Advancing a Comprehensive Multilevel Approach to Sexual Violence Prevention Using Existing Efficacious Programs.

Sexual violence (SV) is a serious and long-standing public health problem on college campuses. At institutions of higher education, campus administrators, activists, and practitioners have worked for decades to address campus SV. Despite federally mandated campus SV prevention programming, rates of campus SV remain unchanged.

Sexual and Dating Violence Bystander Intervention Programs within Institutions of Higher Education: Strategies for Research and Practice.

This article presents strategies to promote researcher-practitioner collaborations in the development and evaluation of bystander intervention programs that address sexual and dating violence (SDV) at Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs). The benefits of practitioner partnerships with researchers are reviewed. We then review examples of researcher-practitioner collaborations to develop, implement, and evaluate bystander programs.

An investigation into the rates of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the first 6 weeks of the 2020-2021 academic year in primary and post-primary schools in Cork and Kerry, Ireland.

Background: Schools in Ireland closed in March 2020 as part of a national strategy to contain the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2). The extent to which schools contribute to the overall propagation of SARS-CoV-2 was continuing to evolve internationally.

Aims: To examine regional data on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in primary, post-primary and special schools in Cork and Kerry, two counties in southwest Ireland, during the first 6 weeks of the 2020-2021 academic year and determine the rate of in-school transmission.

Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault in Early Adulthood: National Estimates for College and Non-College Students.

Young adults are at high risk for sexual harassment and sexual assault. Although attention has been given to prevention on college campuses, the need for prevention may be at least as high for young adults who do not attend college as for young adults who do. In October 2019, we administered a nationally representative survey of 893 adults to measure sexual harassment and sexual assault victimization during a recall period defined as "during college years" for respondents who had enrolled in college at any time or "ages 18-24" for respondents not in college.

Developing and Piloting Videogames to Increase College and University Students' Awareness and Efficacy of the Bystander Role in Incidents of Sexual Violence.

Objective: Researchers at the Prevention Innovations Research Center at the University of New Hampshire and the Tiltfactor Laboratory at Dartmouth College collaborated with students to create two videogames to teach college students bystander intervention skills in situations of sexual and relationship violence and stalking.

Materials And Methods: A key strength of the present study is the collaboration with students to educate game development. The research team pooled its ideas to create a trivia game and an interactive scenario game that were pilot tested on first-year students in a midsized campus of a northeastern university.

Intimate partner homicide: new insights for understanding lethality and risks.

Research on covictims, family members, and close friends who have lost loved ones to intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a neglected area of study. We conducted phenomenological interviews with covictims to gain insights into risk and lethality, examined affidavits from criminal case files, and reviewed news releases. The data uncovered acute risk factors prior to the homicide, identified changes in the perpetrators' behavior and the perpetrators' perceived loss of control over the victim, and described barriers that victims faced when attempting to gain safety.

Changing attitudes about being a bystander to violence: translating an in-person sexual violence prevention program to a new campus.

Bystander approaches to reducing sexual violence train community members in prosocial roles to interrupt situations with risk of sexual violence and be supportive community allies after an assault. This study employs a true experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of Bringing in the Bystander™ through 1-year post-implementation with first-year students from two universities (one rural, primarily residential; one urban, heavily commuter). We found significant change in bystander attitudes for male and female student program participants compared with the control group on both campuses, although the pattern of change depended on the combination of gender and campus.

Encouraging responses in sexual and relationship violence prevention: what program effects remain 1 year later?

Colleges and universities are high-risk settings for sexual and relationship violence. To address these problems, institutions of higher education have implemented prevention programs, many of which train students as potential bystanders who can step in to help diffuse risky situations, identify and challenge perpetrators, and assist victims. The impact of bystander sexual and relationship violence prevention programs on long-term behavior of bystanders has remained a key unanswered question for those who seek to offer the most effective programs as well as for policy makers.

Addressing sexual and relationship violence in the LGBT community using a bystander framework.

Sexual and relationship violence are two major public health issues that affect an alarming number of undergraduate students. As a result, many colleges and universities have protocols to serve victims of these forms of violence. Despite federal legislation stating that all students should have equitable experiences, current protocols and programs focus primarily on heterosexual students.

