Youth Radio, a fabulous program based in Oakland, California (also Los Angeles, Washington DC and Atlanta), created this video from the youth who attended the July Violence Against Women and Teen Dating Violence Prevention Forum held in Sacramento.

Youth Radio’s BOM teen dating violence prevention program uses media to engage youth in a discussion about dating. “Dial Down Your Drama” is a key element of this program that values youth voices being in the forefront.

What other examples do you know where youth have a meaningful voice in prevention efforts?

I was very excited when I read this in the article recently published in Family Community Health titled A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial of an Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program With a Mexican American Community.

If a community’s challenges are viewed without consideration of the historical context of the impact of oppression, discrimination, and intergenerational trauma, they may be misunderstood and therefore be addressed in ways that perpetrate the problems rather than produce lasting change.

I had met the lead author Patricia Kelly several years ago at an American Public Health Association conference where she impressed me with her community centered approaches to violence prevention. She later joined a PreventConnect web conference on measuring prevention.

As I read this article about a Community-Based Participatory Research project in South Texas, I was pleased to see how the program was developed.  Instead of having the researchers select a curriculum to evaluation in a selected community, CBPR is a process in which the researchers work with the community members to design, implement and evaluate the program.

After careful consideration the community members decided to implement El Joven Noble, a curriculum developed in California by Jerry Tello (who was recently a guest on a PreventConnect web conference) and was adapted to address the community in South Texas

This process of having community members play an active role with researchers is a model that sexual violence and domestic violence prevention programs should consider. (In New York City, Project ENVISION is using CBPR approaches.) By having this active community engagement, the community member were able to shape a culturally relevant program with community support that demonstrated improvements in nonviolent self-efficacy and endorsement of program values.

As the authors conclude:

CBPR provides a methodology to engage groups and communities in the design, implemenataion, and evaluation of their own prevention programs. It is well suited for the inlcuison of community values, cultural heritate and hostrorical perspective into both the research process and the product. CBPR also emphasizes the empowerment of inidivudals and communities through the research process.

Below is the full abstraction and citation of this article:

A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial of an Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program With a Mexican American Community.

Kelly PJ, Lesser J, Cheng AL, Oscos-Sanchez M, Martinez E, Pineda D, Mancha J. Family and Cmomunity Health 2010; 33(3): 207-215.

Click here for a link to the article abstract on the journal’s web site

(Copyright © 2010, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

Using methods of community-based participatory research, a prospective randomized controlled trial of a violence prevention program based on Latino cultural values was implemented with elementary school children in a Mexican American community. Community members participated in intervention program selection, implementation, and data collection. High-risk students who participated in the program had greater nonviolent self-efficacy and demonstrated greater endorsement of program values than did high-risk students in the control group. This collaborative partnership was able to combine community-based participatory research with a rigorous study design and provide sustained benefit to community partners.

Chad Sniffen speaking at the Ending Violence Against Women and Teen Dating Violence Forum

Almost 200 people attended the California Department of Public Health’s “Ending Violence Against Women and Teen Dating Violence: A forum for Primary Prevention Advocates” held in Sacramento on July 13-14, 2010.  This fifth annual gathering focused on teen dating violence.

I gave a workshop on “Emerging Themes in Sexual Violence and Domestic Violence Prevention”, and CALCASA’s Chad Sniffen co-facilitated a panel titled “Building Intergenerational Partnerships for Preventing Teen Dating Violence.”

Other speakers included an opening keynote by Jackson Katz calling for greater engagement of men to address men’s violence against women; a session by Elizabeth Reed on “Losing the Gender in Gender-Based Violence” and Clea McNeely, author of The Teen Years Explained; A Guide to Healthy Adolescent Development discussing adolescent development.

CALCASA’s PreventConnect Project recorded many of sessions and will soon release them as podcasts.

I’ve been pondering my Utopian world. Most of my requests are petty: more Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt stores, a private jet, a 24-hour yoga studio and an on-call masseuse. I don’t think that this was what CALCASA had in mind when it picked the theme “building the world we want to live in” for its National Sexual Assault Conference (NSAC).

Let me try again. (I’m not that shallow, but I’d humbly take those luxuries if offered.) I want to live in a world where the following iPhone applications don’t exist: I’m Being Assaulted, xOffender and, my favorite, Are You Safe? According to the “Safe-o-Meter” on the Are you Safe application, I’m not safe right now. I’m at risk of motor vehicle theft, robbery, property crime, sexual offense, theft, burglary, assault and murder. I understand that this application has major flaws, but my point is that I want to live in a world where it’s not even necessary to create this application.

How I do I build that world? Dr. Dorothy Edwards addresses some of these building steps with her Green Dot model. She’ll be at NSAC talking about a comprehensive approach to violence prevention. Green Dot is a violence prevention initiative that promotes “any behavior, choice, word or attitude that counters or displaces a red-dot of violence — by promoting safety for everyone and communicating utter intolerance for sexual violence, interpersonal violence, stalking and child abuse.”

Dr. Edwards says that the building steps start with these tasks:

1. Identifying the obstacles that keep people from engaging in prevention and intervention; and
2. Minimizing, eliminating or overcoming these obstacles.

After watching some of Dr. Edwards Green Dot Training in Las Vegas, one truth that struck me was that even honest, upstanding, “good” people sometimes don’t intervene when observing a potentially harmful situation. She offers viable solutions and new directions in violence prevention efforts — and with an amazing level of passion and conviction. Her presentations are more than educational. She’s one of the only speakers I’ve ever listened to for more than an hour and still felt completely engaged and entertained.

I’ll be sure to attend Dr. Edwards workshop at NSAC — learning more about how to build the world I want to live in.

PreventConnect.org

Meg Stone

In this interviw, Director of IMPACT Boston Meg Stone talks about the role feminist self-defense plays in primary prevention efforts. She describes how IMPACT uses self-defense strategies to support active bystander behavior and empowers participants to take action to make changes in their community.

Click here to read a post by Meg Stone on THE LINE blog about her IMPACT empowerment experience as a student.

PreventConnect.org

Grant Stancliff

Ashley Maier

David Lee (@preventconnect) talks with Grant Stancliff (@soctraticgrant), who was with the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs at the time of this interview (and is currently with YWCA Spokane), and Ashley Maier (@ashleymaier) of the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force about the role of Twitter to build the capacity to conduct sexual violence and domestic violence prevention.

In the global struggle against gender based violence and HIV/AIDS, the two are inextricably intertwined as pressing human rights and public health issues that cross race, class, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, age, and ability/disability.  Sexual violence increases a victim’s risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Today, the Obama administration unveiled the national strategy to combat HIV/AIDS which includes:

• “Broad goals as well as dozens of directives for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and other federal agencies. Those steps include developing standards to evaluate care, investigating community programs to see whether they’re effective and simplifying grant applications.
• The Bureau of Prisons would expand HIV screening of inmates, and the Justice Department would fast-track investigations of discrimination involving those with HIV.”

One notable area of concern is that no additional federal funding has been allotted to support the National Strategy.

“With new infections exceeding 50,000 a year, there may not be enough money to help provide all patients with the drugs they need.  Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced an allocation of $25 million to help states in need.” – The Los Angeles Times

How, if at all, does your campus support efforts in making the link between sexual violence and HIV/AIDS, organizationally, campus-wide and with community partners?  When engaging in discussions surrounding the stigma and prejudice survivors of sexual violence experience, does HIV/AIDS ever come up as another layer of a public health concern?  How do your health and education partners integrate sexual violence and HIV/AIDS in prevention/education programming?

Resources

Click here to read the full National HIV/AIDS Strategy released by the White House.

The United Nations Development Fund For Women: Gender & HIV/AIDS

Joshua O'Donnell

PreventConnect.org

(18 min) In this interview with Joshua O’Donnell, Men’s Violence Prevention Project Coordinator at Western Washington University, the essential elements of establishing men’s anti-violence groups on college campuses are discussed. O’Donnell shares a deep range of experiences from the Prevention Project’s ten years of organizing men on the Western Washington campus, and grapples with complex issues in working on masculinity and violence.

In the Summer 2010 issue of Transforming Communities‘ newsletter Catalyst, there a a very funny and insightful glossary of common prevention terms:

Prevention: shutting down the war machine instead of applying bandages
Evidence-Based: almost impossible to replicate but a pretty good idea anyway
Positive Assets: all the things your grandparents swear that they had more of back in the good old days
Promotion: it’s sorta like having a GPS to get the world we want
Bystander: um… you, yeah you, and your friends over there, too
Adult Influencers: people over 25 who interact in some way with young people (i.e. all adults)
Evaluation and Documentation: the scrapbook you keep from a trip so other can enjoy your journey later

What other fun definitions can you think of?  ”Social Ecology:  Taking care of the earth while talking to a friend.”  Maybe I should skip the attempt for humor.

Transforming Communities is a valuable resource providing technical assistance training and resources to create safety, justice and equality. They are doing some great prevention work. This issue also has great articles on practicing transformation, including a discussion of themes of lessons from prevention work. Check it out!

Used with permission www.unh.edu/preventioninnovations/

In the study recently ePublished in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Sharyn Potter and her colleagues at the University of New Hampshire have found that students who identify with the subjects in a poster campaign are more likely to take some action toward the prevention of violence against women.

The posters series, Know Your Power, depicts scenarios of students taking action as active bystanders to interrupt abuse. The poster above has this dialogue among three men at a party with alcohol:

“I’m gonna to get Kali so wasted she can’t say no.”

“That’s messed up. If you are going to do that you have to leave now.”

“If you want to get with a girl, that not the way to do it.”

The authors suggest:

Previous research indicates that in-person education programs tend to be more effective than passive intervention methods. Yet our findings show that the Know Your Power social marketing campaign raises awareness about the incidence of sexual violence on campus and the importance of taking action to reduce sexual violence on campus even when controlling for previous participation in a prevention program.

Indeed, changes come not only from education, but also from well planned marketing efforts.  And when education is coordinated with marketing we create an environment conducive to even more change.

It is interesting to read about how the authors measured the shifts. One tool is the “Readiness to Change” model adapted for sexual violence prevention which was developed by University of New Hampshire colleagues. More can be found in Victoria Banyard’s January 2010 article Sexual Violence Prevention: The Role of Stages of Change. Here are the different stages in this scale:

1. I don’t think sexual assault is a big problem on campus.
2. I don’t think there is much I can do about sexual assault on campus.
3. There isn’t much need for me to think about sexual assault on campus, that’s the job of the crisis center.
4. Sometimes I think I should learn more about sexual assault but I haven’t done so yet.
5. I think I can do something about sexual assault and am planning to find out what I can do about the problem.
6. I am planning to learn more about the problem of sexual assault on campus.
7. I have recently attended a program about sexual assault.
8. I am actively involved in projects to deal with sexual assault on campus.
9. I have recently taken part in activities or volunteered my time on projects focused on ending sexual assault on campus.

This scale suggests useful concepts that can support the measurement of sexual violence prevention.  By trying to have prevention efforts focus on making shifts in these nine areas, we have a useful theoretical model. I am interested in seeing this work informing more sexual violence prevention efforts.

Here is the full abstract and link to these articles.

Sexual Violence Prevention: The Role of Stages of Change

Banyard VL,  Eckstein RP,  Moynihan MM Journal of Interpersonal Violence, January 2010; vol. 25, 1: pp. 111-135.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Increasing numbers of empirical studies and theoretical frameworks for preventing sexual violence are appearing in the research- and practice-based literatures. The consensus of this work is that although important lessons have been learned, the field is still in the early stages of developing and fully researching effective models, particularly for the primary prevention of this problem in communities. The purpose of this article is to discuss the utility of applying the transtheoretical model of readiness for change to sexual violence prevention and evaluation. A review of this model and its application in one promising new primary prevention program is provided, along with exploratory data about what is learned about program design and effectiveness when the model is used. The study also represents one of the first attempts to operationalize and create specific measures to quantify readiness for change in the context of sexual violence prevention and evaluation. Implications for program development and evaluation research are discussed.

Using Social Self-Identification in Social Marketing Materials Aimed at Reducing Violence Against Women on Campus.

Potter SJ, Moynihan MM, Stapleton JG. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2010; ePublished June 3, 2010

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

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. In this exploratory study, we attempt to understand how seeing oneself and one’s peer group (e.g., social self-identification) in poster images affects target audience members’ (e.g., college students) willingness to intervene as a prosocial bystander. The posters in the social marketing campaign were displayed throughout a midsize northeastern public university campus and neighboring local businesses frequented by students. During the last week of the 4-week poster display, the university’s homepage portal featured an advertisement displaying a current model of an iPod offering undergraduate students an opportunity to win the device if they completed a community survey. We found that among students who had seen the posters, those who indicated that the scenes portrayed in the posters looked like situations that were familiar to them were significantly more likely to contemplate taking action in preventing a situation where sexual violence had the potential to occur. Furthermore, students who indicated familiarity with the poster content were more likely to indicate that they had acted in a manner similar to those portrayed in the poster. Future directions based on findings from this exploratory study are discussed.

PreventConnect.org

Jody Raphael

(23 min) PreventConnect’s David Lee interviews Jody Raphael of the DePaul University College of Law, and Dr. TK Logan of the University of Kentucky. Raphael and Logan wrote the whitepaper “The Use and Misuse of Data on Rape: Restoring Sexual Violence to the National Agenda” for presentation at the CounterQuo Conference in October 2008. CounterQuo is a project of the Victim Rights Law Center and The Voices and Faces Project that considered how the rights and representations of sexual violence survivors are impacted by law, media and the public engagement of survivors.

PreventConnect.org

Amanda Hess

In this interview, Amanda Hess talks about how her blog deconstructs sexism and rape culture.  Her blogs and reporting recently includes stories on groping, rape myths and an ongoing feature on songs that glorify sexual violence that she calls ”Date Rape Anthems.”

Read The Sexist online at
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist

PreventConnect.org

Olivia Klaus and Brenda Clubine

(13 min) From behind prison walls, SIN BY SILENCE reveals the lives of extraordinary women who advocate for a future free from domestic violence. Inside California’s oldest women’s prison, the first inmate-initiated and led group in the U.S. prison system was created by inmate Brenda Clubine to help abused women speak out and realize they are not alone. Over the past two decades, the women of Convicted Women Against Abuse have changed laws for battered women and raised awareness for those on the outside. SIN BY SILENCE is an emotionally packed documentary that tells the personal and shocking stories of these courageous women who have learned from their past, are changing their future and, most importantly, teach how domestic violence affects each and every person.

In this interview, Director/Producer Olivia Klaus, Co-Producer/Editor Ann-Caryn Cleveland, and Brenda Clubine talk about the making of the documentary, the achievements of Convicted Women Against Abuse, and the uses of documentary film and survivors voices for awareness-raising and prevention work.

I think everyone who researches domestic violence and sexual violence can learn something from the approach used in a recently epublished study on bullying in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.  What is interesting to me is the researchers focus on the different levels that contribute to bullying.  Instead of focusing primarily on individual factors, this study adapts Bronfenbrenner’s  ecological system model.

