The Nature of Violence on Campus: Framing Questions for Prevention

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The Nature of Violence on Campus Framing
Questions for Prevention

• Christopher Kilmartin, Ph.D.
• University of Mary Washington

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• Antifreeze.

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What are the trends?

• The good news violence in general is decreasing
  over the last 10 years.
• The bad news sexual assault does not appear to
  be decreasing.

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What are the trends?

• The good news (for us) campuses in general are
  safer than the rest of the world.
• The bad news sexual assault is much higher for
  college students than in the general population.

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What are the trends?

• At least 75 of public assault victims are men.
• The vast majority of sexual assault and serious
  domestic violence victims are women.

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What are the trends?

• College and University athletes commit violent
  crimes at higher rates than students in the
  general population.
• Males commit the majority of violent crimes.
• Most men are not violent, but most violent people
  are men.

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Number of Persons
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The Gender Question

• How do we acknowledge male victims and female
  perpetrators and still address violence as a
  gendered issue?

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What is gender?

• The social pressure to behave and experience the
  self in ways that the culture defines as
  appropriate for your body.
• It is very difficult to resist a pressure that
  you cannot name.
• We are not doing a good job of naming it for men.

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We need to teach men to resist gender pressure
when

• It conflicts with an important life goal.
• It hurts another person.

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The Culture/Gender Question

• How can we educate athletes generally about
  cultural pressure and specifically about gender
  pressure?

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Four Factor Model

• Perpetrator pathology.
• Decision to Act violently.
• Means to do harm.
• Social support.

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The Top-Down Approach

• Coaches, athletic directors, trainers, support
  staff, etc. are cultural (gendered) natives who
  also may have little gender education.

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Leadership Questions

• How do we educate Athletic Directors, Coaches,
  and others about gender and the gendered aspects
  of violence?
• How do we help them establish a climate of
  respect for all?
• What is your game plan for violence prevention?

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Risk Assessment Sports Illustrated Study

• Criminal background checks on 2837 football
  players on rosters of SI 2010 preseason top 25
• 7 had been in legal trouble prior to entering
  college.
• 40 of charges were for serious crimes.

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And yet

• Only 2 of the 25 universities perform criminal
  background checks.
• Few have policies stating that felons cannot
  receive scholarships.

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Criminal background question

• Should member schools be required to perform
  background checks (theyre cheap!) or other risk
  assessments?
• If so, what should they be required to do with
  the results?

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Perpetrators
Direct Facilitators
Cultural Standard Bearers
Sexism
Inequality Power Differences
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Bystander Question

• How can we train players to intervene as
  bystanders when they see dangerous behaviors or
  attitudes?

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Other Important Influences

• Media
• Alcohol

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Media and Alcohol Questions

• How can we help everyone to become more aware of
  and critical of toxic media messages?
• How can we acknowledge that many students drink
  underage without approving of it?
• How can we address the gendered aspects of
  alcohol?
• How do we educate about the connection between
  alcohol and violence without communicating that
  it causes violence?

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The way we talk about violence

• The opposite sex
• The battle of the sexes
• Between
• Sex scandal
• Domestic dispute
• Victim blaming

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Language Questions

• How do we correct the language that smuggles in
  unhelpful assumptions?
• How do we combat victim blaming and promote an
  understanding of it?

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Resistance

• We dont want to drive a wedge between our men
  and women.
• We dont want our players to lose their
  aggressive edge
• We dont have these problems because we dont
  have football.
• Men working to end mens violence? How
  insulting.

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Resistance Questions

• How can we overcome resistance?
• How can we convince stakeholders that violence
  prevention is entirely in concert with their
  athletic program goals?
• How can we educate men without their feeling
  shamed and blamed?

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The Good News

• Most people are good people and would never
  commit an act of violence.
• Most college athletes and college students drink
  moderately and responsibly.
• Most college men are offended by other mens
  sexism.
• The attitude we want is already there for most
  people.

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Good News Questions

• How do we amplify the healthy voices?
• How do we motivate student athletes to educate
  themselves and influence other student athletes?
• How do we tie non-violence and respect to ones
  goals as an athlete and ones goals in life?
• How do we go beyond minimum standards to
  aspirational ones?

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The continuum of respect

• illegal
• or against
• policy
• Disrespectful fully
• 
  respectful

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Athletes all know about skill development

• When do we invest time and effort into learning a
  skill?
• --when we value the outcome.
• How can we attain the level of striving,
  commitment, and effort in violence prevention
  that we attain in our athletic pursuits?

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• Remember the Antifreeze!