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Nontraditional and commuter students, including Hispanic minority members and immigrants, are increasing within university enrollment. Although there is a national focus on sexual harassment, the dilemmas faced by these often-older students can include intimate partner violence (IPV). Research on risk and protective factors of IPV is a building block but incomplete for understanding and responding to IPV among Hispanic nontraditional university students. This study fills the gap by examining IPV victimization among a group of Hispanic students. The findings reveal that alcohol and drug use were significant risk factors of IPV victimization and offending, while a good family relationship served as a protective factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author provides information on an idea he developed for an artistic project in spring 2017 to criticize U.S. President Donald Trump's presidency. The project involved artists, sculptors, and designers who created a space that informs students about the complexities of the U.S.-Mexico border. The author considers his project as a way to protect vulnerable students from state-sanctioned violence or hostile racist environments.

With the advent of the “Dear Colleague” letter in 2011, higher education institutions have become focused on sexual assault and related policies, procedures regarding offenses, and prevention education. Institutions should consider using this spotlight on interpersonal dynamics to increase awareness about other types of relationship violence that may be more common. This secondary data analysis of 72,067 U.S. college students indicates stalking, emotional abuse, and physical abuse are very common. Along with relationship difficulties in general, these forms of relational violence occur more frequently than sexual assault. Implications for counseling and mental health services are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While much is known about fear of crime in the West, little is known about how fearfulness of crime develops in non-Western societies, especially among university students. Representing the first attempt to empirically compare levels of fear of crime between Ghanaian and U.S. college students, this article examined students' levels of fear of crime on campus, and tested the applicability of two evolving models of fear of crime-the vulnerability and reassurance models-using comparative data. The general finding is that Ghanaian and U.S. college students differ in terms of their rates of fearfulness on campus. This significant difference adds to the already existing differences between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyberbullying research has typically been focused on specific areas, such as victimization, offender characteristics and typologies, and psychological effects for victims; however, perceived severity of cyberbullying has been studied less extensively. Using data on college students, the present study expands the current knowledge on perceived severity of cyberbullying by examining the way in which age, gender, race, type of high school attended before college, prior online victimization, and previous cyberbullying engagement influenced college students' perceived severity of cyberbullying. Overall, the results indicate that college students considered cyberbullying to be a serious societal problem. Older individuals, females, those who attended public schools, and individuals who experienced cyberbullying victimization were found to be more likely to view cyberbullying as a serious problem than their counterparts. In addition, findings from this study revealed that even though college students perceive cyberbullying as a serious problem, the majority of those who have witnessed cyberbullying incidents would not report it to the police. Based on the findings, policy implications and practices to prevent future cyberbullying victimization are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an index to measure gender violence in university students (women and men). To build this index, a questionnaire about violence is applied to a representative sample of students. Then, the information is organized through an ecological model and the result is integrated in an index through the analytic hierarchy process. The proposed index was exemplified for students in the Chapingo Autonomous University (UACh). In the UACh, both women and men showed similar grades of direct violence, but women exhibited more social and emotional consequences. The proposed index allows us: 1) to identify factors that influence the reproduction of violence, 2) to incorporate opinions of experts, 3) to get information of multiple factors and perceptions that people have about violence. Finally, this index can be extended to evaluate others social issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of this year's anniversary of the October 6, 1976, massacre at Thammasat University, an outdoor exhibit of photographs of the violence and the three preceding years of student and other social movements was displayed upon the very soccer field in the center of campus where students were beaten, shot, lynched, and murdered forty years prior. Several of the photographs were printed on large sheets of acrylic and positioned such that the images of the buildings in the photographs were aligned with the actual buildings, which remain largely unchanged. The most striking of these was a photograph of hundreds of students stripped to the waist who were lying face down on the soccer field prior to being arrested and taken away. At the edge of the image was the top of the university's iconic dome