Here are levels examined:

• Children Themselves: Examines individual factors
• Microsystem: experience within interpersonal relationships.
• Mesosystem: social interconnections between participants, such as students, teachers, and peers.
• Exosystem: “encompasses the linkage and processes taking place between two or more settings, at least one of which does not ordinarily contain the developing person . . . (e.g., for a child, the relation between the home and the parent’s work place)” (Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989). Ecological systems theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development (Vol. 6, pp. 197­249). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. p. 227)
• Macrosystem: societal characteristics, such as individualism and collectivism (Nesdale & Naito, 2005) and social disorganization

How do you think this would apply to sexual violence and domestic violence?

Here is the full abstract and link to the article on the journal’s web site:

An Ecological Systems Approach to Bullying Behaviors Among Middle School Students in the United States.

Lee CH. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2010; ePublished June 3, 2010

Click here for a link to the abstract.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

The aim of this study is to identify an ecological prediction model of bullying behaviors. Based on an ecological systems theory, this study identifies significant factors influencing bullying behaviors at different levels of middle and high school. These levels include the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. More specifically, the ecological factors investigated in this multilevel analysis are individual traits, family experiences, parental involvement, school climate, and community characteristics. Using data collected in 2008 from 485 randomly selected students in a school district, this study identifies a best-fitting structural model of bullying behavior. Findings suggest that the ecological model accounted for a high portion of variance in bullying behaviors. All of the ecological systems as well as individual traits were found to be significant influences on bullying behaviors either directly or indirectly.

Today is the opening of the summer blockbuster film Eclipse, the third film of the Twilight saga.

Bella is graduating from high school and feels pressured to make a choice between Edward and Jacob. Should your choices be defined by or limited to your relationships?

Start Strong Idaho asks this question in its Facebook campaign and last night hosted a “Campaign for the Third Choice” event (with music, fun Eclipse events and prizes) in Boise, Idaho.  As we discussed in the PreventConnect podcast Building healthy teen, vampire, and werewolf relationships, Start Strong Idaho is using the popular Twilight movies to promote prevention of teen dating violence.

Start Strong Idaho: Building Healthy Teen Relationships is an initiative in southwest Idaho to promote healthy teen relationships and prevent teen dating violence by helping 11- to 14-year-olds develop healthy and safe relationship knowledge and skills. It is part of the Start Strong Initiative, a national program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The recently published edition of Moving Upstream, the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance‘s newsletter on primary prevention,  is the first of a 2-part series examining organizational development toward primary prevention at sexual and domestic violence agencies. Check out this valuable resource.

Father's Day Ad in the New York Times from www.founding-fathers.org

For the 100th Father’s Day, the Family Violence Prevention Fund’s Founding Fathers Campaign has taken out a full page ad in the New York Times proclaiming “men everywhere are taking a stand to end violence against women and children around the world.”

Thanks to all of the fathers who are taking this day to  dedicate themselves to ending violence.

Why do women want to avoid rape?  Is it because sexual assault is a violation that causes emotional and physical harm? In a recent study ePublished in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, McKibbin et. al. suggest  an additional factor: rape circumvents her choice of a sexual partner and harms her “reproductive success.”

Based on the authors’ evolutionary analysis, the resulting study examines if “rape avoidance behaviors” are associated with “(1) women’s attractiveness, (2) women’s involvement in a committed romantic relationship, and (3) the number of family members living nearby.”

To what extent does an evolutionary analysis help us understand sexual assault? While I do not want to minimize this, I cannot see how evolution is the primary factor to examine to understand rape. As someone dedicated to prevention, I am much more interested in how we can make changes to community, society and culture factors that contribute to rape.

And then there is the problematic issue of rape avoidance. While rape avoidance skills are helpful, many people critique risk reduction as the primary focus of sexual assault prevention. In this study the Rape Avoidance Inventory (RAI) is used to measure rape avoidance.  The RAI is described as a reliable and valid measure of women’s rape avoidance behaviors (in a 2009 study by the same author.) Here is the actual description of this measure from the study:

The RAI consists of 69 behaviors that women might perform specifically to avoid being raped…. The RAI consisted of four components… corresponding to s specific set of rape avoidance behaviors. The Avoid Strange Men component included behaviors in which women avoid unfamiliar or strange men (e.g. “avoid men who make me feel uncomfortable”). The Avoid Appearing Sexually Receptive component included behaviors that may diminish a women’s attractiveness to a potential rapist (e.g., “Avoid wearing sexy clothing”). The Avoid Being Alone component included behaviors that function to keep women around others (e.g., “When I go out, I stay with at least one other person I know”). The Awareness of Surrounding/Defensive Preparedness component include behaviors that serve to keep a women attentive to her surround-behaviors that enhance a women’s ability to thwart a would-be rapist (e.g., “Carry a knife).

This scale appears to be based on a set of assumptions that rape is primarily committed by strange men attacking attractive women while alone and unaware of their surroundings. I admit that is an overgeneralization but those are the factors measured.  While there is value to supporting women to avoid rape, I find this study very troubling and wary of basing a rape prevention program on its assumptions.

What do you think about these concepts in helping our understanding of how to prevent sexual assault?

Here is the full abstract and link to the article.

Individual Differences in Women’s Rape Avoidance Behaviors.

McKibbin WF, Shackelford TK, Miner EJ, Bates VM, Liddle JR. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2010; ePublished May 13, 2010.

Click here for a link on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Springer Science+Business Media)

Rape can exact severe psychological, physical, and reproductive costs on women, and likely was a recurrent adaptive problem over human evolutionary history. Therefore, women may have evolved psychological mechanisms that motivate rape avoidance behaviors. Guided heuristically by an evolutionary perspective, we tested the hypothesis that women’s rape avoidance behaviors would vary with several individual difference variables. Specifically, we predicted that rape avoidance behaviors would covary positively with (1) women’s attractiveness, (2) women’s involvement in a committed romantic relationship, and (3) the number of family members living nearby. We also predicted that women’s rape avoidance behaviors would covary negatively with age. We administered the Rape Avoidance Inventory (McKibbin et al., Pers Indiv Differ 39:336-340, 2009) and a demographic survey to a sample of women (n = 144). The results of correlational and regression analyses were consistent with the predictions, with the exception that women’s rape avoidance behaviors did not covary with women’s age. Discussion highlighted limitations of the current research and directions for future research on women’s rape avoidance psychology and behaviors.

from www.inpea.net

Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2010 and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center is presenting new resources related to sexual violence in later life.

The Sexual Violence in Later Life Information Packet was developed by Holly Ramsey-Klawsnik, Phd, in conjunction with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. The packet includes a fact sheet, technical assistance bulletin, technical assistance guide, resource list, annotated bibliography and research brief.

Participants at the Men's Institute at the Women of Color Network's A Call to Action Conference and Institute

I had the opportunity to attend the Women of Color Network’s Call to Action Institute and Conference May 10-14, 2010 in New Orleans, LA where I co-led the Men’s Institute and a session on prevention.  As that city was awaiting the oil from the BP leak to spoil their shores, fish and other wildlife, I was reminded of how communities are impacted by disaster; I was reminded how racism played out in the neglect that contributed before, during and after Katrina. I took this conference as an opportunity to consider how I participate in efforts to end oppressions in my work to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault.

There were many important pieces of the WOCN’s powerful gathering of over 400. Here are some highlights:

• Recognize links between immigration policy and support women of color in violence prevention:  The Latina caucus identified the recent immigration law in Arizona as a significant barrier for women to seek support and as a target. In order to address and prevent sexual violence and domestic violence, we must take action about these policies.
• Men Taking Action at the Men’s Institute: 40 men met for 2 days to explore how we can be aspiring allies to women of color.  I learned from these men as we looked at our own privilege and how to support men in taking action to prevent men’s violence.
• Honoring Cultural Specific Work:  I learned from so many different women and men about prevention efforts that use the resources from their culture to build prevention that reflects the needs of specific communities.  There were so many examples: working with the Hmong in Wisconsin, Latina immigrants in New Mexico, African American communities in cities, Muslim communities throughout the United States, Vietnamese in Boston, etc.
• Mainstream women and men exploring how to support communities of color: I co-facilitated a discussion of white women and men about how to transform the work of ending domestic violence and sexual violence to support communities of color.

While we had only a little time, this conference demonstrated how people of all races, religions and communities can examine themselves, their families, their communities, and their society to make changes.  Isn’t that what the social ecological model is supposed to be about?

The theme of the American Public Health Association‘s annual meeting this year is “Social Justice: a public health imperative.” As I have explored in previous blog posts and e-learning units, social justice is an important core of preventing sexual violence and domestic violence.

So I was delighted to see the most important public health meeting highlight social justice work. The APHA Annual Meeting will take place in Denver, Colo., Nov. 6-10, 2010.

Social Justice lies at the heart of public health. It is central to its mission and is frequently described as public health’s core value. The social circumstances in which we are born, live, and work, play a greater role in longevity and overall health in the United States than genes, health insurance and access to health services. Annual Meeting sessions will explore why certain populations bear a disproportionate burden of disease and mortality and what the public health community can do to better address the causes of these inequities.

At this meeting, I will share “Prevention Connection: An online ‘community of practice’ to advance primary prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence” at a poster session.  If you are in Denver this coming November, stop by.

Being a parent of a middle school student has given me a lot ot worry about: drugs, sex and violence.  As a parent, I realize that we must start early if we are to prevent dating violence. Yet, many dating violence prevention efforts address high school students, but the pattern of violence often starts before then.  In an article recently published in the Journal of Early Adolescence, 60% of 6^th grade males and 45% of  6^th grade females (45.2%)  reported having a boy or girlfriend in previous 3 months. Among those students reporting having a boy/girlfriend, almost 1/3 of girls and more than ¼ of boys reported being physically aggressive toward their boy/girlfriend.

Teen dating violence prevention efforts like Start Strong highlight working with middle school age youth. It seems to me even more important now than ever to start early.

Note: The instrument used to measure the levels of violence was modified from the instrument used to evaluate Safe Dates.  I have trouble reconciling the finding that males are more likely than females to be victimized.  What do you think is going on?

Here is the full citation and link the article on the journal’s web site.

Physical Dating Violence Norms and Behavior Among Sixth-Grade Students From Four U.S. Sites.

Simon TR, Miller S, Gorman-Smith D, Orpinas P, Sullivan T. Journal of Early Adolescence 2010; 30(3): 395-409.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Relatively little is known about the prevalence of physical dating violence behaviors and perceived norms about dating violence among early adolescents. A sample of 5,404 sixth-grade students was recruited from four diverse U.S. sites. Over half of the respondents reported that girls hitting their boyfriends was acceptable under certain circumstances (e.g., if made mad or jealous) and more than one in four reported acceptance of boys hitting their girlfriends. Among those reporting that they had a recent boy/ girlfriend, nearly one third of girls (31.5%) and more than one fourth of boys (26.4%) reported being physically aggressive toward this person (e.g., punching, slapping). These data support the need to address the problem of violence within students’ perceived dating relationships in sixth grade or earlier and suggest that preventive interventions should focus on changing norms that support violence between males and females.

If he buys her dinner, does he expect that they will have sex?  If he rapes her after dinner,  who is blamed for the rape?  In an article recently ePublished in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Basow and Minieri examine questions like this.

I remember many surveys of high school and college students over the last several decades that show similar disturbing, and unsurprising, findings. Here is another study (with data collected from a private Northeastern liberal arts school) to add to this knowledge base about social expectation on a date.

What are the implications for rape prevention?  Would splitting the bill reduce rape? I am glad that rape is no longer assumed to be committed by a “stranger jumping out of bushes” but the concept of  “date rape” might be also dated. We live in a time period where young people do use the term “dating.”   What are the implications of this for rape prevention?

Here is the full abstract and citation.

“You Owe Me”: Effects of Date Cost, Who Pays, Participant Gender, and Rape Myth Beliefs on Perceptions of Rape.

Basow SA, Minieri A. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2010; ePublished May 4, 2010

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Sexual social exchange theory was applied to perceptions of a date rape by manipulating the cost of the date and who paid in vignettes presented to 188 U.S. college students, who then rated the characters’ sexual expectations, blame, responsibility, and rape justifiability. Findings from this between-participant design partially supported predictions: When the man paid for an expensive date, men agreed more than did women that both characters should have expected sexual intercourse. Conversely, when the costs of an inexpensive date were split, the perpetrator was assigned the most blame, and women agreed more than men that no sexual expectations were warranted. Participant gender affected some responses, although level of rape myth acceptance was the main predictor of rape perceptions.

I find the social ecological model to be a helpful framework to highlight that prevention work needs to look beyond the individual.  So I am pleased to see research that examines risk and protective factors that go beyond individual attitudes, beliefs and experiences.

In the recent article appearing in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, authors Casey and Beadnell examine the links between male adolescent peer networks and the risk to perpetrate intimate partner violence.  Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (initially collected in 1995 on teen peer networks and in 2001 for IPV perpetration), this study explores different peer networks for male teens.

While the results are uneven (some relationship were shown while other were not), Casey and Beadnell suggest

…some peer-level factors did emerge as relevant to IPV perpetration, which suggests that selected prevention programming targeting specific risk factors at the peer level may be warranted. Speci?cally, depressed, socially isolated youth in small, dense male networks appeared to be at greater risk of future perpetration than youth with much more numerous, gender-balanced, pro- social ties. It may be that structural prevention programs that aim to reduce some teens’ social isolation, build social competencies and generate positive opportunities for exposure to variety of peers may expand the range of behaviors, attitudes and relationship expectations to which youth are exposed.

I support research that challenges prevention programs to make changes to social networks as a means to change.  What do you think?

The full citation and abstract follow:

The structure of male adolescent peer networks and risk for intimate partner violence perpetration: findings from a national sample.

Casey EA, Beadnell B. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 2010; 39(6): 620-33.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Springer Science+Business Media)

Although peer networks have been implicated as influential in a range of adolescent behaviors, little is known about relationships between peer network structures and risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) among youth. This study is a descriptive analysis of how peer network “types” may be related to subsequent risk for IPV perpetration among adolescents using data from 3,030 male respondents to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Sampled youth were a mean of 16 years of age when surveyed about the nature of their peer networks, and 21.9 when asked to report about IPV perpetration in their adolescent and early adulthood relationships. A latent class analysis of the size, structure, gender composition and delinquency level of friendship groups identified four unique profiles of peer network structures. Men in the group type characterized by small, dense, mostly male peer networks with higher levels of delinquent behavior reported higher rates of subsequent IPV perpetration than men whose adolescent network type was characterized by large, loosely connected groups of less delinquent male and female friends. Other factors known to be antecedents and correlates of IPV perpetration varied in their distribution across the peer group types, suggesting that different configurations of risk for relationship aggression can be found across peer networks. Implications for prevention programming and future research are addressed.

The Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs has released another excellent issue of  Connections on the topic Media Savvy Youth: Challenging the Pop Culture Messages that Contribute to Sexual Violence. Articles include:

• • The power of media literacy for girls
  • Dismantling Rape Culture through songs
• Take action! Writing to editors
• 25 Positive Hip Hop and Rap Songs

Click here to check out the entire issue.

Request for Proposals
MyStrength Evaluation

The California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) is looking for a consultant to provide services to support CALCASA in its evaluation of MyStrength, its statewide social marketing campaign to engage young men to prevent sexual violence.

Since 2005, CALCASA has supported the MyStrength Campaign where local rape crisis centers conduct MyStrength Clubs in their local community.  This evaluation will use a case study approach to document the progress and changes in those communities and for the rape crisis centers themselves.

