Interventions recommended by students to address sexual violence risk reduction programming on college campus

Rape / sexual assault accounts for an estimated 6% of all college student violent crime. It is estimated that 65% of attacks are unreported, making sexual assault an underreported crime. Sexual assault prevention is included as an objective to be addressed in Healthy People 2010. The objective proposes a “0.1 reduction of the annual rate of rape or attempted rape from 0.8 in 1998 to 0.7 per 1000 persons aged 12 and older by 2010.” This study assessed student preferred methods for sexual violence prevention programming at a university system in the southeastern United States. A random stratified sampling technique was used and data were gathered via an online survey. Questions were asked about student experiences, perceptions and beliefs related to relationship and sexual violence and their preferred methods on how to receive information on sexual violence risk reduction programming. 1551 students responded to the survey. Respondents were primarily White, single, full time, and from the main campus. Results indicated that similar approaches could be used to address intimate partner violence and sexual coercion/assault. Students recommended to advertise campus resources for sexual assault, utilize guest speakers to talk on the topic, and skill building sessions for women alone and combined sessions for both men and women. This session will provide an overview of how this information will be used to develop more effective programming and services for students related to relationship and sexual violence risk reduction on campus. Traditional methods remain relevant for today's high tech student population.