building, which lined up with the existing building. The organizers explained that their intention was “to reflect a perspective on the past through the eyes of people in the present in order to show the cruelty of humans to one another.” The proximity generated by the image was underlined by the fact that the fortieth anniversary of the massacre and coup in 1976 that led to twelve years of dictatorship was taking place under yet another dictatorship, that of a military junta calling itself the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which seized power on May 22, 2014, in the twelfth coup since the end of the absolute monarchy on June 24, 1932. Suchada Chakphisut, founding editor of Sarakadee magazine and Thai Civil Rights and Investigative Journalism, who was a first-year Thammasat student during the massacre, began her autobiographical account of the day, written for the anniversary this year, by writing: “We meet every year when 6 October comes around, and with it an inexplicable sadness always takes hold of my psyche. It has grown even more devastating since the 22 May 2014 coup, in which we must face the news of the arrest and detention of activists and those who oppose dictatorship.” This was not a commemoration after dictatorship such as those of the same era held in Argentina or Chile during recent years of democratization, but memories of dictatorship in situ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual assault is a prevalent problem in higher education, and despite the increasing availability of formal supports on college campuses, few sexual assault survivors use them. Experiencing sexual assault can have devastating consequences on survivors' psychological and educational wellbeing, which may intensify if survivors do not receive adequate care. Drawing from existing theoretical frameworks and empirical research, this study used a mixed methodological approach to examine why survivors did not use three key campus supports-the Title IX Office, the sexual assault center, and housing staff-and if these reasons differed across the three supports. Using data from 284 women who experienced sexual assault in college, our qualitative findings identified four overarching themes, including logistical issues (e.g., lacking time and knowledge), feelings, beliefs, and responses that made it seem unacceptable to use campus supports, judgments about the appropriateness of the support, and alternative methods of coping. Quantitative findings revealed that survivors' reasons for not seeking help differed across supports. Collectively, our findings suggest that community norms and institutional policies can make it challenging for survivors to use campus supports. We propose several suggestions for institutional change (e.g., taking a stronger stance against 'less serious' forms of sexual assault, reducing a quasi-criminal justice approach to investigation and adjudication, limiting mandated reporting). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grief, loss, and social injustice are vital elements in the distinct yet intersecting stories of sexual assault and post-assault survivorship. Yet survivors must frequently cope in isolation or in programs and therapeutic settings informed by literature that does not consistently account for grief and loss as central to their experiences. Utilizing a feminist framework, I review and critique literature on sexual assault survivorship and loss with focus on factors related to disenfranchisement and suffocated grief among young adult females. I also explore how these factors further complicate grief and mourning processes. Implications for socially just and culturally appropriate research and practice with bereaved sexual assault survivors are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the perception of honour-related violence against women in female and male university students from three countries - Morocco, Cameroon, Italy - all considered honour cultures but different in terms of various other sociocultural factors, such as family structure and gender roles. One hundred fourteen Moroccan (47 females, 67 males), 106 Cameroonian (41 females, 65 males) and 103 Italian (51 females, 52 males) students attending Turin University and currently living in Turin, answered a questionnaire to evaluate an act of honour-related violence by a father against his daughter. The results showed that the perception of this act was influenced by the participants' nationality: Italians evaluated the incident as more serious and more as a crime than Moroccans, and the latter more than Cameroonians. Furthermore, Italians attributed less responsibility to the victim and more responsibility to the assailant than Moroccans and Cameroonians did; accordingly, they also proposed more severe punishment for the assailant than Moroccans and Cameroonians. The results also showed an interaction between nationality and gender: Cameroonian women attributed more responsibility to the victim and less to the assailant than Cameroonian men, and Italian men attributed less responsibility to the assailant than Italian women. These results are interpreted in terms of the importance attributed to family honour in the three countries and their differences in social organisation and gender roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University Counseling Centers (UCCs) provide important services for sexual assault survivors, yet little research has been conducted on interventions used by clinicians in this unique setting. As a preliminary investigation, UCC professionals were asked about services provided to survivors of sexual assault and staff perceptions of the effectiveness of these interventions. Supportive