The case study evaluation should include multiple sites (minimum 3) and consider many elements including:

• Capacity of a rape crisis center to conduct primary prevention of sexual violence
• Engagement of men in sexual violence prevention efforts
• Community support for prevention efforts
• Impact of MyStrength campaign for MyStrength participants and the communities themselves.

The project budget is $15,000 inclusive of travel and material costs.  Site visits are expected and creative use of media is encouraged.  The final report shall include separate reports for each site as well as a comprehensive summary that includes recommendations and lessons learned. Use of various forms of media (written, visual, video, audio, etc.) is encouraged.

To apply, please send a proposal no longer than 10 pages to David Lee by 1:00 pm on Thursday, June 18, 2010 including the following:

• Selection process of sites (minimum three sites)
• Methods to collect data
• Approach to analyze data
• Experience in case study methodology

In addition to the proposal, please include the following (not included in 10 page limit):

• Sample report for a similar project
• Resume/CV and statement of experience highlighting knowledge of sexual violence prevention for key personnel
• proposed budget including details for expenses

This final report for this project will be due on September 30, 2010.  A draft of the report will be due on September 15 for feedback and direction from CALCASA.

Please contact David Lee if you have any questions.

WEB CONFERENCE

Growing Boys Into Men: Countering Traditional Masculinity Through Norms Change

Countering norms that reinforce traditional masculinity is an opportunity to prevent violence in a lasting, comprehensive way. This web conference will highlight specific strategies and efforts that seeks to change norms related to gendered violence. Different norms will be examined with regard to their historical context, distinct challenges, and opportunities for collaborative work.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010, repeated on Thursday, May 27, 2010

Presenter: Annie Lyles, Xavier Morales and Christine Chang, Prevention Institute

Guests:

• Jerry Tello, Therapist, Author, and Performer
• Craig Norberg-Bohm, Men’s Initiative Coordinator, Jane Doe Inc.

Objectives:

• Understand how norms create an environment in which violence is more likely to occur.
• Provide examples of successes from people and organizations working to counter norms of traditional masculinity.
• Identify strategies being used to effectively counter and change norms.
• Identify potential indicators for measuring progress in norms change.

To Learn More and Register, Visit Our Website: http://www.preventconnect.org

Real-Time Captioning Available: Instructions for accessing captioning during this web conference will be provided with your registration confirmation.

I wish reading research were a simple process of learning new knowledge. Instead, I have to consider the research question, methodology, strategy to select the sample, recognize the limitations of the research and evaluate the relevance to the practice of sexual violence and domestic violence prevention. And sometimes I cannot understand things like this chart below.

Here is my weekly routine:I review the summary of abstracts from recently published research as compiled by Safety Lit.  I read the title of each violence related study. For those that catch my interest, I read the abstract.  From those studies, I work with my colleagues at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center to get copies of the article that have appear to have implications for prevention practice.

Then I learn that the conclusion does not always fit what was actually studied. Or that I cannot figure out how the research leads to the conclusion.

I am not a researcher.  During my studies for my masters degree I learned to be a good consumer of research. I interpret research and know many of the questions to ask.  But I am not an expert on statistical methods nor am I always able to understand how they actually did the research.

This week I saw the interesting title of an article, Vulnerable adolescent participants’ experience in surveys on sexuality and sexual abuse: Ethical aspects from the journal Child Abuse and Neglect.  This study explores an important question about the possible discomfort of adolescents when they participate in a survey about sexuality and sexual abuse.

But as read the analysis, I do not understand what they are doing. This might be excellent research; but its methodology is too much for my skills to understand. If I cannot read research, what about people who have even less experience with research.  My colleagues at VAWnet create Applied Research papers to address this – but we need to understand research.

What do you do to understand research?

The abstract and full citation of the article follows.

Vulnerable adolescent participants’ experience in surveys on sexuality and sexual abuse: Ethical aspects.

Priebe G, Bäckström M, Ainsaar M. Child Abuse and Neglect 2010; ePublished April 18, 2010

Click here for a link the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to study the discomfort experienced by adolescents when answering questions in a survey about sexuality and sexual abuse and to investigate factors that may determine possible experience of discomfort. The research focused particularly on vulnerable adolescents-sexually abused and sexually inexperienced.

METHOD: Adolescents in their final year of high school in Estonia (n=1,334) and Sweden (n=3,401) who had completed a survey about experiences of sexuality and sexual abuse answered additional questions about experiences of discomfort related to the survey questions.

RESULTS: A majority of the participants did not feel discomfort when completing the survey. This was also the case for the two vulnerable groups. Experience of penetrating sexual abuse, sexual inexperience, mental health problems, rape myth acceptance, gender, immigrant background, and country were included in a structural equation model. Experience of penetrating sexual abuse was not significantly related to discomfort in the final model, while sexual inexperience was associated with increased discomfort (standardized coefficient .20) and rape myth acceptance was the strongest indicator of discomfort (.27). The total amount of explained variance was 17%.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data do not support the view that adolescents in general or vulnerable subgroups such as sexually abused or sexually inexperienced adolescents experience discomfort when answering a survey about sexuality and sexual abuse. As discomfort ratings were not highly related to any of the predictors further research is needed that includes other factors. It is important to follow existing ethical guidelines since there may always be some individuals who feel discomfort.

Whatever your impression is of sports and athletes; there’s no denying the indelible affect on the society at large.  From the women and men that play sports at its most competitive levels, to the mother that takes her son to his soccer games and practices, or the father that is teaching his daughter to shoot a perimeter jump shot; sports are a part of many people’s lives.  Over the last decade, there has been a huge trend of getting youth involved in organized sports through sports clubs or nonprofit athletic organizations.  With the possibility of college scholarships or a chance at Olympic gold; some parents are investing money and resources in their child, in addition to the child spending an inordinate amount of time with the coach in perfecting their craft.

In April 2010 the ABC News program 20/20 highlighted the sexual misconduct of over 36 swimming coaches who have been banned for life by USA Swimming because of sexual misconduct with youth female swimmers. 

Two Seattle Times staff reports wrote an article titled Coaches Who Prey, in which 159 coaches in the state of Washington have been fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape.  At least 98 of those coaches continued to coach or teach somewhere else.

Before I started coaching youth soccer, I assumed that coaches and those working with children would have had rigorous background checks completed by the organizations.  In some cases, my assumptions were incorrect.  One youth program I worked with ask for my driver’s license, proof of CPR and first aid completion, soccer training certification and required finger printing for a criminal background check.  Another organization’s screening and background check involved the Director of Operations saying “Since you show up to all your daughter’s practices, you can coach the team for the entire season – the previous coach quit.”

A 2008 survey by the National Council of Youth Sports of its member organizations indicated that 44,031,890 boys and girls participated in their sports programs.   They also had 7,343,556 adults volunteering in various capacities; this number included 2,409,020 coaches.

With the astronomical number of boys and girls participating in youth sports and the number of volunteers it takes to operate sports programs; there needs to be more consistent and thorough screening of coaches.  Also it would help if a protocol or best practices was created for the sports programs to use as a guide regarding but not limited to the following areas: hiring, investigating allegations, notifying parents and law enforcement, dismissing coaches, etc.

I have included several examples of youth sports organizations that have screening processes and protocols for coaches and volunteers.

• National Council of Youth Sports
• National Alliance for Youth Sports
• USA Track & Field
• Youth Football Coaches Association

How many local youth programs are in your community?  Do you know what their process is for screening coaches and volunteers?  This is an excellent opportunity for your rape crisis center (RCC) to connect with these youth sports clubs and organizations to discuss the educational opportunities around sexual abuse prevention to parents, staff, volunteers and athletes. 

In addition to the educational opportunity on prevention, some youth organizations may need assistance in developing a screening process for coaches and volunteers and or help with creating a protocol around the issues.

Your involvement with community youth sports programs can increase people’s awareness around sexual abuse prevention, increase the level of safety of children who participate in the programs and of course enlighten the parents and organization on what a wonderful resource the local RCC is.

When RCC’s work with youth sports programs in the community; we will hear fewer stories of coaches sexually abusing youth and more stories of good sportsmanship.  Such as the two softball players who choose to help an injured player on the opposing team; and in doing so, lost their chance of advancing to the playoffs. 

For responses to this post or questions about working with youth sports programs in your community, please use the comment box below.

In the study recently ePublished in the Journal Prevention Science, the authors Woodin and O’Leary examine a violence prevention program for couples with a history of at least one act of male-to-female physical violence in the current relationship.

Domestic violence advocates warn against activities that may place someone at great risk, such as couple-based interventions. This program includes an assessment that includes interviewing both partners together.

The study finds the use of motivational interviewing to reduce future physical aggression (as compared to those who receive “minimal non-motivational” feedback.)

What do you think?

The full citation and abstract follow:

A Brief Motivational Intervention for Physically Aggressive Dating Couples.

Woodin EM, O’Leary KD. Prevention Science 2010; ePublished April 17, 2010.

Click here to see the abstract on the journal’s website.

(Copyright © 2010, Springer Science+Business Media)

Motivational interviewing is a brief non-confrontational intervention designed to enhance motivation to reduce harmful behavior (Miller and Rollnick 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of motivational interviewing as a targeted prevention approach for partner aggression in emerging adulthood. Participants were 50 college dating couples between 18 and 25 years old who reported at least one act of male-to-female physical aggression in their current relationships. After completing a 2-hour assessment session, half of all couples were randomly assigned to a 2-hour individualized motivational feedback session targeting physical aggression and risk factors for aggression. The remaining couples received minimal, non-motivational feedback. Follow-up surveys were conducted 3, 6, and 9 months later. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that, compared to the control condition, the motivational feedback intervention led to reductions in physical aggression and harmful alcohol use and to less acceptance of female psychological aggression and male psychological aggression (among women only). Lagged analyses indicated that changes in physical aggression were predicted by reductions in psychological aggression and by lower acceptance of both male and female psychological aggression. Reductions in physical aggression predicted lower anxiety and greater relationship investment and male relationship commitment over time. These findings suggest that a brief motivational intervention is a useful prevention approach for high-risk dating couples, with benefits to both individual and relationship functioning.

It is great to see an article in the Journal of The Medical Association of Thailand that calls for a nation wide school-based program to promote gender equity to prevent sexual violence.  When will we see this in the United States?

The full citation, abstract and link to full text follow the jump.

Gender roles, physical and sexual violence prevention in primary extend to secondary school in Samutsakorn Province, Thailand.

Chamroonsawasdi K, Suparp J, Kittipichai W, Khajornchaikul P. Journal of The Medical Association of Thailand 2010; 93(3): 358-65.

Click here for full text.

(Copyright © 2010, Medical Association of Thailand)

OBJECTIVE: To enhance positive attitude and life skills on gender roles to prevent physical and sexual violence.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: A whole school-based participatory learning program using a quasi-experimental study with pre and post test design was conducted among 2 schools during June-September, 2005. The experimental group, were 134 students in a primary school and 179 students in a secondary school. While the control group, were 122 students in a primary school and 95 students in secondary school.

RESULTS: Means score of attitude toward gender roles before implementation in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group (p < 0.05). After implementation, the means score in the experimental group was not significantly different from the control group (p > 0.05). Means paired different score (after-before) between the two groups was significantly different (p = 0.002).

CONCLUSION: A whole school-based program on gender roles and violence prevention is suitable for youths and should be merged as school curricula and expanded as a nationwide program at all level of education. Gender equity should be taught at an early childhood. Parental involvement in school-based activities should be negotiated.

As Sexual Assault Awareness Month comes to an end, here is a video of my talk to the California National Guard for their SAAM event on April 12, 2010. I talked about the importance of preventing sexual violence, the That’s Not Cool Campaign, and Denim Day.

Each week I review summaries of the titles and abstracts for newly published articles to find research relevant to prevention of sexual violence and domestic violence. Yet, without reading the article, I will not know how they came to those findings. Here is an example of the methods used for a study recently published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology titled Understanding Men’s Perceptions of Risks and Rewards in a Date Rape Scenario.

This study was conducted by looking how college males respond to a scenario where after picking up a women with a reputation for being “loose” and being “pretty drunk” they go to her apartment:

After listening to music for a few minutes, Susan turns down the lights and begins to kiss you and rub your penis through your pants. In response, you begin to kiss and fondle Susan’s breasts. You then reach under her skirt and begin to attempt to remove Susan’s clothes. Susan tells you that she thinks she is not interested in having sex but does not try to physically stop you.

The researchers then examined the men’s perceptions of potential costs and benefits associated with having sex in this hypothetical situation. (The scenario was presented after being exposed to either viewing photographs of fully clothed models, photographs of nude women or 10-minute segment of video that depicted an adult male and adult female engaging in consensual intercourse.) The researchers found

75% of the men reporting the possibility of legal consequences (including arrest, rape charges, conviction, and a jail or prison sentence). Participants also indicated potential positive outcomes of having sex with Susan in this situation, and nearly 29% of the respondents reported some type of future romantic or sexual relationship with her.

The researchers use a “rational choice perspective” to understand how men perceive costs and benefits. While the study does not examine actual behaviors, the researchers suggest that the behavior intentions are important to predict future action.

It is helpful to understand how the researchers came to their conclusion of implications for prevention:

Achieving longer-term attitudinal and behavioral change may require a broader focus not just on changing attitudes but on changing the perception of risks and rewards of sexual aggression.

What do you think about the method of this study? Do you think that behavior is primarily influenced by perceptions of risks and rewards?

Below is the full citation and abstract:

Understanding Men’s Perceptions of Risks and Rewards in a Date Rape Scenario.

Bouffard LA, Bouffard JA. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 2010; ePublished April 2, 2010.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Existing research on date rape has identified important correlations between rape-supportive attitudes and sexual aggression. What remains unclear is the mechanism by which these attitudes are translated into sexually aggressive behavior. This study borrows from a rational choice framework to explore the relationship between attitudes, perceptions of the risks and rewards of engaging in date rape, and self-reported hypothetical aggression in a date rape scenario. Results suggest that rape-supportive attitudes are related to particular patterns of identified risks and rewards of date rape as well as to the self-reported likelihood of engaging in date rape behavior. This supports a perspective that certain attitude structures may alter the risks and rewards that potential offenders consider in deciding whether or not to engage in sexual aggression. Implications for future research and prevention programs are discussed.

Training Institute on Engaging Men and Boys to Prevent Domestic and Sexual Violence

Dates: Wednesday, June 23 and Thursday, June 24

Location: Contra Costa College, San Pablo, California

Trainers:

• Wayne Barnes, Yolanda Fairell, Lina Juarbe, and Tony Porter, A CALL TO MEN
• Terrence Ivory, STAND! Against Domestic Violence
• Jack Schmidt, Community Violence Solutions
• Chad Sniffen, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Agenda: Click here to view the agenda. (PDF)

In a study recently ePublished in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, the authors found for women students an association between non-consensual sexual experiences prior to arriving at college and drinking behaviors after the first year of college.  Though the publication reads 2010, the study is based on data collected in 1991.

The discussion describes implications for prevention efforts. When the authors suggest “campus-sponsored sexual assault prevention presentations typically do not discuss alcohol as a risk factor” based on a 1991 publication, it does not really provide information that is helpful today.

What I really want to see is more research on prevention programs themselves.  Hopefully this will be the follow-up study.

The full citation and abstract are below:

Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences and Alcohol Consumption Among Women Entering College.

