invariance of a…

The problem of sexual violence on college campuses is a substantial one. While statistics vary on the prevalence of campus sexual assault (CSA), the evidence suggests an epidemic level of sexual violence in the United States' colleges and universities. For women of traditional college age (18-25), experts estimate 20-25% of women will be sexually…

Objective: One strategy to address the health issues among college students is through bystander intervention. However, much is still unknown about bystander behavior. The purpose of the current study was to assess the feasibility of daily diary methodology as applied to bystander opportunity. Method: Using a convenience sample, we examined (1)…

Objective: Examine associations between care seeking reasons in college health and counseling centers and sexual violence (SV). Participants: College students (n = 2,084 baseline, n = 1,170 one-year follow up) participating in a cluster randomized controlled trial of an SV reduction intervention on 28 campuses. Methods: Computer-based survey data…

Background: College is a critical life stage for alcohol-related harms to others (AHTOs), gender, and sexual identity. We tested associations between inclusively-defined gender and sexual identities (separately) and AHTOs among college students. Methods: The Healthy Minds Study (n = 8,308) provided data about three AHTOs: (1) babysitting a drunk…

In the United States, sexual violence in K-12 public schools saw a 55% increase in incidents from the 2015-2016 school year to the 2017-2018 school year. These incidents included sexual violence by school employees against students and peers against other peers. The current study estimated the overall weighted average number of sexual…

The administration of campus climate surveys has proliferated across the United States at institutions of higher education to help respond to sexual misconduct. This study reviews existing state legislation related to campus climate surveys and compares it to the recent federal mandate outlined in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of…

We present an audience reception study of participant reactions to gender-based violence in Issa López' 2008 film, "Casi Divas," chosen for its nuanced depiction of women grappling with several violences. Over three focus groups with 15 adult participants, we used Galtung's conflict theory to explore what participants identified as…

A small body of research has identified a positive relationship between food insecurity and victimization risk, including intimate partner violence and sexual violence victimization as well as experiencing and witnessing childhood violence in the home. The question remains whether food insecurity is related to sexual victimization among college…

Sexual violence remains a public health concern in the United States. Much of the research has focused on gender-binary individuals, despite the heightened vulnerability of Black, transgender, and nonbinary (BTN) individuals due to societal stigma and discrimination. Campus climate surveys have been recommended by the Obama Administration to…

Sexual assault is a deeply rooted issue on American college campuses. The purpose of this study was to examine the systems that enable a culture of sexual assault and then enact an action step that strengthened the institutional strategies for preventing these incidents on campus. This qualitative action research study took place at a mid-sized…