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ERIC Number: EJ1217120
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-1383
EISSN: N/A
Lowering the Risk of Sexual Assault: What Campuses Need to Know about Effective Prevention Programming
Holtzman, Mellisa
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, v51 n3 p28-33 2019
Risk reduction is traditionally understood as any programming that teaches potential victims how to protect themselves from an assault. In short, risk reduction educates potential victims and suggests they modify their behaviors in order to increase their own safety. But that programming focus is precisely why risk reduction is largely absent from college programming today. By putting the onus of prevention on victims rather than perpetrators, by constraining victims' behaviors, and by focusing on irrelevant factors, such as clothing and sexual history, risk reduction has gained a negative reputation in prevention circles. Campuses instead concentrate their efforts on primary prevention--educational programs that raise awareness about consent education, risks associated with alcohol and drug use, the benefits of bystander intervention, and so forth. This tendency to malign risk reduction and embrace primary prevention, however, fails to account for the growing empirical evidence about the efficacy of risk reduction programs, especially when they are offered alongside primary prevention training. This article outlines why campuses should look for ways to coordinate and dovetail existing programs with those that use a combined approach. Seminars that simultaneously offer both primary prevention and risk reduction training can work with and complement, rather than supplant, existing efforts.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A