Ross LT, Kolars CL, Krahn DD, Gomberg ES, Clark G, Niehaus A. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2010; ePublished March 17, 2010.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

The authors investigated the relationship between pre-college non-consensual sexual experiences (NSEs) and drinking among women entering college. College women (N = 797) at a midwestern university in the USA participated. Eighteen percent reported one or more NSE prior to arriving at college. Having a pre-college NSE was associated with recent drinking, binge drinking, and negative drinking consequences. The authors discuss implications for intervention and prevention programs targeting college women.

Why do some professionals believe there is only one solution to a problem?  Complicated issues, like health care, global warming and sexual violence / domestic violence, require comprehensive solutions.  So I was surprised when I saw the title of the letter from Andy Klein appearing in February 2010 issue of the  National Bulletin on Domestic Violence Prevention is “DV is not a public health problem.” Klein claims that

Declaring DV to be a public health emergency takes our eyes off the ball. DV is a criminal justice emergency, a continuing failure of the criminal justice system to stop criminals from committing crimes repeatedly. Well intended counseling by health professional will not stop their patients’ victimizers.

I will not reduce addressing domestic violence to criminal justice solutions. However, in this article, Klein reduces public health response to health care providers screening while suggesting the value of medical personnel is to “assist law enforcement” by recording victim reports of abuse.

I see a public health approach as much more than screening. Klein identifies Swine flu as a public health emergency (though public health people call it H1N1). The incidence of domestic violence and sexual assault exceed that of Swine flu; and its impact is significant to people’s health and well-being. In a PreventConnect eLearning unit on social justice and public health, I examine how the lessons learned from public health response to disease can influence our efforts to prevent sexual violence.

Public health is more than epidemiology, health care and infectious disease control.  I studied Community Health Education where I learned how public health provided some valuable ways to address issues such as domestic violence and sexual assault:

• Public health changes the conditions of a community and society to solve a problem,
• Public health addresses the root causes,
• Public health goes beyond responding to the problem,
• Public health seeks to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Public health informed efforts such as DELTA, Rape Prevention & Education, and StartStrong are engaging communities to take action to prevent domestic violence, sexual abuse and teen dating violence. PreventConnect is a online community of people using public health concepts to advance prevention.

I agree with Andy Klein there are limits to the public health approach to preventing domestic violence and sexual violence. A public health framework alone is not enough to understand the problem and develop the solutions; we have to also look to other approaches, such as human rights and justice.  While there are some elements common to public health success stories like tobacco prevention and using car seats, the work to end domestic violence and sexual assault is more similar to the work of the civil rights movement: we must shift norms of how we define men and women, relationships and family, and power itself.

How have you found public health concepts helpful to developing domestic violence and sexual violence prevention initiatives?

(13 min) Start Strong Idaho: Building Healthy Teen Relationships is an initiative in southwest Idaho to promote healthy teen relationships and prevent teen dating violence by helping 11- to 14-year-olds develop healthy and safe relationship knowledge and skills. It is part of the Start Strong Initiative, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the Family Violence Prevention Fund.

In this interview, Kelly Miller from the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence and Laura Hampikian, a teen advisor for Start Strong Idaho, talk about a survey about teenage dating violence they gave to teens waiting to see the film New Moon on it’s premier night in Boise, Idaho. By focusing on Team Respect, the film gave them an opportunity to talk to teens and the media about healthy teen relationships.

• New Moon Audience Survey
• Press Releases Nov. 18, 2009 – Southwest Idaho teens spark innovative approach to promoting healthy relationships.
• Press Releases Nov. 20, 2009 – Southwest Idaho 11- to 14-year-old teens report controlling and self-destructive behaviors and a willingness to give up everything as signs of true love.

Wendi Siebold

Wednesday, May 19, 2010
10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Sheraton Grand Hotel, Sacramento

All of California’s Rape Crisis Centers and Domestic Violence Programs are actively engaged in prevention efforts, assisted in part by the Rape Prevention & Education (RPE) funding provided by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

This training will provide prevention educators and their supervisors with the opportunity to develop practical, program-specific, and integrated evaluation tools that will increase our ability to measure program effectiveness and reduce the cost in time and other resources to CDPH.

To prepare for this training, attendees should review the eLearning units of the previous Logic Model and Evaluation web conferences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Describe how evaluation tools will help them to more effectively assess the impact of their programs.
• List at least three program specific short and intermediate term outcomes in their logic models or objectives.
• Demonstrate an understanding of creative evaluation tools by identifying at least three strategies they can incorporate into their individual programs.

REGISTRATION

Registration for this training is limited to staff and volunteers at California Rape Crisis Centers and to member agencies of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, and is free. Registration closes on Friday, April 30, 2010.

In order to give a diversity of California agencies an opportunity to be represented at this workshop, we are limiting registration to one (1) person per agency. If space permits, we will accommodate more participants from a wait list.

> Click here to register or to add your name to the wait list.

TRAVEL STIPENDS

Travel stipends for travel, lodging and per diem are available for California RPE Grantees only. Stipend information and application forms are part of the online registration process at the link above.

TRAINER

Wendi L. Siebold, M.A., M.P.H., is a Senior Research Associate and Director of Evaluation, Management and Training’s Northwest office in Seattle, WA. Wendi started her career as a rape crisis advocate in Oakland, CA and decided to contribute to the violence against women movement via prevention research. She specializes in the assessment of organizational and community capacity for prevention, violence prevention research, program planning and evaluation, and provides evaluation capacity-building training using a participatory approach. She currently is the evaluator for the Alaska, Montana and Kansas DELTA statewide intimate partner violence prevention initiatives, and is the coordinator of the evaluators for both the EMPOWER and DELTA national collaboratives. She collaborates with rural and Native communities to prevent substance abuse, bullying, and youth suicide. Wendi holds degrees in Health Behavior & Health Education and Community Psychology, and is a national speaker and writer on topics related to prevention planning and evaluation. She has worked with CALCASA for web conferences for California RPE grantees and the National RPE program, and developed an online presentation for PreventConnect.org.

Christy Chung

(12 min) The Respect for All Project (RFAP) is a program of GroundSpark, a nonprofit film production company founded in 1978 that creates and distributes documentary films on issues of social and economic justice. This project is one of the models used for the California Department of Public Health‘s Teen Dating Violence Primary Prevention Project.

In this interview Christy Chung, Community Programs Manager at GroundSpark, talks about her work in helping underserved school communities take steps to build more safe and inclusive learning environments. RFAP engages these communities through films, workshops, community actions, and curriculum guides that are available on the GroundSpring website.

She also talks about Straightlaced and Let’s Get Real, two Groundspark films. Straightlaced unearths how popular pressures around gender and sexuality are confining American teens in candid interviews with more than 50 teens from diverse backgrounds. Let’s Get Real examines a variety of issues that lead to taunting and bullying, including racial differences, perceived sexual orientation, learning disabilities, religious differences, sexual harassment and others.

In PreventConnect’s April 5th Newsletter, we highlighted interviews with the organizers and trainers for the Women of Color Network’s upcoming “National Call to Action” Institute and Conference, which will take place from May 10 to 14, 2010, in New Orleans, Louisianna.

Tonya Lovelace

Tonya Lovelace, the Program Manager for the Women of Color Network, introduced the newletter issue with this invitation:

“Listen to the following podcasts from women of color, mainstream/white women, and men expressing why you should attend this groundbreaking and historic WOCN National Call to Action Institute and Conference which reflects the voices and views of over 700 advocates who have participated in calls since April 2007. We look forward to seeing you there!”

To learn more about this conference and why you should attend, click here to read and listen to the April 5 edition of the PreventConnect Newsletter.

A recent study published in the Journal of American College Health shows that alcohol is the most common “date rape drug.”  While there is much attention toward concern about what drugs may be slipped into someone’s drinks, this study found that most rapes of college women were preceded by voluntary alcohol consumption.

What are the implications for college rape prevention programs?

The full citation and abstract follow the jump.

Forcible, drug-facilitated, and incapacitated rape and sexual assault among undergraduate women.

Lawyer S, Resnick H, Bakanic V, Burkett T, Kilpatrick D. Journal of American College Health 2010; 58(5): 453-60.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Heldref Publications)

Objective: To examine the prevalence of drug-related sexual assaults, identify the frequency of assaults that occur following voluntary versus involuntary drug or alcohol consumption, and identify contextual correlates of drug-related assaults. Participants: College-student females (n = 314). Methods: Volunteers reported experiences with forcible and drug-related sexual assaults in the spring semester of 2004. Follow-up queries regarding the most severe drug-related assaults determined whether the assaults followed voluntary or involuntary alcohol or drug consumption. Results: 29.6% (n = 93) of the respondents reported a drug-related sexual assault or rape; 5.4% (n = 17) reported a forcible sexual assault or rape. Voluntary incapacitation preceded 84.6% of drug-related assaults and involuntary incapacitation preceded 15.4% of drug-related assaults. The majority of drug-related assaults (96.1%) involved alcohol consumption prior to assault. Conclusions: Drug-related sexual assaults on college campuses are more frequent than are forcible assaults and are most frequently preceded by voluntary alcohol consumption.

The Engaged Bystander blog from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center is collecting stories of what people  have done or witnessed someone else do that exhibit positive bystander engagement to prevent sexual violence.  (Click here for PreventConnect‘s eLearning unit on engaging bystanders.)

Here is my story of a small action — only an “evil stare” to interrupt rape culture. And this story shows how just saying where we work may make a difference.

This took place sometime in the mid-1980s while I was giving blood.  As I was laying down with the needle in my arm, the male nurse asked me what I did for work. I responded that “I worked for the National Clearinghouse on Martial Rape.” I was then surprised when he responded by saying “I practice that every night.”

Here I was laying down, feeling weak, and I heard this anemic rape joke.  So I mustered all the energy I could and made my best effort to give him an evil stare.  It seemed to work, as he apologized and we talked about why such jokes are troubling.

I shared my story, what is your story? Click here to share your story.

“Why It Matters: Rethinking Victim Assistance for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Victims of Hate Violence & Intimate Partner Violence” is a new report that is based on a 2009 survey of victim assistance providers and LGBTQ anti-violence programs throughout the United States.  Why It Matters, done by the National Center for Victims of Crime and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, describes widespread gaps in victim services for LGBTQ victims of crime and recommends steps to improve the services and their accessibility.  For service providers working in the field of sexual violence, this report provides vital data and recommendations for improving service delivery.

To read the full report, click here.

Denice Ann Evans

(18 min) Spitting Game: The College Hook Up Culture is a documentary where “…students, experts, and parents speak openly about alcohol, drugs, sexual assault, and the state of relationships on college campuses. It is a candid and, ultimately scandalous, expose on the reasons, risks, and realities students face within the college hook up culture.”

In this interview Denice Ann Evans, the documentary’s writer and director, discusses the “hook up culture” on high school and college campuses. She talks about making Spitting Game, how the film explores the hook up culture, and how violence prevention educators can use the film to foster conversations about sex, consent, and hooking up.

Learn more about Spitting Game: The College Hook Up Culture on its website: http://www.collegehookupculture.com

In the article recently published in the journal International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, the author Pradubmook-Sherer examines the relationships of many factors to attitudes about dating violence among Thai youth.  The factors examined include class (using school type as the proxy), delinquency, self-esteem and school performance.

In the conclusion, Pradubmook-Sherer discussed the implication for prevention programs:

Educational programs that confront students’ beliefs that violence is an acceptable response in dating relationships must be established. Intervention programs on these issues and on gender relationships should start even before high school. Because of the indicated cultural and gender differences, we recommend that culturally sensitive intervention programs should target specific groups, according to their special needs, in the area of dating violence.

Below is the full citation and link to the article.

Youth Attitudes Toward Dating Violence in Thailand.

Pradubmook-Sherer P. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2010; ePublished February 24, 2010

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

This study assessed the occurrences and intensity of psychological, physical, and sexual attitudes toward dating violence among Thai youths, and examined possible variables related to the formation of these attitudes. The random sample consisted of 1,296 male and female adolescents from high school, vocational school, and out-of-school groups. Thai youths in general reported attitudes that were supportive of dating violence. The variables more closely related to attitudes toward dating violence were personal variables. Peer influence, partner relationships, and family characteristics were related to higher support for dating violence. Females reported higher endorsement of dating violence than males. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed, and recommendations for policy makers are drawn.

Donna Martsolf

(19 min) This is an interview with Dr. Donna S. Martsolf and Dr. Claire Burke Draucker of the College of Nursing at Kent State University, and Terri Heckman, Director of the Battered Women’s Shelter of Summit and Medino Counties. They talk about their use of an innovative, qualitative research design to develop a theoretical framework that describes, explains, and predicts how dating violence unfolds during adolescence. They share their insights into teen dating violence that have come from their work, and some of the implications of this research for prevention. 

The following abstract describing this research can be found here on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Control and Prevention’s Grantee Abstracts page. 

 Abstract:

Dating violence among adolescents is a prevalent public health problem with serious proximal and distal effects, including increased risk for adult intimate partner violence. An in-depth explanatory theory that is focused on the development of dating violence during adolescence and informed by the perspective of those who have experienced adolescent dating violence has not been developed. The lack of theory has hindered efforts to develop dating violence prevention programs that show evidence of long-term efficacy. The purpose of the proposed research is to use an innovative, qualitative research design to develop a theoretical framework that describes, explains, and predicts how dating violence unfolds during adolescence. The specific aims are to:

• a) Identify common processes by which adolescents respond to their experiences of dating violence from a narrative/life course perspective,
• b) Develop a typology of common trajectories of violent events that occur over the course of adolescent dating relationships from a situational/events perspective,
• c) Examine the influence of social circumstances on adolescents’ experiences of dating violence, and
• d) Use grounded theory methods to analyze and integrate information about the processes, trajectories, and influential social circumstances in order to create the theoretical framework.

The project will be conducted by a collaborative team of university and community-based researchers. Women and men between the ages of 18 and 21 living in one of 12 Summit, Medina, or Portage counties in Ohio who have experienced dating violence as adolescents will be recruited by a community-based recruitment strategy developed by the researchers. In-depth interviews will be used to obtain narratives of the participants’ responses to dating violence and detailed descriptions of the violent events they experienced. These data will be supplemented by narratives of professionals who work with adolescents at risk for dating violence and information regarding community responses to dating violence. Grounded theory methods will be used to analyze the data and develop the theoretical framework. The university / community collaborative research team, with the assistance of a consultant who is a world renowned expert on interpersonal violence, will determine the implications of the theory for prevention efforts.

The Alston Bannerman Fellowship Program, as part of the Center for Social Inclusion, is supporting long-time activists of color by giving them the resources to take time out for reflection and renewal.  For more information, click here:

“The program honors those who have devoted their lives to helping their communities organize for racial, social, economic and environmental justice. The program provides resources for organizers to take time out for reflection and renewal. Fellows receive a $25,000 award to take sabbaticals of three months or more.”

Deadline: April 13, 2010

Ending sexual violence takes more than being against rape.  We have must be for something.  The Washington Coalition Against Sexual Assault Programs has a wonderful Sexual Assault Awareness Month project asking people to share what they stand for.

To join this campaign print out a flag saying “I am anti sexual violence and pro _______” and then send a picture to a great Flickr photostream.  Examples of what people are pro include consent, slippers, s’mores and Joey Ramone.

Check it out here.

