The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proposes that universities/colleges implement comprehensive sexual violence prevention programming (SV-PP). Data suggest intimate partner violence (IPV) exceeds campus sexual violence (SV) rates with rape culture (RC) creating an environment conduce to SV; with limited information on graduate students’ SV and IPV experiences. To improve university/college SV-PP, counseling, and mental health services for all students, studies of IPV and SV, and a contributing factor, RC, are needed. This dissertation is a secondary data analysis of the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment IIc comparing responses from Spring 2016 to Spring 2019 to illuminate the relationship between IPV and SV. Specific aims were to: 1) explore the relationship between IPV and SV amongst students; 2) compare IPV and SV experiences between undergraduate and graduate students; and, 3) develop an instrument assessing students’ RC perceptions. Analyses (SPSS Version 26) illustrated that SV was correlated (2016: r=.25, p<.001; 2019: r=.29, p<.001) with IPV; with rates of IPV exceeding SV. Undergraduates had disproportionately higher experiences of SV and IPV than graduate students. Factors that increased odds for SV and IPV: being female, transgender, non-White, non-heterosexual, lower GPA, and/or drug use. Non-White subgroups of the college population, such as American Indian/Alaskan Native/Native Hawaiian students, had higher rates and increased odds of experiencing SV (OR: 1.47, 95% CI [1.29, 1.67], p<.001) and any form of IPV (OR: 1.53, 95% CI [1.34, 1.74], p<.001) than other subgroups. Among variables analyzed using logistic regression, drug use (excluding marijuana) within the last 30 days was associated with the highest odds of SV (OR 5.29, 95% CI [3.11, 9.01], p<.001) and IPV (OR 6.02, 95% CI [3.62, 10.03], p<.001). To improve resources, educate the campus community, and support survivors, it is imperative campuses understand the relationship between SV, IPV, RC, and those at increased risk for victimization. Colleges and universities can facilitate systemic change by accurately naming the culture that supports violence against women as “rape culture,” measuring RC on campus, and engaging in multitiered PP at all levels of the institution.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the residential college system to determine if there was any association between campus crime and the residential house system. The specific problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the residential college system in mitigating campus violence. The intent of this study was to analyze the statistical relationship between crime reports from colleges and universities where on-campus housing was structured into residential colleges or house systems and crime reports from comparable colleges and universities without the residential design. Data collection consisted of a Web-based nationwide survey conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Education. Data collected for this study were for 2006. The 2 groups of institutions that made up the population for this study were 27 colleges that incorporated some variation of the residential college system or house system matched with 27 comparable institutions without the residential system. The results indicated there were significant differences between institutions with residential college systems and those without such systems for the on-campus aggravated assault offenses and the on campus residence halls aggravated assault offenses. Findings showed fewer aggravated assaults in the group of institutions with residential college systems. A 3rd statistically significant difference was found in the category of arrests for the on-campus residence halls liquor law violations, with the group of nonresidential institutions showing fewer arrests than those without the residential college housing design.

With the increasing rate of violent criminal victimization, concerns about safety and prevention have begun to resonate across college campuses throughout the nation. Despite the efforts put forth by institutions of higher education to reduce fear of crime and criminal victimization, college students are subjected to coexist with the probability of crime victimization on campus. The main objective of this thesis was to explore new measures of crime prevention on college campuses. Specifically, the efforts put forth in this study were to focus on understanding the problem of property theft of personal belongings on college campuses. The findings based on Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses indicate that students’ crime prevention awareness and behavior are highest amongst female and non- victimized students. Crime prevention behavior was best explained by awareness. Furthermore, expanded evaluation of contributing factors may lead to future crime preventive measures such as participation in crime prevention seminars. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

