Document Title: Rape Prevention Through Bystander Education: Bringing a Broader Community Perspective to Sexual Violence Prevention

Abstract

The sexual violence prevention program we evaluated uses a community of responsibility model to teach women and men how to intervene safely and effectively in cases of sexual violence before, during, and after incidents with strangers, acquaintances, or friends. The program varies from other prevention programs in that it does not address men as potential perpetrators or women as potential victims. Rather it approaches both women and men as potential bystanders or witnesses to behaviors related to sexual violence. The program is grounded in recent research in social and community psychology on bystander intervention and community-focused solutions. The program draws upon findings from research on community change and prevention as well as more individually-focused studies of rape prevention programs and bystander behavior in emergency and crime situations. Three hundred and eighty-nine undergraduates participated and were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or a control group. Results from the research reveal that up to two months after participating in either a one or three session version of the program, participants in the treatment conditions showed improvements across measures of attitudes, knowledge, and behavior while the control group did not. Most program effects persisted at four and twelve month follow-ups. The program appeared to benefit women and men equally. Implications and future directions for research are