Diane Hall

(10 min) Dating Matters: Understanding Teen Dating Violence Prevention is a new 60-minute, interactive online training designed to help educators, youth-serving organizations, and others working with teens understand the risk factors and warning signs associated with teen dating violence. It was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with Liz Claiborne Inc.

In this interview, Dr. Diane Hall, a behavioral scientist with the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC, talks about the goal of Dating Matters and how this new tool will provide educators with the knowledge and resources they need to implement prevention measures in their schools.

Click here to visit the Dating Matters online training at the CDC website.

The California Coalition Against Sexual Assault has joined the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and the California Department for Public Health to release a summary of the three statewide organization’s work to prevent sexual violence, intimate partner violence and dating violence. The statement highlights the shared goals of each organization’s prevention efforts.  Each organization has collaborated with the others to build the capacity of agencies to conduct prevention activities in California.

More details can be found in each organization’s prevention programs:

• CDPH’s Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) Program Strategic Plan for Building State and Local Capacity to End Sexual Violence: 2010-2013
• CALCASA’s 2010 Prevention Training Plan
• CPEDV’s Advancing Domestic Violence Prevention in California: CPEDV’s Plan for Prevention Advocacy, Leadership and Capacity-building 2009-2013

Click here for the statement.

Click here for the 2010 California Statewide Prevention Calendar.

The California Coalition Against Sexual Assault is please to announce its 2010 training topics for prevention. As the training and technical assistance provider funded by the California Department of Public Health, CALCASA is holding these trainings and web conferences for California’s Rape Prevention and Education grantees.

CALCASA will offer both in person and web conference trainings. Look at this blog for announcements of dates and when registration is open.

In Person Trainings:

How to Measure Prevention: An all day workshop to give participants hands on experience in developing evaluation programs for their prevention programs.  This training will be held in Sacramento in May, 2010.

MyStrength Campaign Training: A two day training for California’s rape crisis centers and their partners on implementing the MyStrength Campaign, including a focus on MyStrength Club.  Sending a team of a program director/executive director and MyStrength Club facilitator is strongly recommended. This training will be held in Sacramento in August, 2010.

Prevention Track at National Sexual Assault Conference. This year’s Leadership Conference will be held as part of the National Sexual Assault Conference in Los Angeles, CA on September 1-3, 2010. Participants will be able to learn from national leaders presenting on state-of-the-art prevention efforts. CALCASA will provide stipends to California Rape Crisis Centers to support travel and lodging expenses.

Web Conferences

Framing: Developing the language to support sexual violence prevention efforts (March 25, 2010) Click here to register for this web conference.

Local Policy to Advance Prevention (June TBD 2010) This web conference will explore strategies to advance prevention policies on a local level.

Creating Organization Change to Advance Prevention (September TBD 2010) This web conference will examine what steps organizations can take to integrate prevention activities.

Contact David Lee or Chad Sniffen at CALCASA for more information about these trainings.

Here are two articles published at the end of 2009 with the opposite conclusions about the influence of pornography on sexual assault.

While in a 2009 article in the journal Aggression and Violence Behavior, Ferguson and Hartley argue that “it is time to discard the hypothesis that pornography contributes to increased sexual assault behavior” the 2009 article ePublished in the journal Child Abuse Review author Michael Flood comes to a very different conclusion: “especially among boys and young men who are frequent consumers of pornography, including of more violent materials, consumption intensifies attitudes supportive of sexual coercion and increases their likelihood of perpetrating assault.”

What research, evidence and resources do you find useful to understand the influence of pornography on rape? How do you address pornography in your rape prevention program?

Below are the full abstracts and citation of the articles.

The harms of pornography exposure among children and young people

Flood, M. Child Abuse Review 2009 18 (6): 384–400, ePublished November 2, 2009

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site. Click here for full text on Michael Flood’s web site XY Online.

(Copyright © 2009, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Exposure to pornography is routine among children and young people, with a range of notable and often troubling effects. Particularly among younger children, exposure to pornography may be disturbing or upsetting. Exposure to pornography helps to sustain young people’s adherence to sexist and unhealthy notions of sex and relationships. And, especially among boys and young men who are frequent consumers of pornography, including of more violent materials, consumption intensifies attitudes supportive of sexual coercion and increases their likelihood of perpetrating assault. While children and young people are sexual beings and deserve age-appropriate materials on sex and sexuality, pornography is a poor, and indeed dangerous, sex educator.

The pleasure is momentary…the expense damnable?: The influence of pornography on rape and sexual assault.

Ferguson CJ, Hartley RD. Aggression and Violence Behavior 2009; 14(5): 323-329.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

The effects of pornography, whether violent or non-violent, on sexual aggression have been debated for decades. The current review examines evidence about the influence of pornography on sexual aggression in correlational and experimental studies and in real world violent crime data. Evidence for a causal relationship between exposure to pornography and sexual aggression is slim and may, at certain times, have been exaggerated by politicians, pressure groups and some social scientists. Some of the debate has focused on violent pornography, but evidence of any negative effects is inconsistent, and violent pornography is comparatively rare in the real world. Victimization rates for rape in the United States demonstrate an inverse relationship between pornography consumption and rape rates. Data from other nations have suggested similar relationships. Although these data cannot be used to determine that pornography has a cathartic effect on rape behavior, combined with the weak evidence in support of negative causal hypotheses from the scientific literature, it is concluded that it is time to discard the hypothesis that pornography contributes to increased sexual assault behavior.

In the recently published study in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Parent and peer predictors of physical dating violence perpetration in early adolescence: tests of moderation and gender differences, the authors find some potentially important difference between adolescent males and females linked to dating violence:

Whereas parental involvement was unrelated to physical dating aggression for girls, boys who reported that their parents monitored them more closely reported lower levels of perpetration. A contrasting gendered pattern was shown for parental support for nonaggressive solutions. Girls (but not boys) who perceived their parents’ to be more supportive of non- aggressive solutions reported lower levels of PPDV.

This study suggests that prevention programs should recognize that some factors are different for boys and girls.  Thus, prevention programs cannot use “one size fits all” and need to tailor its messages.

Very interesting concepts.

What do you think?

P.S. The researchers use a seven question measure to find that

Among the dating youth, 29% (15% of the total sample) reported perpetrating at least one act of physical violence against their boyfriend=girlfriend. A greater proportion of girls (31%) than boys (27%) reported perpetrating at least one act of partner violence.

Interesting to see just as I read Losing the “gender” in gender-based violence this week about just this point.

Here is the abstract and full citation:

Parent and peer predictors of physical dating violence perpetration in early adolescence: tests of moderation and gender differences.

Miller S, Gorman-Smith D, Sullivan T, Orpinas P, Simon TR. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 2009; 38(4): 538-50.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates)

This study examined parenting and peer predictors of physical dating violence perpetration during early adolescence and tested moderation among these predictors and gender. Participants were 2,824 ethnically diverse sixth-grade students with a recent boyfriend/girlfriend who was part of a multisite, longitudinal investigation of the development and prevention of violence among middle school students. Those students who reported having a boyfriend/girlfriend reported significantly more drug use and delinquent activity and were more likely to be male. Twenty-nine percent of youth with a boyfriend/girlfriend reported perpetrating physical aggression against their boyfriend/girlfriend. Parenting and peer variables were significant predictors of physical dating violence. However, gender moderated the association between parenting practices and physical dating violence, with parental monitoring inversely linked to dating violence for boys and parent support for nonaggression inversely linked to dating violence for girls. Parent support for aggression also moderated the association between peer deviancy and reported perpetration. Finally, gender moderated the interaction between peer deviancy and parent support for nonaggressive solutions.

Last week there was a vibrant discussion on the PreventConnect Email Group about the efficacy of one time presentation for sexual violence prevention. As a community of prevention practitioners and researchers, many people shared their experiences, knowledge and insights about this subject. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of this group to consider this important question.

If you want to see the full thread, you need to join the email group and look in the archives (starting with message #6325). Here are some highlights of the conversation.

Since single presentations are all that is often available to prevention educators, many people commented on how they use the opportunity wisely as they shared positive experiences with leading single presentations.

Yet, a comprehensive prevention strategy is more than one presentation. Many years ago when working in a domestic violence agency I stopped doing single presentations. Instead, I made presentations as long as I also was able to implement additional strategy such as peer education program or implement district-wide policies.

Perhaps the most important questions behind this is “What does ‘work’ mean?” Grant Stancliff of Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs referred to his article “Single Presentations and Prevention” in Partners in Social Change (Spring 2009) where he addressed this issue:

Is a single presentation really prevention? The short answer is: no. Not usually. This does not mean single presentations do not have a use, however. Single presentations are and will continue to be used effectively for systems coordination and to let partners and community members know about sexual assault, services provided, and the role of sexual assault services within the community. Systems coordination-the how and what of working together-is essential for connecting services to survivors, but is not prevention.

Jennifer Rauhouse of Peer Solutions suggested the following:

I think it is important to understand why you want to give a one-time presentation. Is it to recruit participants into on-going prevention efforts? That can be very effective as long as your workshop is empowering and positive. If it is to change behaviors or meet a funding quota I would say spend your time building relationships with community members. I have a dream that our SV/IPV Movement will move away from one time or even multiple sessions to activities that focus on community and societal level change v. individual level change which is what most of the workshops across the country seem to do.

Program evaluator Stephanie Townsend point out that

…there is the possibility that a FOCUSED presentation that BUILDS SKILLS may be effective as a component of prevention. Specifically, I’m thinking of Vicki Banyard’s work in evaluating bystander empowerment programs. Some of her studies have found positive effects from single-session bystander programs. However, note that the behavioral effects are on BYSTANDER behaviors where individuals intervene in potential assault situations and in expressions of rape culture. I think bystander programs show a lot of promise in many ways. But, again, we can’t interpret their success as changing the behaviors of actual or potential perpetrators. The would-be perpetrator will still try to perpetrate — the difference is that others will intervene to prevent him from succeeding in his attempt. I think it’s important to keep that distinction in mind. We need to be clear about what it is we are achieving and what it is we are not with any prevention strategy so that we can build comprehensive and effective approaches to community and social change.

These were only a few of the many excellent points made in the discussion.

What you do think is the role of one time presentations? And how do they fit into a comprehensive prevention approach?

Nancy Schwartzman

(17 min) THE LINE is a provocative short documentary about the filmmaker’s experience as an “imperfect victim” of sexual assault. THE LINE is also an innovative campaign that uses the film as a starting point to engage its audience in frank discussions about sex and consent, challenging audiences to answer the question, “Where is your line?” As a campaign, THE LINE makes effective use of screening events, blogging, social networking, and audience-generated media to foster a continuum of engagement.

In this interview, filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman talks about the process of making and touring the film, the concepts behind the campaign, and how prevention educators can use THE LINE to create opportunities for conversations about sexual consent.

THE LINE is available for purchase from the Media Education Foundation.

Gender based violence is a term used throughout the world. That is, used everywhere except the United States.  Here we use a wide range of terms: domestic violence, intimate partner violence and dating violence (usually used to describe young people’s relationships).

In a commentary in the recent issue of Violence Against Women, Elizabeth Reed and colleagues express concern about “losing the ‘gender’ in gender-based violence.” They go further to describe this problem as “the missteps of research on dating and intimate partner violence” which “ignores the world beyond our databases.”

Reed and her colleagues review the literature and suggest that

it is clear why the WHO and other major health authorities describe IPV as gender based, with the vast burden in regards to health, development, and economic security borne by women and girls.

Yet, they found in a review of the literature on dating violence, an overwhelmingly large percentage of the research is framed as gender-neutral where violence is often seen as reciprocal. I have found this pattern to be true as I review the recent research studies.  When I wrote a blog about this research I often highlight what the instrument was used, as the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) which measures primarily a count of acts and does not account for the context. Scales like this typically lead to findings described as gender neutral. (Click here for a critique of this scale.)

I especially like how Reed and her colleagues describe the problem with this approach.

Use of this “reciprocal violence” framework for understanding adolescent and adult IPV ignores the world beyond our databases. We should not frame and interpret research in the absence of well-accepted historical and political realities. That is not to say that both males and females cannot or do not enact unhealthy relationship behaviors, including aggression or that such unhealthy relationship behaviors do not negatively impact both males and females. Such behaviors, however, likely have differing etiologies and are displayed differently based on the gender of the actors.

This commentary provides some useful concepts to consider when reviewing research on dating violence.

The full citation is below:

Losing the “gender” in gender-based violence: the missteps of research on dating and intimate partner violence.

Reed E, Raj A, Miller E, Silverman JG. Violence Against Women 2010; 16(3): 348-54.

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Mira Yusef

(20 min) Monsoon-United Asian Women of Iowa (MUAWI) is a non-profit committed to helping families of Asian descent in Iowa. The organization’s long-term mission is to eliminate domestic violence and sexual assault by promoting the social, economic, and political self-determination of all women.

In this interview, Executive Director Mira Yusef discusses the foundation and ongoing work of MUAWI. She describes their innovative work that bridges intergenerational perspectives about gender and violence, and empowers Asian youth to frame their experiences with violence in their own terms. The work of MAUWI generates culturally-appropriate prevention messages, and fosters critical community conversations about rape and domestic violence.

Caroline Palmer, staff attorney at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has written a very nice article in the March 2010 issue of the Violence Against Women Monitor about the importance of primary prevention.
She writes

“…we’ve asked ‘How can we lock up the most dangerous?’ We should be asking, ‘How can we prevent the most violence?’ We should be intensely studying the issue and allocating scarce resources to a mix of programs and approaches whose prevention efficacy has empirical support.” (from Janus, 2003) In other words, we should be exploring ways to increase the efficacy of our interventions by also implementing prevention policies. This approach takes a certain amount of courage and patience because prevention strategies require a more long-term commitment – the results of prevention activities are not always immediately apparent, unlike intervention activities that may yield measurable data about convictions within a shorter period of time.

Well said.

What do you think?

The Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (WCSAP) has released its latest issue of Partners in Social Change.  This issue focuses on sexual violence prevention among migrant workers. Articles include an interview with Emiliano Diaz de Leon talking about Migrant Clinicians Network’s Hombres Unidos Contra la Violencia Familiar (Men United Against Family Violence), Kimber Nicoletti on Cosechando mis derechos, A Fotonovela, and selections from Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in The United States.

Click here for a copy of this issue.

Manual Cover

(13 min) In this interview, four educators and advocates discuss the creation of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence‘s (Vermont Network) Youth and Child Advocate and Educator Manual of Activities and Exercises for Children and Youth. Bethany Pombar and Amy Tortchia of the Vermont Network, Kate Rohdenburg of WISE, and Sandy Hart of Umbrella talk about the process of gathering youth prevention education activities from across Vermont and the United States to create the Manual.

(Go to Interview)

Web Conference

This web conference is intended for to CALCASA members, CPEDV members, and California RPE Program grantees.

In this conference, participants will be introduced to framing and develop strategies for honing their communication works in ways that raise awareness of sexual violence, promote prevention and create opportunities for unified messaging with allies.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

This sixty-minute (60 min) session will start at 2:00 PM Pacific Daylight Savings Time

Host: David Lee, Director of Prevention Services, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Presenter: Robert Coombs, Director of Public Affairs, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault

To Register, Go To: http://calcasa.ilinc.com/public/calcasa

Cost: Free

What is a Web Conference? A web conference is an opportunity to attend an online workshop by watching a presentation on your computer screen (using your internet connection) and hearing presenters through your telephone. Our web conferences feature an opportunity to participate in online question & answer sessions and live text chat between participants. If for some reason you are unable to join on your computer, you can download the presentation slides from our website and listen on your phone.