There is a growing body of research on sexual citizenship that focuses attention on gender and which bridges the gap between public and private life in order to rethink citizenship from a feminist perspective. This is in contrast to understandings of citizenship that promote policies of sexual regulation and a heteronormative ideal of citizenship. My research takes the form of a qualitative case study. Using data from two focus group discussions, fifteen personal diaries, as well as social media posts, I analyse participation in the Silent Protest, an annual anti-rape protest, through the lens of sexual citizenship. I look at how participation in the protest promotes or inhibits inclusive and process-based understandings of sexual violence and sexualities issues. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and the results of the analysis are presented into two parts. The first part of the analysis discusses the politics of affect and witnessing as two processes through which allies’ understandings of sexual violence are shaped. The second part of analysis shows that the Silent Protest contributes to people’s knowledge and understandings of sexual violence in relation to sexualities in a range of ways. Examples of inclusive understandings are: (1) insights about rape in relation to gender and heteronormative inequalities, culture and patriarchal dominance; (2) understanding of critical sexual citizenship in relation to sexual violence; and (3) understanding of politics of recognition (the need for recognition of the importance of safe spaces for formal and informal support for victim-survivors and recognition of victim-survivors’ identities). However, some of the understandings are limited to emotion and affect dynamics. In some ways, therefore, the Silent Protest fails to promote understandings significant to inclusive citizenship, including understandings of entitlements to non-discriminatory sexual health care services and legal services.

College is usually thought of as a time where students, often living alone for their first time, are encouraged towards healthy risk-taking behavior, as well as social, intellectual, and vocational development. Unfortunately for female students, college becomes the time of their lives where they are exposed to the highest risk of sexual victimization. Many colleges across America have taken steps to address the significant problem of sexual assault on their campuses. However, even with rising concern about the sexual victimization of college students, there remains very little systematic information published about the content of sexual assault policies, protocols and programs that exist on college campuses. Focusing on the seven schools of the Oregon University System (OUS), this study sought to examine the schools' sexual assault policies, as well as their prevention and response efforts to sexual assault. Additionally schools' willingness for assistance and training from Oregon Sexual Assault Task Force (OSATF) was also studied. Specifically, official school sexual assault policies were content analysis and secondary survey data gathered by the OSATF was examined. Results demonstrated that, in most cases, policies of the OUS schools were vague in their definitions of what constituted a sexual assault, and lacked the additional information necessary for victims to respond to their sexual victimization. However, Universities also offered various forms of educational opportunities and awareness raising activities. While this proves promising, there is clearly room for improvement. OUS schools also appeared willing to work with the OSATF to improve the delivery of their sexual assault prevention services. The findings of this thesis are important in directing future actions of the OUS when developing and implementing sexual assault response and prevention strategies.

This thesis is based on research conducted at the University of the Western Cape, a previously &lsquo / coloured&rsquo / university with its beginnings rooted in the political tensions in South Africa. The university is geographically disadvantaged since it is situated on the Cape Flats, which is viewed as a potentially violent area with high crime rates. The study focuses on students who stay in in- and off-campus residences since they are exposed to potential violence when they move inside as well as outside the campus and residence vicinity. In addition to semi-structured interviews conducted with students from the university, I draw on my own experiences as a student having lived in on- and off-campus residences at the university.<br /> <br /> In this thesis I investigate the tactics students use to stay safe in the face of potential violence in student residences and also in the vicinity of the university. I refer to violence in the same way as Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois (2004) do - as falling on a continuum along with other forms of violence which include structural violence, torture, genocide, political violence, state violence, symbolic violence, sexual violence and colonial violence. When students move outside of campus and residences they fear being robbed, murdered or sexually violated. Students also felt that if this should happen to them, others present will not step in to help them. The tactics students use to stay safe outside and on campus include moving in numbers, staying away from deserted or specific places at certain times, walking fast with a serious facial expression, and greeting oncomers. In residences women particularly feared going to ablution areas at certain times of the day because of stories they heard<br /> about sexual violence taking place in showers. The tactics they used to stay safe from that involved taking showers during &lsquo / peak&rsquo / hours. However, a lack of trust which students have in residential administrators impedes the safety students experience in residences. I questioned how students can feel safe outside residences when residential organisation leaves their safety precarious. Overall I found that awareness of potentially dangerous spaces, through stories, the news media or witness, informed students&rsquo / tactics of safety.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, this thesis explores the relevance of formal campus services in response to violence in the everyday lives of students who live in in- and off-campus residences. I discuss the changes that have taken place in terms of campus security, and how the meanings of safety, play an important role in the ways the university as an institution responds to violence. The meanings of safety and security also translate into specific safety interventions, which I found to focus more on perpetrators of violence from &lsquo / outside&rsquo / , that on perpetrators of violence on the &lsquo / inside&rsquo / . In the institution&rsquo / s dealings with sexual violence I also explore how perceptions of sexual violence and relationship dynamics influence the infection of HIV/AIDS, and the university&rsquo / s approach to dealing with this threat to students&rsquo / safety.