Translating sexual assault prevention from a college campus to a United States military installation: piloting the know-your-power bystander social marketing campaign.

One population that shares both similar and different characteristics with traditional college-age students is the U.S. Military.

An examination of SANE data: clinical considerations based on victim-assailant relationship.

The current study analyzes adult female sexual assault data, collected by sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) in New Hampshire, United States, between 1997 and 2007. The purposes of this study were to (1) explore the relationship between patient and assailant, (2) examine patients' physical findings according to assailant type, (3) describe characteristics of both the patients and the assaults, and (4) make care recommendations. Secondary analysis was conducted on data gathered by SANEs from responses to a standardized questionnaire based on the medical/forensic examination of each patient over an 11-year period.

Bringing in the target audience in bystander social marketing materials for communities: suggestions for practitioners.

The Know Your Power™ social marketing campaign images model active bystander behaviors that target audience members can use in situations where sexual and relationship violence and stalking are occurring, have occurred, or have the potential to occur. In this practitioner note, we describe strategies that we have used to engage target audience members in the development of the social marketing campaign that we hope can be used by practitioners. We give examples from the development and evaluation of the Know Your Power(TM) social marketing campaign that used focus group and other types of feedback from the target audience to inform the direction of the campaign.

Sisterhood may be powerful for reducing sexual and intimate partner violence: an evaluation of the Bringing in the Bystander in-person program with sorority members.

Sorority members may be at greater risk than other college women for sexual violence and intimate partner violence (IPV). We evaluated the Bringing in the Bystander in-person program with sorority members who participated in the program (n = 30) compared with those who did not (n = 18). Results indicate that program participants showed increased bystander efficacy, likelihood to help, and responsibility for ending violence without unintended "backlash" effects.

Engaging intercollegiate athletes in preventing and intervening in sexual and intimate partner violence.

Objective: the object of this exploratory evaluation was to evaluate the "Bringing in the Bystander" sexual and intimate partner violence prevention program with a new sample of intercollegiate athletes.

Participants And Methods: fifty-three male and female athletes participated in the program (experimental group), and 86 were in the control group. All completed pretest, posttest, and 2-month follow-up surveys, including assessment of rape myth acceptance, intent to engage in bystander behaviors, bystander confidence, and bystander behaviors.

Findings from Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE): A case study of New Hampshire's pediatric SANE database.

The purpose of this article is to provide child sexual abuse data gathered by sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) in New Hampshire at the time of the medical/forensic examination. This study provides demographic, victim and assault characteristics from 696 child sexual abuse patients between 1997 and 2007. The study is a collaborative project between the SANE Advisory Board, a team of university researchers, and the Research Committee of the New Hampshire (NH) Governor's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Using social self-identification in social marketing materials aimed at reducing violence against women on campus.

Bystander-focused in person sexual violence prevention programs provide an opportunity for skill development among bystanders and for widening the safety net for survivors. A social marketing campaign was designed modeling prosocial bystander behavior and using content familiar to target audience members by staging and casting scenes to look similar to the people and situations that the target audience regularly encounters. We refer to this sense of familiarity as social self-identification.

Empowering bystanders to prevent campus violence against women: a preliminary evaluation of a poster campaign.

Researchers at a midsized public northeastern university evaluated the efficacy of a poster campaign to determine if students increase their knowledge of prosocial bystander behaviors and willingness to intervene in instances of sexual violence after viewing a series of campaign posters where student actors model appropriate bystander behaviors. During the last week of the campaign, undergraduates were invited to participate in a Web survey. The results of this preliminary evaluation indicate promising variation in the awareness of students who reported seeing the campaign compared to those who did not.

Designing, implementing, and evaluating a media campaign illustrating the bystander role.

Recent research found that training men and women to understand the role of bystanders in situations where violence against women (VAW) is occurring may reduce the incidence of VAW (Moynihan & Banyard, 2004). Therefore a public awareness campaign to increase understanding of the prosocial role of bystanders in reducing VAW was developed and implemented. The current article discusses the role of media campaigns in addressing public health issues and describes the initial development, implementation, and evaluation of a media campaign focused on the bystander role in reducing the incidence of VAW.