Materials

• Slides [PDF]

Jeff Morrill

(22 min) In this interview, Jeff Morrill talks about Boys to Men, an educational program in Portland, Maine, focused on supporting the development of adolescent boys into healthy, non-violent men. He describes the origins of the Boys to Men program, the construction of its curriculum, and the ways that it uses bystander intervention training as a core component of its work.

Jeff Morrill is the Program Coordinator for Boys to Men. You can learn more about Boys to Men at its Website.

(Go to Interview)

Typically when I think of sexual violence prevention efforts for college students I think of school based education and attempts to shift the college culture.  I typically do not consider the role of parents. A recent study ePublished in Prevention Science examines a parent based intervention to prevent college women’s sexual victimization. The logic of the program is that by having mothers talk to their daughters about reducing heavy drinking will lead to less heavy drinking which, in turn, reduces sexual victimization when the daughters are in college.

The authors conclude this effort was effective at reducing incidence of sexual violence for the generally white middle class population they investigated.

Of course this type of efforts does not do anything to address the men who rape and the sexual assaults that take place without women involved in heavy drinking. And I still have questions about the path analysis methodology and combining different groups together.

But this study made me think about the role of family and parents in prevention efforts.

What do you think?

The full citation and link to the abstract for the article follow.

Preventing College Women’s Sexual Victimization Through Parent Based Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Testa M, Hoffman JH, Livingston JA, Turrisi R. Prevention Science 2010; ePublished February 19, 2010

Click here for the article on the journal’s web site

(Copyright © 2010, Springer Science+Business Media)

A randomized controlled trial, using parent-based intervention (PBI) was designed to reduce the incidence of alcohol-involved sexual victimization among first-year college students. The PBI, adapted from Turrisi et al. (2001), was designed to increase alcohol-specific and general communication between mother and daughter. Female graduating high school seniors and their mothers were recruited from the community and randomly assigned to one of four conditions: Alcohol PBI (n = 305), Enhanced Alcohol + Sex PBI (n = 218), Control (n = 288) or Unmeasured Control (n = 167). Mothers in the intervention conditions were provided an informational handbook and encouraged to discuss its contents with their daughters prior to college matriculation. Consistent with hypotheses, PBI, either standard or enhanced, was associated with lower incidence of incapacitated rape in the first year of college relative to controls. Path analysis revealed support for a hypothesized indirect effects model, by which intervention increased mother-daughter communication, which predicted lower frequency of first semester heavy episodic drinking, resulting in lower rates of alcohol-involved sexual victimization in the first year of college.

Brad Perry is the Sexual Violence Prevention Coordinator for the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance (VSDVAA).  In addition to being a well respected prevention leader and author of wonderful articles in Moving Upstream: Virginia’s newsletter for the primary prevention of sexual violence and intimate partner violence, Brad is also the drummer of the band Worn in Red. I caught up with Brad as his band was playing at the 924 Gilman Project in California.

Join hundreds of people committed to addressing sexual violence at the 2010 National Sexual Assault Conference in Los Angeles. Click here for more information. Abstracts are due March 12, 2010 – please submit your proposals today.

Joan Tabachnick

(11 min) In this interview, Joan Tabachnick talks about Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention, a booklet she wrote for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC). She also talks about the practice of teaching bystanders to intervene, and about her new role as Editor of the NSVRC’s new blog, Letters for an Engaged Bystander.

The NSVRC has a large collection of bystander intervention resources available on its Website.

(Go to Interview)

The web site has replaced the brochure as the primary public statement about organizations.  How times have changed – I remember in the 1990s when working at a domestic violence agency I tried to get permission to start a web site.  While approval was delayed (I was asked “why do we need a web site?”), I decided to ask for forgiveness (nor permission), and went ahead to work with a volunteer to register the URL ourselves and set up a simple site.

Now the first thing to learn about an organization (or a person) we is check the web site.  In a recent paper in the journal Sexualities, Tatiana Masters analyzes the content of six men’s anti-rape web sites (Men Against Sexual Violence, Men Can Stop Rape, Men Ending Violence, Men Stopping Rape, The Safety Net and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.)

In today’s era of blogs and fast changing content, web site are not necessarily static – they may change content everyday (as we do here at CALCASA.org). Content analysis done in the past may not be relevant today.

It is interesting to look at the question of how men and rape is framed in web sites, as the author examines. Masters suggests in her conclusion that “Making men both part of the problem and part of the solution in this way could lead to more powerful anti-rape messages.”

What are you looking for in web site focusing on men and rape prevention?

The full abstract follows:

‘My Strength is Not for Hurting’: Men’s Anti-Rape Websites and their Construction of Masculinity and Male Sexuality.

Masters NT Sexualities 2010; 13(1): 33-46.

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Acquaintance sexual assault prevention in the USA has largely comprised educational programs for women on college campuses and has left an unmet need for interventions targeted at men in the general community. Men’s anti-rape websites attempt to address this need. This article describes a sample of six such sites and examines them for insights into the social discourses on masculinity and male sexuality that they both produce and reflect. Findings indicate that these sites construct alternative masculinities, using socio-sexual behavior to delineate the boundary between ‘good’/non-rapist and ‘bad’/rapist masculinity, and use the rhetorical strategy of othering the rapist, with a few interesting exceptions. Sites’ depictions of consensual sex and rape are also briefly described. Implications of these discourses for rape prevention are discussed.

Project ENVISION

(18 min) This is an interview with Meghan O’Connor and Laura Fidler of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault (the Alliance). In conjunction with eleven of the city’s rape crisis programs, in 2008 the Alliance initiated the second phase of Project ENVISION, a 6-year sexual violence primary prevention demonstration project. In this phase, the Alliance trained community researchers in participatory action research methods to conduct needs assessments in three New York City communities: Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the South Bronx and Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Participatory action research was utilized as a community mobilizing strategy. By emphasizing meaningful community involvement at all stages of the research and generating awareness about sexual violence prevention, this approach acts as a component of a primary prevention intervention. In this interview, O’Connor and Fidler discuss Project ENVISION and the research finding to date.

(Go to Interview)

Diane Hall

(10 min) Dating Matters: Understanding Teen Dating Violence Prevention is a new 60-minute, interactive online training designed to help educators, youth-serving organizations, and others working with teens understand the risk factors and warning signs associated with teen dating violence. It was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with Liz Claiborne Inc.

In this interview, Dr. Diane Hall, a behavioral scientist with the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC, talks about the goal of Dating Matters and how this new tool will provide educators with the knowledge and resources they need to implement prevention measures in their schools.

Dating Matters will be featured in the next Prevent Connect Web Conference “Violence is Everywhere” Countering a Culture of Violence Through Norms Change. Spaces for the March 16 session are still open. The March 9 session is full.

Click here to visit the Dating Matters online training at the CDC website.

(Go to Interview)

As I review the new research published each week on sexual violence and intimate partner violence, sometimes I feel a tension between trusting science and trusting my own beliefs.  There are times that existing research indicates something that I do not believe. In those moments I have to reevaluate my beliefs and determine where I stand.  Sometimes current research will shift my thinking; and there are times that a research study does not convince me, either because the research was framed problematically, is limited in its scope, and/or is not answering the crucial question.

This brings me to a recent study on rape prevention written by Foubert et. al. ePublished in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.  This study examines The Men’s Program, which is described in this study as had having long-term success in changing men’s attitudes and behaviors about rape (according to studies previously conducted by Foubert et. al.)

The program is designed to increase men’s empathy with survivors of sexual assault.  Here is the description of the program from the article:

…presenters of The Men’s Program show a DVD describing a male-on-male rape experience designed to teach men how a rape experience might feel describing a male-on- male rape experience designed to teach men how a rape experience might feel. After the video is shown, presenters process the video, noting the presumably heterosexual orientation of the perpetrators… and they follow this by making connections between a male-on-male and a male-on-female rape experience to facilitate empathy toward rape survivors. Later, men are taught how to support a rape survivor. Men then learn the basics of defining sexual consent and hear strategies for confronting peers as bystanders when they overhear others tell jokes about rape, act in ways that demean women, or brag about abusing women. Following that, men are taken through a guided imagery of a woman close to them who experiences rape under the influence of alcohol while a bystander watches and does nothing. … Participants then brainstorm ways that they could intervene in situations where an alcohol-related rape might occur. The program itself lasts about 1 hr and is usually presented by four undergraduate male peer educators, often part of peer education groups named One in Four…

I am uncomfortable with this program.  The video used in it was designed to train male law enforcement officers to understand what the experience of female victims of sexual assault.  Its graphically highlights the grotesqueness of the rapists and of the actual assault. I can see how the video has impact on male participants as they are guided to consider the experience of being violated. But I am unsure that will lead men to see their own behavior as the same way as the male-on-male stranger rape described in the video.

And I have several questions: Does this video retraumatize men who have been sexually assaulted? Would the homophobia of some men be reinforced by the situation portrayed in the video?

Based on my experiences as a sexual violence prevention educator and the approaches that I am comfortable with, I would not use this video in prevention program.

Yet, in this study and in several other studies Foubert et. al. have demonstrated positive results in reducing rape acceptance myths and decreasing self-reported likelihood of raping.  How do I balance the results of these studies with what I think about the prevention program itself? Do these scientific findings warrant overriding my thoughts on this program?

In my understanding of evidence bases, there are several types of evidence: research based evidence, experiential evidence and contextual evidence.  To understand the use of evidence we need to consider all types, not only evidence from research. (Click here for a PreventConnect web conference describing of these types of evidence.)

I really like this recent study’s use of qualitative measures to ask college student men about the impact of the program after they participated in a One in Four presentation. (The students were evaluated at the end of their Sophomore year after being exposed to the program as first-year students in September) I share with the researchers the value of gathering data when using the method of asking open questions like “Are any of your attitudes now different as a result of seeing the program?” and “Have there been any situations in which you have behaved any differently in any situation as a result of seeing the program?” These types of questions provide a systematic way to collect information on how a prevention program makes an impact on its participants. In fact, I often recommend this methodology as part of a good strategy to evaluate prevention programs.

When I read this study and reviewed previous research, I had to reexamine my concerns. After considerable reflection, I still remain skeptical about aspects of this program:

• One hour presentations alone seem unlikely to really change behavior. One hour is not long enough to process both attempts at empathy enhancement and effective bystander intervention skills training. The program’s bystander training is limited to having participants brainstorm bystander responses. Research on effective prevention programs suggests that dosage (the amount of time receiving information) is an important element for useful change in prevention work. I do think that one hour presentations could be a useful piece of a comprehensive prevention effort.
• An empathy-based framework for prevention is problematic in sexual violence.  While empathy seem intuitively helpful to understand a victim perspective, it is not clear to me that this approach is what changes a potential perpetrating behavior. Once agin, empathy makes sense to me as part of a prevention effort.
• While the authors claim in this article that “…Schewe also reported that depicting a man as a survivor always led to lowering rape myth acceptance or likelihood of raping yet depicting a female survivor in programs for men either increased men’s rape myth acceptance or their likelihood of sexual aggression.” (Italics in original) My review of Schewe’s chapter find only the recommendation that when conducting empathy exercises, interventions should include a male as a victim.  I did not see any claims of always lowering rape myth acceptance or likelihood of sexual aggression. The apparent exaggeration in this study is troublesome to me.
• I would like to see more research on this program conducted by an independent researcher in a replicated setting, instead of all of the research conducted only by the developer of the program.
• And I don’t like the key element of the prevention program – the use of the video.

I want to see effective strategies that lead to men not raping women. I want to see positive results. And I want to use research to improve our prevention efforts.

And I want a program that I can stand behind.

Is The Men’s Program a way to do this? What do you think?

See below for full citation and abstract on this article.

In Their Own Words: Sophomore College Men Describe Attitude and Behavior Changes Resulting From a Rape Prevention Program 2 Years After Their Participation.

Foubert JD, Godin EE, Tatum JL. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2009; ePublished December 29, 2009.

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Sage Publications)

The study conducted involved assessing students from a Southeastern public university during two academic years, after their participation in an all-male sexual assault peer education program. The study findings revealed that 79% of 184 college men reported attitude change, behavior change, or both. Furthermore, a multistage inductive analysis revealed that after seeing The Men’s Program, men intervened to prevent rapes from happening. Participants also modified their behavior to avoid committing sexual assault when they or a potential partner were under the influence of alcohol. Implications for future research were discussed.

As the national online community dedicated to advancing primary prevention of sexual violence and intimate partner violence, Prevent Connect hosts a series of popular web conferences. These web conferences are lively discussions where participants engage with guests to explore a wide range of prevention topics.

The theme for the web conferences in 2010 will be Changing Norms to Prevent Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence. Prevent Connect’s key partner Prevention Institute will lead the web conferences to explore specific strategies to change the norms that contribute to sexual violence, intimate partner violence and teen dating violence.

Each web conference will explore one of the five norms identified by Prevention Institute as contributing to violence against women. Below is an interview with Annie Lyles and Christine Chang of Prevention Institute describing what these web conferences will explore.

The dates and topics are:

• “Violence is Everywhere”: Countering a culture of violence through norms change (March 9; repeated March 16, 2010)
• Growing Boys into Men: Countering traditional masculinity through norms change (May 26; repeated May 27, 2010)
• From Girls to Women: Countering limited roles for women through norms change (July 29; repeated August 5, 2010)
• Under Control: Countering the value placed on power and control through norms change (August 26, 2010; repeated September 8, 2010)
• My Business: Countering secrecy and privacy around violence through norms change (September 28; repeated September 29, 2010)

This series of web conferences builds on a foundation of understanding primary prevention examined in previous web conferences.  For a concise summary of these concepts, I recommend you watch these two eLearning units before attending once of the web conferences.

• Changing Norms to Prevent Violence Against Women (8 minutes)
• The Spectrum of Prevention to Develop Comprehensive Strategies to Prevent Violence Against Women (8 minutes)

All web conferences are held at 11 AM Pacific Time (2 PM Eastern Time; 1 PM Central Time, Noon Mountain Time)  All web conferences are available at no cost.  All you need is a phone line, internet connection and a computer.

Check out Prevent Connect’s website to see when registration is open. The first web conference’s registration opens on February 23, 2010. These sessions tend to fill up quickly so make sure you are registered to receive notice. (Click here to sign up for the mailing list.)

Looking for Potential Guests: Prevent Connect is looking for sexual violence, intimate partner violence and dating violence practitioners who are engaged in promising practices to change norms.  If you know of a program that might be highlighted for one of the web conferences please contact Prevent Connect.

See you online.

Prevent Connect is a national program of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault and supported with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Peggy Diggs

(14 min) In this interview with Peggy Diggs, artist and lecturer at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the role and potential uses for art in the prevention of violence against women is discussed. Diggs gives several examples, including work she created after talking to women incarcerated for murdering their abusive partners.

Her current portfolio is available online at:

http://www.williams.edu/humanities/pdiggs

(Go to Interview)

As SAAM 2010 quickly approaches, CA rape crisis centers are gearing up and preparing their various SAAM awareness events for 2010. We were excited to hear from Stephanie Mesones, client services specialist at the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, about  their plans for SAAM 2010:

For more information about SAAM 2010, including resources, events and other Highlights, please visit our SAAM 2010 page.