counseling was perceived to be the most effective relative to other interventions, and many participants indicated that they did not use or were not sure if other evidence-based interventions were effective with student victims. Several recommendations for future research on sexual assault services in UCCs are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present article examines the impact of racist and xenophobic victimisation among students with a minority and/or immigrant background in a Swedish context. We examine if racist and/or xenophobic victimisation result in 1) behavioral strategies applied to reduce victimisation risk, 2) a heightened level of fear and 3) if the motive in itself has an independent effect on the level of fear among victims. The study design combines survey data with interviews. The findings suggest that experiences of racist and/or xenophobic victimisation lead to higher levels of fear and that the motive in itself influences this relationship independently. We also found that certain behavioural strategies are developed in order to avoid victimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Recent evidence suggests interpersonal protective behaviors (IPBs) may be more effective than alcohol-based strategies at decreasing alcohol-related sexual consequences. However, no studies have examined individual IPBs to assess their unique influences on specific sexual consequences. The current study used a longitudinal design to examine the direct effects of typical weekly drinking and specific IPBs on unwanted sex. IPBs were also examined as moderators of the relationship between drinking and unwanted sex.Methods: Randomly sampled female drinkers attending a northeastern university (N=191) completed a baseline survey measuring typical weekly drinking and IPBs and a six-month follow-up assessing unwanted sex. Bootstrapped regression examined the effects.Results: Drinking predicted unwanted sex after accounting for IPBs (range of bs=.008-.009, SE=.005, 95% CI [.000, .02]). Vigilance-related IPBs were negatively associated with unwanted sex after controlling for drinking (b=-.052, SE=.025, 95% CI [-.107, -.008]). The IPB "Talking to people who know one's potential dating or sexual partner to find out what s/he is like" significantly moderated the drinking-unwanted sex relationship (b=-.009, SE=.004, 95% CI [-.018, -.003]). At above-average drinking levels, women who used this IPB more frequently reported fewer episodes of unwanted sex.Conclusion: Findings revealed obtaining information about a potential partner significantly reduced the impact of drinking on unwanted sex for heavier drinkers. Future research examining how women implement this IPB may clarify its role in reducing unwanted sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Ayotzinapa massacre in Mexico and its impact to the Mexican diaspora. Topics include details on the event of that fateful day wherein allegations on the involvement of the Mexican drug cartel in the brutal killing of college students in Ayotzinapa causing a series of protests and solidarity movements from activists and Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.

The author argues that the disappearance of 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College of Ayotzinapa in Guerrero, Mexico is tied to the corruption of the Mexican government. Topics include the role of rural schools in resistance to the Mexican government, civilian casualties during violence related to drug cartels in Mexico, and political apathy of the Mexican population in relation to globalization.

The authors recruited college students ( N = 648) and investigated relationships among academic and social self-efficacy, relational aggression from parents and peers, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Results indicated that both types of self-efficacy were related inversely to NSSI. Academic self-efficacy mediated the relationship between parental emotional abuse and NSSI, whereas social self-efficacy mediated the relationship between peer victimization and NSSI. Clinical implications of these findings for college counselors are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on addressing sexual violence on campus as a civil rights issue in relation to Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments in the U.S. Topics discussed include the book "Sexual Harassment of Working Women" written by Catharine MacKinnon and the ability of students to challenge their schools' responses to sexual violence through a complaint to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

The role of women in college sexual assault prevention and risk reduction has been controversial as movements for men's participation become more popular. Research on college sexual assault prevention and risk reduction has largely focused on individual programs or universities. Previous research has largely avoided larger studies of the messages many colleges give their students regarding who is responsible for rape prevention on campus. This article attempts to fill that gap by examining rape prevention and risk reduction tips posted on 40 college websites. Each tip was analyzed for frequency and intended audience and the women's tips as a group were analyzed for common themes. Researchers found that most tips are still directed at women and that they convey four main messages: there are no safe places for women, women can't trust anyone, women should never be alone, and women are vulnerable. Findings imply that the burden of college sexual assault prevention still falls primarily on female students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study investigated the psychological profile of 430 Greek university students who reported cyber-bullying/victimization experiences. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire, measuring cyber-bullying, cyber-victimization, internet frequency and use, personality characteristics, and psychological symptoms. Results indicated that 58.4% of the sample had participated in a cyber-bullying incident assuming any role. Cyber bully/victims, the most common participant role, endorsed more psychological symptoms, more psychopathic traits, and were high sensation seekers, compared to the rest of the groups, whereas cyber-victims scored higher on empathy. Cyber-bullying was predicted by callous/unemotional and impulsive/irresponsible traits, depression, Internet use, as well as lack of social skills. The latter four variables also predicted cyber-victimization along with gender. Findings are discussed in terms of prevention and intervention strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper synthesises and discusses results from the 2005 Survey of Student Well-Being, a closed-ended questionnaire administered to students attending general education courses at a major public university in Santiago (n = 484 women, 466 men). The survey included questions on sexual violence (SV) and dating violence (DV), public health problems that have received little attention in Chile and other Latin-American countries. This paper highlights key findings from a series of papers based on these data, noting lessons learned in the Chilean context that may be useful for other Latin-American countries. Important gaps in the international literature on SV and DV are also discussed. A central finding is the high prevalence of SV and DV in this sample of university students, warranting further public health attention to these problems. Potentially, the findings will contribute to changes in awareness, policy and practice along similar lines to efforts that transformed the US landscape regarding SV and DV on college campuses in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on the topic of cyberbullying has proliferated over the past decade, particularly on its impact on school-aged children (see Piotrowski, 2011). However, there is limited research on the incidence and impact of cyberstalking, a related type of cyberabuse, on college-age students. Thus, it would be of interest to examine the extent of research interest in the topic across the leading databases in the social sciences and education. This paper reports on cited references, via a keyword search, for the term cyberstalking. The results showed that PsycINFO, Academic Index, Sociology Abstracts, and PROQUEST Direct indexed the majority of articles on this aberrant social malady. These findings indicate that perhaps college counselors and administrators in higher education may not be aware of the extent and impact that cyberstalking may have on college-age students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, researchers have consistently reported that stalking is a disturbing reality for many individuals, especially youths. Cyberstalking, however, has received much less attention from the research community than stalking. Few estimates of cyberstalking victimization or cyberstalking offending have been published. The current study attempts to address these gaps by estimating lifetime prevalence of both cyberstalking victimization and offending among a sample of undergraduates from a large urban university in the Midwest. Results show that 40.8% had experienced cyberstalking victimization, with females, nonwhites, non-heterosexuals, and non-singles disproportionately experiencing cyberstalking. Approximately 4.9% of students had perpetrated cyberstalking, but there were few differences in offending across students’ demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The incidence and the impact of crime on college campuses are important issues for students and administrators alike. This study examines experiences with victimization and perceptions of crime on campus with a convenience sample of 997 students attending an urban university in Colorado. Approximately 8% of the student respondents indicated they had been victimized by at least one type of crime since first enrolling at the university. Respondents indicated low-to-moderate levels of fear and perceived risk of victimization on campus and viewed the campus as being moderately safe. Male and female respondents did not significantly differ in victimization rates, although gender differences were found in levels of fear, perceived risk of victimization, constrained behavior, and perceptions of overall safety on campus. The results from this study are compared to findings from the work of Jennings, Gover, and Pudrzynska in 2007, which examined campus crime among students at a traditional university, published in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between anger and criminal, particularly violent, behavior is firmly established in the literature. However, most of the extant research has been conducted with clinical and legally sanctioned forensic populations. The present study sought to examine anger in a non forensic population using a self-report measure of delinquency. The Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI; Novaco, 2003) and the Self-Report Delinquency Questionnaire (Elliot & Ageton, 1980) were completed by male and female university students. The total anger score was associated with overall delinquency and specifically with crimes against the person and against property. Males reported higher levels of anger and a greater involvement in criminal acts. The practical implications of the findings within a legal context