Jane E. Palmer

Measuring Bystander Behavior in the Context of Sexual Violence Prevention: Lessons Learned and New Directions

Bystander intervention is receiving increased attention as a potential sexual violence prevention strategy, especially to address campus sexual assault. Rather than focusing on potential perpetrators or victims, the bystander approach engages all members of a community to take action. A growing body of evaluative work demonstrates that bystander intervention education programs yield increased positive attitudes and behaviors related to sexual violence and greater willingness to intervene in pro-social ways. Future program outcome studies, however, would benefit from more refined measures of bystander action as it is a key variable that prevention education programs attempt to influence. The purpose of the current article is to present key issues, identified by four different research teams, on the measurement of bystander behavior related to sexual violence in the context of college campuses. Comparisons among the methods are made to suggest both lessons learned and new directions for bystander behavior measurement using self-report surveys in program evaluation.

Intergenerational Transmission: Physical Abuse and Violent vs. Nonviolent Criminal Outcomes

In this paper we test several specific hypotheses derived from the intergenerational transmission of violence thesis to see if exposure to physical abuse has a special role in the etiology of violence. We employ a systematic statistical approach using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Our findings suggest that a history of physical abuse is strongly associated with frequency of violence, but the association is not specific to violence and is mediated by their common association with nonviolent offending. Further, the association between physical abuse and violence is not significantly larger than the association between neglect or sexual abuse and violence. In summary, the data suggest that the association between abuse and violence is not unique to physical abuse and that the impact of physical abuse is not specific to violent behavior.

Does Who You Know Affect How You Act? The Impact of Relationships on Bystander Intervention in Interpersonal Violence Situations

This study utilized an experimental design to determine how bystanders would intervene in campus sexual assault (SA) or intimate partner violence (IPV) situations. Specifically, it examines whether the type of intervention (direct, indirect, or delegation) is associated with relational distance, the nature of the crime, or the sex of the bystander. A random sample of college students completed a web-based survey at a private university in the Midwest. Survey participants were randomly assigned two vignettes—an SA scenario (n = 371) and an IPV scenario (n = 350)—with one of three conditions: knew the victim, knew the perpetrator, or knew neither. Chi-square tests, binary logistic regressions, and predicted probabilities were conducted to test three hypotheses. Results indicate that relational distance affects how a bystander will intervene. In the SA vignette, students who knew the victim or perpetrator chose direct intervention. In the IPV vignette, students who knew the victim or perpetrator chose direct or indirect interventions. Students who knew neither the victim nor the perpetrator tended to choose to delegate the intervention to someone else for both crime types. Although there were differences by sex, the larger differences were between whether they knew someone or not. Still, men had the highest probability of directly intervening in the SA scenario, whereas women had the highest probability of indirectly intervening in the IPV scenario. The results of this study suggest that campus violence prevention programs should consider context-specific issues in their trainings such as relational distance and type of crime.

NIJ’s Program of Research on Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women

The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 (Public Law Number 109-162), at Title IX, Section 904(a) (codified at 42 U.S.C. § 3796gg-10 note) mandates that the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), in consultation with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), conduct a national baseline study on violence against American Indian and Alaska Native (AI and AN) women living in tribal communities. As a result, NIJ has developed a comprehensive research program consisting of multiple projects that will be accomplished over an extended period of time to address this much needed research. The purpose of the research program is to: examine violence against AI and AN women (including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and murder) and identify factors that place AI and AN women at risk for victimization; evaluate the effectiveness of federal, state, tribal, and local responses to violence against AI and AN women; and propose recommendations to improve effectiveness of these responses.

Examining the Impact of Federal Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus

Sexual assault on college campuses is persistently underreported; therefore, Clery Act sexual assault statistics are not strong indicators of incidence. Instead, they may indicate whether students feel comfortable reporting on a particular campus. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Office on Violence Against Women Campus Grant on sexual assault statistics by using propensity score matching. The results suggest that applying for the grant (whether or not it was received) is associated with a 16–22% increase in reporting while receiving the grant was associated with a 24% increase. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are addressed.

Measuring Self-Reported Sexual Victimization Experiences at One University: A Comparison of Methods

In light of calls for higher educational institutions to conduct surveys on sexual victimization, the purpose of this study was to compare the sexual victimization estimates for male and female college students from two types of surveys conducted by the same university in 2011 and 2013. Results indicate that question wording significantly affects estimates, especially for sexual victimization involving incapacitation. Recommendations on ways to measure unwanted sexual activities and policy implications are included.

Any Press is Good Press? The Unanticipated Effects of Title IX Investigations on University Outcomes

Since 2011, when the landmark “Dear Colleague” letter declared that the Department of Education (DoE) would use equal-access requirements of federal law to remediate sexual assault on college campuses, 458 investigations have been opened. This letter was withdrawn in 2017 and it remains uncertain how the DoE will handle the issue in the future. We examine the effects of the investigations arising from the 2011 policy change on university outcomes. We find that applications and enrollment increase in response to Title IX investigations, for both males and females. We find little evidence of effects on degree completion or donations.

Sexual Assault Disclosure by College Women at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly White Institutions

Due to the Title IX law, administrators at institutions of higher education (IHE) in the United States must promptly investigate reports of sexual assault. In addition, the Clery Act requires IHEs to publicly disclose annual sexual assault statistics. However, it is unknown whether—or how—sexual assault disclosure differs by type of IHE. This study, a secondary analysis of data collected from students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions (PWIs), examines the role of incident, offender, and victim characteristics in whether women disclosed experiencing unwanted sexual contact (due to force or incapacitation) and to whom they disclosed, by type of IHE. Significant differences in the characteristics of their experiences and factors associated with sexual assault disclosure were found between samples of women attending HBCUs (n = 327) and PWIs (n = 760). However, as expected, the multivariate analyses indicate that factors associated with the culturally reinforced stereotype of “real rape”—that is, the use of force, presence of injuries, and perpetrators who were not an intimate partner, friend, or acquaintance—were positively associated with disclosure for both samples. Overall, the probability of disclosure was higher for sexual assault due to force than incapacitation. In addition, White students had a higher probability of disclosure than Black students for both forms of sexual assault regardless of type of IHE.

Does Type of Child Risk Affect Whether Mothers Seek Assistance for Intimate Partner Violence From Civil or Criminal Court

We examined whether risks to children of intimate partner violence survivors affected the type of legal assistance accessed. We hypothesized that the level and type of perceived child risk would be associated with whether women sought a protection order in civil court or filed charges against a current or former intimate partner in criminal court. Using data from a sample of predominantly African American women (N=293), we found that some forms of child risk were positively associated with seeking a civil order of protection but negatively associated with pressing criminal charges. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are presented.