As agencies gear up for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, CALCASA  had the opportunity to speak with advocates from the YWCA-Greater Los Angeles about their preparations for SAAM 2010.  Alice Corona, Volunteer Coordinator; Vanessa Cardona, Site Manager; and Mikki Melton, Senior Site Manager, all share their agency’s plans for SAAM 2010:

For more information about SAAM 2010, including resources, events and other Highlights, please visit our SAAM 2010 page.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is hosting an online conversation about Teen Dating Violence and Abuse Prevention. From February 22- March 5, 2010, you are invited to participate in “A Healthy Conversation about Teen Relationships”

by exploring ways to help kids grow up to be healthy and strong, and how we as a society can promote a culture where healthy relationships are valued and respected, and relationship violence and abuse are not accepted.

Already there is an interesting disucssion about finding collaborations to support prevention.

I encourage you to join this conversation.

Oakland, CA – Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is an especially exciting yet challenging time for advocates by investing concerted and heightened efforts to raise the level of awareness and education surrounding sexual assault across on the individual, community, organizational and public policy levels.  How to draw additional attention to sexual assault, advocates often ponder?  Art has long served as a medium through which to share ideas/events and elicit a variety of reactions from inspiration to provocation in order to create social change.

Breaking Silence

Inspired by the stories he heard while interviewing people, Bay Area-based artist Joe Schneider developed “Breaking Silence” an exhibition using photography and interviews that revolves around survivors of sexual assault.  The exhibition toured college and university campuses across the country where attendees, given a portable cd player, would walk through the room to see portrait photographs of survivors mounted and displayed on easels while listening to interviews where the survivors share their experiences.  ”There is a real range of the healing process [that comes appears in the exhibition].  I think some of these people are very evolved and others are much more raw.  Talking about it is a good thing no matter what.”

The exhibition is meant to serve as a space where people can individually connect with stories thereby reiterating how sexual violence is an issue that impacts diverse communities.  ”There’s something intimate about listening to the stories on a headset,” Joe adds.

Trent Wagler

(12 min) In this interview Trent Wagler, Prevention Educator for The Collins Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia, describes the Student Connections Club. This high school-based program to prevent sexual and dating violence uses multiple linked components to engage various levels of the social ecology of Harrisonburg high schools.The Student Connections Club was recognized as an example of comprehensive prevention efforts in the article Sexual Violence Prevention, written by David Lee et al. and published in The Prevention Researcher in 2007.

(Go to Interview)

Business leaders, faith leaders, government agencies, sports organizations joined sexual violence prevention practitioners to figure out how to prevent sexual violence in their communities. On December 3-4, 2010, over 200 people gathered in St. Paul at the Minnesota Summit to Prevent Sexual Violence.  (See my previous blog on the Summit.) The summary report has just been released highlighting the plans and actions that will be taken in Minnesota as a result of this summit.

PreventConnect attended the summit with its video and audio recorder.  We have recordings of the speakers from the Summit, videos demonstrating the integration of the arts in this work, and an interview with Summit organizers Donna Dunn, Cordelia Anderson and Patty Wetterling describing the Summit’s highlights.

Please click here for a summary of the Summit recordings and a link to the Summit’s Final Report.

Three eLearning tools at PreventConnect.org

PreventConnect eLearning Presentations are tutorials on topics related to the prevention of violence against women. These brief narrated animations can be shared with others for training, presentations, and fundraising. Our recently released presentations include (click on the titles to go to the presentations):

• Building the Violence Against Women Primary Prevention Movement
  Discusses the elements of successful social movements.
• Building Broad Partnerships for Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women
  Focuses on community organizations that engage in prevention partnerships.
• The Health Care Sector: Organizational Practices to Prevent Violence Against Women
  Specific organizational practices from the health care sector that promote the primary prevention of violence against women.

In a study in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, the authors show the differences between different data sources about sexual assault prevalence.  In particular, the paper contains detailed charts highlighting the differences between the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS).

Later in 2010 we will get the first estimates from a new survey, the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Surveillance System. Until then, this article is helpful to understand how surveys collect their data.

Here is the full abstract and the full citation:

An Assessment of State Level Sexual Assault Prevalence Estimates.

Potter SJ, Laflamme DJ. Maternal and Child Health Journal 2010; ePublished January 25, 2010

Click here for a link to the abstract on journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Springer Science+Business Media)

The purpose of our research is to compare sexual violence prevalence rates from three sources of state level data. Public health officials, legislators and other policymakers often require state-level sexual assault prevalence estimates to justify funding and rationalize both new and ongoing sexual violence prevention programs, as well as programs for victims. We compared survey design and resulting prevalence rates of the three surveys frequently used at the state level: the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) extrapolations, and replications of the NVAWS. Although the specificity of the questions used in the NVAWS provides a clearer picture of the prevalence of sexual assault than the BRFSS questions, the sexual violence module on the BRFSS survey has the advantage that it is used regularly by some states. Currently available female sexual assault prevalence estimates differ widely at the state level but can be used when interpreted with informed caution. The new National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Surveillance System holds promise for providing better estimates in the future.

Campaign Bookmark - Click to Download

That’s Not Cool is a national public educational initiative to prevent teen dating abuse. Developed by the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and the Advertising Council, That’s Not Cool focuses on preventing controlling or abusive behavior occurring within the digital universe – online, via cellphone, etc. – and encourages teens to draw their own lines about what is, or is not, acceptable relationship behavior. Since the January 2009 campaign launch, That’s Not Cool has engaged hundreds of thousands of teens in teen dating abuse prevention, both online and on-the-ground.

During two repeat Prevent Connect web conferences held on January 27 and hosted by David Lee, the FVPF’s Brian O’Connor, Sara Fewer, and Belinda Sirha joined OVW’s Anne Hamilton to provide an overview of the campaign’s learning over the past year, and introduce a new Campaign Tools website that will help violence prevention activists and youth serving community leaders activate That’s Not Cool in local communities.

The objectives of the web conference were:

• to understand digital dating abuse and strategies to engage teens in teen dating abuse prevention;
• to learn to use the tools of the That’s Not Cool campaign to raise awareness with teens about digital dating abuse and teen dating abuse; and
• to learn to integrate the That’s Not Cool campaign tools into Teen Dating Violence Prevention Month activities and other prevention efforts.

A link to a recording of the 2nd web conference along with various other materials are now available on the Prevent Connect website.

Lindsay Palmer

(18 min) Lindsay Palmer, Director of Education and Prevention for the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KSARC) in Washington, talks with Lydia Guy Ortiz about KSARC’s Georgetown Project.

During a ten-year effort, KSARC responded to the Georgetown Neighborhood’s concern about the effective management of registered sex offenders in their community. Through collaboration with community partners and a long-term investment in community organizing, KSARC responded to the needs of Georgetown residents while engaging in prevention and education at multiple levels.

This interview is used as an example of comprehensive prevention efforts in Developing Comprehensive Prevention: Linking Primary Prevention Activities, Strategies and Programs – an eLearning unit developed by Lydia Guy Ortiz to assist in building the capacity of Rape Prevention & Education grantees.

(Go to Interview)

As Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) April 2010 approaches, CALCASA wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of the events that California Rape Crisis Centers have hosted during the month of April to raise awareness about sexual violence.  Every week we will be featuring a new Rape Crisis Center’s SAAM events in order to highlight what events are taking place throughout the State during SAAM.  It is also an opportunity for Rape Crisis Centers to share ideas and suggestions for SAAM events as well as the resources used or needed to put the event together.

This week we are excited to highlight Community Solutions in Morgan Hill, CA. Community Solutions offers supportive services to survivors of sexual and domestic violence to residents of South County, which include South Santa Clara County and San Benito County.  Emma Lucas, Debbie Ruiz and Louisa Velazquez share some of the events that Community Solutions hosted during SAAM 2009 and will be hosting for SAAM 2010:

To learn more about the Bandana Project, you can read our blog post here.

For more information about SAAM 2010, including resources, events and other Highlights, please visit our SAAM 2010 page.

As we are half way through Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month and planning for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I have been thinking about the role of awareness in prevention efforts. In a recent post, The Social Butterfly blog asks

So, why, fellow health marketing and do-gooders do we settle with “awareness-building?” To be frank, every time I’m in a meeting and I hear the word awareness, my skin crawls. Awareness is great–but there’s a time and place for it. I’m aware of Ritz crackers, but I buy Wheat Thins. I’m aware of Powerade, but I buy Gatorade. There are times I might know about your cause–but I won’t donate. Other times I might know you need help, but I won’t volunteer. I know exercise is healthy, yet I’m still sitting here typing this blog post. There is a reason to these behaviors and decisions. There are motivations, barriers, incentives, costs, and more.

For sexual violence and domestic violence prevention, I think we need to build our prevention efforts upon our successful awareness efforts.  30 years ago, people did not know about domestic violence and saw rape as only being committed by strangers. Today, our awareness efforts have made significant changes, but we still have work to do to prevent rape and domestic violence.

What do you think?

(Click here to see the entire Social Butterfly blog on “Questions to Prevent Awareness Fever.”)

from http://www.walkamileinhershoes.org/

I strongly support engaging men in efforts to prevent violence against women. In a recent article appearing in the journal Gender & Society, Men Just Weren’t Made To Do This: Performances of Drag at “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” Marches. The author raises questions about these march’s to protest men’s violence against women where male participants march wearing high heels.

The author concludes that

…the methods utilized to achieve empathy—in this case the strategic deployment of elements of drag—produced interactions at odds with this mission. The interactional dynamics at all five marches I attended support the conclusion that in fact, the consequences outweigh the benefits by implicitly (and at times explicitly) preserving gender and sexual boundaries through the promotion of gender and sexual differences and inequality.

What do you think?

Here is the full citation and link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

Men Just Weren’t Made To Do This: Performances of Drag at “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” Marches

Tristan S. Bridges, Gender & Society, 2010; 24; 5

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

Though there is a vast literature on performances of drag, performances of gender and sexual transgressions outside of drag clubs are less studied. This case study of men’s marches protesting violence against women—“Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” marches— examines the politics of such transgressions. Cross-dressing to various degrees is strategically utilized at these events in an attempt to encourage men to become empathetic allies. This article suggests, however, that context is critical to the political potential of performances of drag. The author’s observations of the interactions at the marches suggest that drag at “Walk a Mile” marches often symbolically reproduces gender and sexual inequality despite good intentions. At these marches, feminism is gendered when performances of politics and protest are contextually framed as gender and/or sexual transgressions when “feminism” is understood as “feminine.”

Proclamations and resolutions can help you involve local government leaders in your work to raise awareness about sexual violence.  You can build an event around the public presentation of a proclamation or resolution.  In some situations, a resolution or proclamation can help “legitimize” your story idea in the minds of media representatives as they hear your pitch for coverage of Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities.

In the document, Proclamations and Resolutions, you will find sample documents to help you format and draft your own proclamation or resolution.  We recommend that you use the proclamation for a mayor or county commissioner, and the resolution for a legislative body such as your city council or county board of supervisors.

The text from the State of California’s Resolution designating April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month is included for your information and use.

For more information about SAAM 2010, including resources, events and other Highlights, please visit our SAAM 2010 page.

CALCASA encourages all centers across California to sponsor Denim Day in your community on this date, as we all join together to increase awareness about sexual assault. For example, centers in California already have organized Denim Day L.A., Denim Day Hemet, Denim Day East Kern County, and Denim Day Nevada County among others. Let’s have a Denim Day in every area of California!

In the document, Denim Day Materials, you will find tools to help you prepare for your local Denim Day activities. Included are the following:

• Sample Flyer to advertise Denim Day and your center’s event
• Sample Letter to the Community (i.e. local agencies and businesses)
• Sample Letter to the Mayor regarding Proclamation
• Sample Letter to County Supervisor regarding Proclamation
• Sample Proclamation
• Denim Day California Resolution

Please remember to personalize these materials with your agency’s information and educate yourself on the meaning behind Denim Day. You may also want to develop posters from the flyers to post in your community to generate more publicity for the event. A special thanks to the Center Against Sexual Assault of Riverside County for developing these materials and sharing them with the field and to Peace Over Violence for helping to develop Denim Day in California.

For more information about SAAM 2010, including resources, events and other Highlights, please visit our SAAM 2010 page.

April is recognized nationally as Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM).  This is an excellent opportunity for your rape crisis center (RCC) to have events that raise awareness of the issues concerning sexual violence, spotlight your agency and collaborative partnerships and the great work that you are doing in the community, and emphasize what invaluable services are available for survivors of sexual assault and their families.

Below is a short list of activities that some rape crisis centers have used in their communities with varying success to engage the community for  SAAM events:

• Community march – ‘Walk a mile in her shoes”
• Take back the night rally
• Clothesline project
• Public Service Announcement (PSA)
• Vagina Monologues
• Poetry Slam
• Community pledge signing of violence free living
• Pair of shoes displayed to represent the number of reported rapes in your community

CALCASA has a SAAM events document that gives a brief example of a few community events that RCC’s have used before.

If your agency is holding SAAM events  please click here to include them on the events calendar.

For more information about SAAM, including resources, events and other Highlights, please visit our SAAM 2010 page.

In a study recently epublished in the Journal of Sex Research, the authors examined the relationship between sexual assault histories and how much people drank that evening.

In examining research it is important to understand how the study was conducted and understand how much we can generalize the findings in order to integrate the understanding of the research into prevention practice.

For this study the data was collected at the San Diego, California border with Tijuana, Mexico. Sexual Assault histories were determined by asking four questions derived from Koss and Oros’ Sexual Experiences Survey:

Have you ever been in a situation where you became so sexually aroused that you could not stop yourself even though the person didn’t want to have sex?

Have you ever persuaded someone to have sexual intercourse with you by giving her drugs or alcohol?

Have you ever persuaded someone to have sexual intercourse with you when she did not really want to by pressuring her with continual arguments?

Have you ever been in a situation where you used some degree of physical force (twisting an arm, holding down, etc.) to try to make a person engage in kissing or petting when they did not want to?

The study found that individuals who having sexually assaulted someone in the past drank more during their evening in Tijuana.  However, the study did not demonstrate a link between drinking that evening and committing acts of sexual assault.

Here is the full citation and abstract:

Sexual Assault Histories and Evening Drinking Among Young American Men in a High-Risk Drinking Environment.

Mumford EA, Kelley-Baker T, Romano E. Journal of Sex Research 2009; ePublished December 29, 2009

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality)

This study surveyed young American men traveling to Tijuana, Mexico from San Diego, California for a weekend night out, collecting responses both southbound at the outset of the evening and northbound upon return at the end of the evening. Among 650 males, we examined the relationship between sexual histories and attitudes and alcohol use, both historically and on their night in Tijuana. Respondents with a history of coercing sex drank more in Tijuana and were more likely to binge drink. Although estimating sexual assaults committed by these males on the evening in question was not possible, this research establishes the link between a history of sexual assault and the blood alcohol concentration of young men resulting from an evening in a timeout environment.

Policy is very important in prevention efforts. In PreventConnect web conferences, Prevention Institute highlights the use of the Spectrum of Prevention as a framework to understand how to create comprehensive change including “influencing policy and legislation.”