This thesis is based on research conducted at the University of the Western Cape, a previously &lsquo / coloured&rsquo / university with its beginnings rooted in the political tensions in South Africa. The university is geographically disadvantaged since it is situated on the Cape Flats, which is viewed as a potentially violent area with high crime rates. The study focuses on students who stay in in- and off-campus residences since they are exposed to potential violence when they move inside as well as outside the campus and residence vicinity. In addition to semi-structured interviews conducted with students from the university, I draw on my own experiences as a student having lived in on- and off-campus residences at the university.<br /> <br /> In this thesis I investigate the tactics students use to stay safe in the face of potential violence in student residences and also in the vicinity of the university. I refer to violence in the same way as Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois (2004) do - as falling on a continuum along with other forms of violence which include structural violence, torture, genocide, political violence, state violence, symbolic violence, sexual violence and colonial violence. When students move outside of campus and residences they fear being robbed, murdered or sexually violated. Students also felt that if this should happen to them, others present will not step in to help them. The tactics students use to stay safe outside and on campus include moving in numbers, staying away from deserted or specific places at certain times, walking fast with a serious facial expression, and greeting oncomers. In residences women particularly feared going to ablution areas at certain times of the day because of stories they heard<br /> about sexual violence taking place in showers. The tactics they used to stay safe from that involved taking showers during &lsquo / peak&rsquo / hours. However, a lack of trust which students have in residential administrators impedes the safety students experience in residences. I questioned how students can feel safe outside residences when residential organisation leaves their safety precarious. Overall I found that awareness of potentially dangerous spaces, through stories, the news media or witness, informed students&rsquo / tactics of safety.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, this thesis explores the relevance of formal campus services in response to violence in the everyday lives of students who live in in- and off-campus residences. I discuss the changes that have taken place in terms of campus security, and how the meanings of safety, play an important role in the ways the university as an institution responds to violence. The meanings of safety and security also translate into specific safety interventions, which I found to focus more on perpetrators of violence from &lsquo / outside&rsquo / , that on perpetrators of violence on the &lsquo / inside&rsquo / . In the institution&rsquo / s dealings with sexual violence I also explore how perceptions of sexual violence and relationship dynamics influence the infection of HIV/AIDS, and the university&rsquo / s approach to dealing with this threat to students&rsquo / safety.

The problem this study addressed is the relationship between Clery Act crime data and student recruitment at private colleges and universities. For this quantitative study, I used secondary data from the Department of Education and the Delta Cost Project (2013) to conduct ordinary least squares regression analyses to determine the predictive ability of institutional characteristics, specifically the total number of crime incidents reported in compliance with the Clery Act, on the variance in number of applications and applicant yield rate at private four-year institutions in the United States. Findings showed that the total number of reported incidents was a significant positive predictor of the total number of applications. Conversely, findings also showed that the total number of incidents had a significant negative impact on institutional yield rates. An implication of this study is that although crime statistics required by the Clery Act may not serve as variables used in the student application process, they are part of numerous variables used in the student's decision to enroll at a particular school. The findings highlight the importance of prioritizing and investing in safety and security measures designed to reduce rates of crime; especially for private, enrollment-driven institutions of higher education.