are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and the mass media have focused increasing attention on campus crime in light of a few high-profile incidents. While rare, these incidents are important because college students are less likely to attend, spend time on, or participate in social activities on high crime campuses. The current study contributed to research on campus crime by exploring the generalizability of the updated social disorganization model to campus communities by using data collected from Peterson''s Guide to Four-Year Colleges and the Uniform Crime Report for the year 2000. While social structural features of campus populations are clearly associated with rates of campus property crime, the role of social organization is less certain. These results have implications for future research and crime prevention planning on college campuses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Campus-based critical incidents received renewed focus in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University shootings. Legislative bodies, task forces, and professional associations sought to provide campus public safety departments with a range of recommended strategies to prevent and mitigate accidental and intentional critical events. Using data from a national sample of colleges and universities, this study examined the status of critical incident preparedness and response in the spring of 2008. Results indicated a solid base of prevention and response capacity; at the same time, respondents highlighted areas lagging behind recommended practices and barriers limiting achieved changes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In order to continue to facilitate the disclosure of sexual assault to professional support services, the current study examined the extent to which survivors report using campus services and whether friends who had disclosed to participants used the services. We also compared knowledge of a campus sexual assault center and likelihood of using the center among college men and women. Surveys were completed by 1,230 students, including victims of unwanted contact (n = 127), victims of unwanted intercourse (n = 26), and friends of victims (n = 253). Students who reported being victims of unwanted sexual experiences were reluctant to use services, expressing concerns that they would not be believed and that they would be blamed for what had happened to them. College men were significantly less likely to know where the sexual assault center was located, to report that they would use the center, and to report that unwanted sexual experiences were a problem on campus. Results indicate that much needs to be done to educate the campus community about the value of using professional support services after a sexual assault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a substantial increase in the number of mass shooting incidents on college campuses in the United States in recent years. Although empirical research examined the impacts of secondary school shootings on student fear, there have been no comparable studies of the impacts of campus shootings. This study began to fill this void by examining responses to surveys administered to convenience samples of students enrolled at the University of South Carolina prior to and following the mass shooting incidents on the campuses of Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. Findings indicated that both shootings were associated with modest increases in various measures of fear. Other findings were that the impacts of the shootings depended on both the type of fear measured (e.g., general fear versus fear of being a victim of specific crimes) and student characteristics such as age, sex, and race. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Stalking is a serious public health and societal concern affecting the college population. Although numerous studies illustrate the physical and mental effects of stalking, literature addressing how individuals cope with this phenomenon is lacking. The purpose of this study was to describe stalking experiences of college students and the coping strategies used to manage stalking. In this descriptive study, 262 college students completed an online survey that included a stalking questionnaire and coping survey. Slightly more than one-fourth of the sample ( n = 69) reported experiencing stalking victimization. Results indicated that the most common coping strategies employed were: ignoring the problem, minimizing the problem, distancing, detaching or depersonalizing, using verbal escape tactics, attempting to end the relationship, controlling the interaction, and restricting accessibility. Implications for refining current practice and research on coping strategies and stalking are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationships among poly-victimization (i.e., high cumulative levels of victimization), six aggregate categories of childhood victimization (property crime, physical assault, peer and sibling, witnessed and indirect, sexual, child maltreatment), and college adjustment in females. This study first examines the relative contributions of poly-victimization and individual categories of childhood victimization in predicting college adjustment. The study then examines whether polyvictimization contributes any unique variance, beyond that accounted for by the combination of all six aggregate categories. Regression analyses reveal that a) poly-victimization accounts for a significant proportion of variability in scores for college adjustment, beyond that accounted for by any of the six categories of childhood victimization alone, and b) the categories of childhood victimization contribute little to no variability beyond that accounted for by poly-victimization. Furthermore, polyvictimization accounts for a significant proportion of variability in college adjustment, beyond that already accounted for by the simultaneous entry of all six categories as predictor variables. Finally, although victimization does not predict GPA, it predicts other domains of college adjustment. Results suggest that counselors working with college students should a) assess multiple categories of victimization and poly-victimization, and b) evaluate clients' adjustment to college across multiple domains (e.g., academic, social, interpersonal). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The authors examined the incidence of stalking victimization and subsequent help-seeking behaviors among college women. Participants and Methods: A stratified random sample of college women (N = 391) completed an anonymous Internet-based questionnaire in spring 2006. Results: One-fifth of women reported stalking victimization while enrolled at their current institution. Individuals known by victims, such as the following, were most commonly reported as stalkers: acquaintances (48.7%), classmates (37.2%), and boyfriends or ex-boyfriends (34.6%). Approximately half of the women reporting stalking victimization acknowledged not seeking help from anyone in relation to these incidents. Of those seeking some sort of help, most sought assistance from friends (90.2%), parents (29.3%), residence hall advisors (12.2%), or police (7.3%). Conclusion: Comparing their findings to a national study of college women, the authors report that being watched, followed or spied on, and sent unsolicited emails are stalking behaviors on the rise. They present implications for college health and future directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "red zone" usually refers to the first few weeks of the first semester at college, when female students are believed to be at greatest risk for experiencing unwanted sex. We tested this notion using data from a survey study of 207 first and second-year students (121 women, 84 men) at a small, liberal arts university. Results demonstrated only one significant elevation in incidence rates of first- and second-year women's unwanted sexual experiences (sexual touching, attempted and completed anal, oral, and vaginal sex), between the end of the first month and fall break (mid-October) during the second year at school. Previous research and local information about the relevant behaviors of sorority and fraternity members is discussed in light of these findings to provide heuristic material for further empirical testing. Because risk may involve both temporal and situational factors, systematic collection and dissemination of local data are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In theory, mobile phone use may have beneficial and harmful effects. Individuals may use mobile phones to call for help or report various dangers and emergencies, but they may also go places they would not normally go without the phone. To test the perceptions of safety and subsequent behavior associated with mobile phone use, we conducted two surveys. One survey of 317 undergraduates at The Ohio State University (OSU) found that most students reported having a mobile phone and feeling that it made them feel safer at night. A follow-up survey of 305 undergraduates at OSU found that about 40% of students with mobile phones stated that, with a mobile phone, they walked where they normally would not. However, smaller percentages said they used their mobile phones to call for help either in a crime or non-crime situation or to report an accident, a crime, a reckless driver or a hazardous situation. The results suggest favorable and unfavorable outcomes associated with the mobile phone. Although using it to call for help from a threat, crime, or to report other unsafe conditions has value, the increased perceived safety associated with it may lead students to engage in risky behavior that could increase their chances of becoming a victim. Future work should consider whether mobile phone use increases or decreases the likelihood of victimization and of catching a predator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research confirms the risk of victimization faced by women who attend the nation''s universities. While stalking began to receive heightened attention in the 1990s, relative to other types of victimization, research regarding college women''s stalking experiences is in its infancy. In particular, relatively little is known about victim acknowledgement of stalking and the process whereby victims decide to report to police. Drawing upon data from 1,010 female university students, this study provided important advances in understanding stalking-related victimization for college women, highlighting the influences that fear, offender relationship, types of behaviors involved, and other victimization experiences have on victim acknowledgement and police reporting. Findings offered important advancements in defining a “classic stalking case.” This study had implications for university and public policymakers, educators, and police officers who could benefit from improved understanding of women''s perceptions of stalking and their formal help-seeking behavior in response to stalking-related behavior. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As a chief spokesperson for a national movement to prevent violence and a frequent speaker in national media and public forums, Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith is a nationally recognized public health leader. In 1987, she was appointed the first woman Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In that role, she established the first Office of Violence Prevention in a state department of public health, expanded prevention programs for HIV/AIDS, and increased drug treatment and rehabilitation programs. Dr. Prothrow-Stith currently serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and founding director of the Division of Public Health Practice.Dr. Prothrow-Stith supports the application of rigorous scientific methods to strengthen violence prevention programs. She developed and wrote The Violence Prevention Curriculum for Adolescents, a forerunner of violence prevention curriculum for schools and communities. She is the author of Deadly Consequences, the first book to present the public health perspective on violence to a mass audience. She has authored and co-authored more than 80 publications on medical and public health issues.Dr. Prothrow-Stith was the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of American College Health Association in May 2006. The Editors of The Journal of American College Health have revised her speech to share her comments in this issue and thought her words would be a proper introduction to the ACHA White Paper on Domestic Violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors asked college students to rate the importance of a list of barriers to reporting rape and sexual assault among male and female victims. The authors' findings indicate that barriers prevalent 30 years ago, prior to efforts by the rape reform movement, continue to be considered important among college men and women. The barriers rated as the most important were (1) shame, guilt, embarrassment, not wanting friends and family to know; (2) concerns about confidentiality; and (3) fear of not being believed. Both genders perceived a fear of being judged as gay as an important barrier for male victims of sexual assault or rape and fear of retaliation by the perpetrator to be an important barrier for female victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains why rates of sexual assault remain high on college campuses. Data are from a study of college life at a large midwestern university involving nine months of ethnographic observation of a women's floor in a "party dorm," in-depth interviews with 42 of the floor residents, and 16 group interviews with other students. We show that sexual assault is a predictable outcome of a synergistic intersection of processes operating at individual, organizational, and interactional levels. Some processes are explicitly gendered, while others appear to be gender neutral. We discuss student homogeneity, expectations that partiers drink heavily and trust their party-mates, and residential arrangements. We explain how these factors intersect with more obviously gendered processes such as gender differences in sexual agendas, fraternity control of parties, and expectations that women be nice and defer to men. We show that partying produces fun as well as sexual assault, generating student resistance to criticizing the party scene or men's behavior in it. We conclude with implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the nature and prevalence of self-reported childhood sexual abuse (CSA) among a sample of Zimbabwean girls and college students. A total of 1059 high school girls end college students with a mean age (M = 18.31, SD = 3.66) participated in study. Overall, a CSA prevalence rate of 41.26% was found. The highest CSA prevalence rate was found among respondents who resided on commercial farms and mines (53%). Respondents who lived with their biological parents during childhood were significantly less likely to be sexually abused than were respondents who lived with non-parents such as uncles and brothers-In-law. Only 7.22% of the perpetrators were strangers. This study shows that sexual abuse of children in Zimbabwe Is rampant, muitifaceted, and linked to cultural factors that must be addressed as pert of efforts to confront this scourge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) to facilitate sexual assault is increasing on campuses nationwide. This article provides college counselors with an overview of the use of GHB in campus sexual assault, outlines suggestions for crisis intervention, and discusses the challenges of counseling survivors of drug-facilitated sexual assault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent investigations of risk factors for adult sexual assault have focused on a variety of behavioral and cognitive variables, including victim risk-taking behaviors. In this study, cognitive appraisals of risky activities, behavioral intentions to engage in risk-taking behaviors, and alcohol use were examined in relation to future involvement in risk-taking behaviors and the incidence of sexual assault in a sample of college women. At Time 1, 50 (26%)participants reported a history of sexual victimization and at Time 2, 16 (12.7%) reported new sexual victimizations. Discriminant function analysis indicated that alcohol use and expected involvement in risky activities at Time 1 were associated with new sexual victimizations at Time 2. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that alcohol use and expected involvement in risky activities at Time 1 were predictive of frequency of involvement in risky sexual activities at Time 2. The implication of these findings for future research is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifies the risk factors connected with the occurrence of sexual abuse and associated with the severity of sexual abuse among college students in Taiwan. Prevalence rate; Behavior patterns of abuse; Characteristics of victims and abusers; Risk factors related to family structure.