Recently, on the PreventConnect Email Group, someone asked for “how to” guides for changing policy, including local policy. Debby Tucker of the National Center  on Domestic and Sexual Violence shared these resources on this topic:

• Questions for Policy Analysis
• Creating Cooperation Coordination and Collaboration
• Local Organizations

What other materials and resources are there to support people learning how to  change policy?

I was reading the new study Risk Recognition and Intimate Partner Violence thinking about the concept of “risk recognition” – that is ability to detect danger.  And I have questions.

• Are these beneficial skills as the authors suggest?
• What are the implications of having “risk recognition” as the primary goal of a prevention program?
• Does it unintentionally absolve potential perpetrators from responsibility for violence?
• Does it unintentionally place the burden for prevention on the potential victim?
• How do we responsibility integrate risk reduction strategies into a comprehensive prevention initiative?

In this study the authors state the following in their implications section:

“However, it is important to note that we are not suggesting that we can train victims to effectively predict such violent behavior, as there is no real way to predict unpredictable behavior (Langford, 1996); this would lead to a false sense of control. We are only suggesting that we may be able to teach victims to recognize abusive behavior—even “minor” forms such as name calling and grabbing—as soon as it occurs.”

As I have written before about feminist self defense, empowering women to take action should be part of a comprehensive prevention effort. What is the role of “risk recognition” in this?

What do you think?

Here is the full citation and abstract:

Risk Recognition and Intimate Partner Violence.

Witte TH, Kendra R. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2009; ePublished December 29, 2009

Click here for a link on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Sage Publications)

The objective of this study was to determine whether female victims of physical forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) displayed deficits in risk recognition, or the ability to detect danger, in physically violent dating encounters. A total of 182 women watched a video depicting a psychologically and physically aggressive encounter between heterosexual dating partners and made repeated judgments about the interaction. Results from this study provided evidence for the validation of this methodology and found that history of physical forms of IPV was associated with risk recognition ability, such that victims of IPV were less likely to recognize the danger involved in the video vignette compared to nonvictims. Results showed important implications for IPV prevention programs.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center is starting its Letters for an Engaged Bystander blog to explore how people can intervene to prevent sexual violence. Bystander approaches to prevention are among the most promising as all members of the community have an opportunity to make a difference.

In this interview with Joan Tabachnick, the Editor of Letters for an Engaged Bystander, we discuss the practice of teaching bystander intervention and the goals of the new blog.

PreventConnect has featured many of the leading bystander thinkers and programs in its web conferences and interviews. Listen to speakers talk about Bringing in the Bystander from University of New Hampshire, Mentors in Violence Prevention, Dorothy Edwards of Green Dot, and the work of Alan Berkowitz.

The new blog will be edited by guest blogger Joan Tabachnick who will explores the powerful ways that we can all choose to do something to prevent sexual violence.  Joan, the author of Engaging Bystanders in Violence Against Women Prevention, was interviewed by PreventConnect in this podcast to describe the value of bystander work to prevent sexual violence.

Share your stories and describe your insights into engaging bystanders.  I look forward to this discussion. The blog can be found here.

For a concise online summary of bystander work, check out PreventConnect’s ten minute eLearning unit on Engaging Bystanders in Violence Against Women Prevention.

In this recently published study in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, the researchers found a home visiting program to reduce intimate partner violence.

Note: this study uses the Conflict Tactics Scale. Some researchers have concerns about that tool.

The full citation and abstract follow the jump.

Reducing maternal intimate partner violence after the birth of a child: a randomized controlled trial of the Hawaii healthy start home visitation program.

Bair-Merritt MH, Jennings JM, Chen R, Burrell L, McFarlane E, Fuddy L, Duggan AK. Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine 2010; 164(1): 16-23.

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, American Medical Association)

OBJECTIVES: To estimate whether home visitation beginning after childbirth was associated with changes in average rates of mothers’ intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and perpetration as well as rates of specific IPV types (physical assault, verbal abuse, sexual assault, and injury) during the 3 years of program implementation and during 3 years of long-term follow-up.

DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial.

SETTING: Oahu, Hawaii.

PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred forty-three families with an infant at high risk for child maltreatment born between November 1994 and December 1995. Intervention Home visitors provided direct services and linked families to community resources. Home visits were to initially occur weekly and to continue for at least 3 years.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Women’s self-reports of past-year IPV victimization and perpetration using the Conflict Tactics Scale. Blinded research staff conducted maternal interviews following the child’s birth and annually when children were aged 1 to 3 years and then 7 to 9 years.

RESULTS: During program implementation, intervention mothers as compared with control mothers reported lower rates of IPV victimization (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-1.01) and significantly lower rates of perpetration (IRR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.72-0.96). Considering specific IPV types, intervention women reported significantly lower rates of physical assault victimization (IRR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.71-1.00) and perpetration (IRR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70-0.96). During long-term follow-up, rates of overall IPV victimization and perpetration decreased, with nonsignificant between-group differences. Verbal abuse victimization rates (IRR, 1.14, 95% CI, 0.97-1.34) may have increased among intervention mothers.

CONCLUSION: Early-childhood home visitation may be a promising strategy for reducing IPV.

The new article epublished in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Intimate Partner Aggression Perpetrated and Sustained by Male Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam Veterans With and Without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, describes another opportunity for prevention efforts.

The full citation and abstract follow the jump.

Intimate Partner Aggression Perpetrated and Sustained by Male Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam Veterans With and Without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Teten AL, Schumacher JA, Taft CT, Stanley MA, Kent TA, Bailey SD, Dunn NJ, White DL. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2009. ePublished December 18, 2009

Click here for the  abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Sage Publications)

Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) consistently evidence higher rates of intimate partner aggression perpetration than veterans without PTSD, but most studies have examined rates of aggression among Vietnam veterans several years after their deployment. The primary aim of this study was to examine partner aggression among male Afghanistan or Iraq veterans who served during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and compare this aggression to that reported by Vietnam veterans with PTSD. Three groups were recruited, OEF/OIF veterans with PTSD (n = 27), OEF/OIF veterans without PTSD (n = 31), and Vietnam veterans with PTSD (n = 28). Though only a few comparisons reached significance, odds ratios suggested that male OEF/OIF veterans with PTSD were approximately 1.9 to 3.1 times more likely to perpetrate aggression toward their female partners and 1.6 to 6 times more likely to report experiencing female perpetrated aggression than the other two groups. Significant correlations among reports of violence perpetrated and sustained suggested many men may have been in mutually violent relationships. Taken together, these results suggest that partner aggression among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with PTSD may be an important treatment consideration and target for prevention.

February has been declared Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month as the Senate approved Senate Resolution 373 last week.

What are you doing to prevent teen dating violence? Check out activities throughout the country at Teen Dating Violence Prevention Project.

DELTA PREP is an initiative to support 19 state domestic violence coalitions to build their capacity to conduct primary prevention.  The effort is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the CDC Foundation. As last week’s National Leadership Committee meeting in Atlanta, we discussed how to support the growth and development of intimate partner violence prevention efforts.

One of the key steps identified by the participants was the need to honor and recognize the existing domestic violence movement and current efforts to prevent violence in relationships.  This work takes place in many sectors: state coalitions with DELTA funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local domestic violence agencies, and grassroots community groups making changes in their community to eradicate domestic violence.

While the public health field brings helpful prevention language, concepts and experiences, the domestic violence movement brings core values and a vibrant history of action.  In addition to providing services to those who are abused and holding accountable those who commit abuse, those people and organizations involved in domestic violence work are engaged in making fundamental changes to our society so domestic violence does not exist.

Just think of the changes over the last 30 years.  Here are just a few: “domestic violence” is language known to most people; better laws are in place; resources are available; government provides funding for domestic violence services and prevention; and sermons on domestic violence are heard in churches, mosques and temples throughout the country. The incredible increase of awareness and engagement of many sectors to address domestic violence provides a valuable foundation for our prevention efforts.

There is much more work to do to prevent intimate partner violence and sexual abuse. As we expand efforts to build prevention, we also should celebrate the work that has and is being done. Thank you for your work!

Yuck!

I admit that the article, The “Participating Victim” in the Study of Erotic Experiences Between Children and Adults: An Historical Analysis was hard for me to read.  I understand the value of recognizing that children have sexual feelings, but I find the frame of this article troublesome.  If the term “participating victim” is vanishing from the research literature, I celebrate that development.

And why does the term “erotic experiences between children and adults” have to be used in research journals in 2009?

Abstract and full citation follow the jump.

The “Participating Victim” in the Study of Erotic Experiences Between Children and Adults: An Historical Analysis.

Malón A. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2009; ePublished December 29, 2009

Click here for the link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Springer Science+Business Media)

During the 20th century, erotic experiences between minors and adults occupied a position of increasing interest, both public as well as scientific. In this area of research, one of the most notable evolutions in how these experiences are treated has been the progressive disappearance and/or the intense redefinition of what earlier researchers called “participating victims,” i.e., minors apparently interested in accepting and/or sustaining these relationships. The present work, through a comparative analysis of the literature, seeks to substantiate this transformation during the second third of the 20th century. It will also argue that this evolution can be fundamentally explained in terms of the intense emotional, moral, and ideological importance that is ascribed to these experiences in the rise of the current victimological paradigm. Finally, this study endeavors to contribute to the understanding of childhood and the scientific study of child sexuality as well as of these experiences with adults.

Recent articles by highlight the links between alcohol and sexual coercion for perpetration and drug use associated with intimate partner violence. This recent article ePublished in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examines the role of alcohol experiences on protective behaviors.

Prevention cannot be done solely by trying to ensure that potential victims protect themselves. Nor does it seem reasonable to expect potential perpetrators to individually realize that their behavior is wrong. How can we change the environment around alcohol experiences that will reduce sexual violence?

The full abstract and link to journal’s web site follow the jump.

Coercive Sexual Experiences, Protective Behavioral Strategies, Alcohol Expectancies and Consumption Among Male and Female College Students.

Palmer RS, McMahon TJ, Rounsaville BJ, Ball SA. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2009; ePublished December 29, 2009.

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Sage Publications)

Alcohol use and sexual assault on college campuses are highly prevalent and the focus of numerous prevention and intervention efforts. Our goals were to gain a greater understanding of the relationship between coercive sexual experiences, utilization of protective behavioral strategies and alcohol expectancies and consumption among male and female college students. We surveyed 370 college students regarding their past year experiences and found that 34% of women and 31% of men reported unwanted sexual contact, 6% of women and 13% of men reported engaging in sexually coercive behavior, and 4% of women and 9% of men reported experiencing both unwanted contact and engaging in sexually coercive behavior. Findings indicated students who experienced unwanted sexual contact reported significant differences in alcohol expectancies. More specifically, those who engaged in sexually coercive behaviors had significantly higher sex-related alcohol expectancies. In addition, recipients of unwanted contact reported higher alcohol consumption, used fewer protective strategies when drinking, and experienced more negative consequences due to their alcohol use. Results suggest that campus alcohol and sexual assault prevention efforts should include information on alcohol expectancies and use of protective strategies.

Throughout the country, organizations are planning for upcoming “awareness” months, such as Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month in February, Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April and Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. Most people are making decisions about what collateral items (also known as “stuff”) should be used.

The stuff includes many items such as ribbons, teeshirts, wristbands, water bottles, bumperstickers and temporary tattoos. PreventConnect recently distributed branded flash drives (preloaded with some of our podcasts).

Do these items make a difference to create the change we are seeking? In Craig Lefebvre’s blog Social Marketing and Social Change, he addresses this question with “four things that ‘stuff’ can do:”

1. mark tribal or brand identity (“I am one of us”) – if I self-identify as one, I will be more likely to act as one.
2. become a social object (‘I want to talk about this with you’) – when you see it, ask me about it. I want to share what I know or passionately believe in.
3. create ubiquity (‘It’s everywhere I go’) – raises the salience (not the same as awareness) of the issue/product/service/behavior and thus the normative judgment.
4. cue action (Whoops, almost forgot to do it’) – the best intentions still need prompts for behavior.

(click here for the full blog)

What stuff do you find helpful in prevention of domestic violence and sexual violence?

I find the social-ecological model to be a helpful concept in understanding prevention because it highlights the importance of thinking beyond the individual level to create lasting change.  However, so much of the research on sexual violence and intimate partner violence focused on the individual.

I was pleased to see the recently epublished study Neighborhood Characteristics as Predictors of Male to Female and Female to Male Partner Violence. While the study did not find links between intimate partner violence and the neighborhood characteristics examined, the study asks the of type questions that researchers should investigate.

What community based measures do you think might be associated with sexual violence and intimate partner violence?

For the full citation and link to the abstract on the journal’s web site follow the jump.

Neighborhood Characteristics as Predictors of Male to Female and Female to Male Partner Violence.

Caetano R, Ramisetty-Mikler S, Harris TR. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2009; ePublished December 29, 2009

Click here for the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2009, Sage Publications)

This article examines the association between neighborhood characteristics at the census tract-level, couples’ perceived neighborhood social cohesion and informal social control, and male-to-female (MFPV) and female-to-male (FMPV) partner violence in the United States. Data come from a second wave of interviews (2000) with a national sample of couples 18 years of age and older who were first interviewed in 1995. The path analysis shows that poverty is associated with perceived social cohesion and perceived social control as hypothesized. However, there is no significant mediation effect for social control or social cohesion on any type of violence. In the path analysis, Black ethnicity is associated with social cohesion, which is associated with MFPV. Intimate partner violence (IPV), as a form of domestic violence, may not be as concentrated in high-poverty neighborhoods as criminal violence. IPV may be more determined by personal and dyadic characteristics than criminal violence.

Note: This study used the revised Conflict Tactics Scale. As I have noted before, many researchers have concerns about this instrument.

Last weekend I attended a gathering to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Oakland Men’s Project (OMP), a pioneering organization dedicated to preventing men’s violence against women. While the organization formally closed its doors in 1999, the reverberations of OMP’s work still resonate today.

When OMP started in the late 1970s, most men interested in ending men’s violence worked with men who batter. OMP decided early on to take a different tact; they would be dedicated to social change through prevention and education. Their work blended exercises, role plays and an analysis exploring the links between ending oppression and male violence. At Oakland Men’s Project men and women worked together to create social change.  After being featured on Oprah, Oakland Men’s Project became known as a national resource.

Oakland Men’s Project’s legacy includes many books such as “Helping Teen Stop Violence” (authors Paul Kivel and Allan Creighton are working on a 20th anniversary edition), “Men’s Work”, “Young Women’s Lives”, and “Making the Peace.” Exercises such as the “Act Like a Man Box” have become stables of gender socialization units for countless sexual violence and domestic violence prevention programs throughout the country and the world.

During the celebration, we went around the room sharing how OMP’s work influenced their lives. I heard how some people learned to value their own voices through this work. Others explained how they had to integrate this work into how they raise their children. Many shared stories on how they learned from each other – their mentors, their peers and the people they were teaching.

Attendees from the OMP reunion

The work of Oakland Men’s Project, its related projects and the mentoring from many of its members provided me with a foundation for my work in the movement to prevent violence against women. As I learned new strategies (such as public health), I continue to embrace the importance of social justice and being an ally to ending oppression as key elements of my work.

And the work continues today. We heard the children of OMP staff demonstrate how they are engaged in social change, leadership program participants highlighted how they are inspired to continue on, and former staff told how they integrate this work into their current efforts.

How has Oakland Men’s Project influenced your work to prevent sexual violence and domestic violence?