Theoretical Foundation

The following quotes and summarizies are reflective of the theory and research behind this approach.

Support for this type of approach...
From analysis of 69 different studies of 109 different intervention of 18,172 college students..."Our results suggest that sexual assault education inventions for college students tend to be more effective when they are longer, presented by professionals, and include content addressing risk reduction, gender-role socialization, or provision of information and discussion of myths and facts about sexual assault. In addition, there was support for both mixed- and singe-gender programming; however, single-gender programming may tentatively be more helpful in some circumstances for women." p. 385

-Anderson, L. A., & Whiston, S. C. (2005). Sexual assault education programs: A meta-analytic examination of their effectiveness. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29, 374-388.

The need for a cultural/environmental approach...
“I … slowly became aware of the complex set of tactics that men use to make violence against women invisible and to avoid taking responsibility for their actions…. It became clear that these tactics were used not only by individual men, but were also used in general use in our society to avoid naming and responding to male violence.”

-Kivel, P. (1996). Uprooting racism: How white people can work for racial justice. New York: New Society.

Engaging men who are negatively impacted because some men rape...
“If a college or university really aspires to be a community of respect, the principle goal of its prevention efforts must be to help students who are adversely affected by the binge drinking of others to assert their rights.”

-Wechsler, H., Deutsch, C., & Dowdall, G. (1995, April 14). Too many colleges are still in denial about alcohol abuse. The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. B1-B2.

The need for a combined cognitive and emotional intervention...
Anderson et al. (1998) found rape-prevention programs to be effective at reducing rape-supportive beliefs with their post-tests immediately following the program. "Rape-supportive beliefs rebounded to preprogram levels after 7 weeks...Emotional arousal alone may not be sufficient to produce a lasting reduction in rape-supportive attitudes…. Programming may also need to stimulate cognitive activity in participants…”

-Anderson, L. A., Stoelb M. P., Duggan, P., Hieger, B., Kling, K. H., & Payne, J. P. (1998). The effectiveness of two types of rape prevention programs in changing the rape-supportive attitudes of college students. Journal of College Student Development, 39, 131-142.

Men's role in ending sexism...
“Until men share equal responsibility for struggling to end sexism, the feminist movement will reflect the very sexist contradictions we wish to eradicate…. In particular, men have a tremendous contribution to make…. In the area of exposing, confronting, opposing, and transforming the sexism of their male peers."

-hooks, b. (2004). Men: Comrades in struggle. In M. S. Kimmel & M. A. Messner (Eds.), Men's Lives (6th ed., pp. 555-563). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

The rape culture on campus, in this case in fraternities...
“I’ll say this, at a fraternity, I’d be a liar if I didn’t tell you that just the atmosphere of a fraternity or any group of guys in general is that they promote how many girls you can have sex with. I hear it everyday. At Friday morning breakfast, guys all have stories."

"I’d say that 90% of the guys I live with are probably aggressive…. You gotta understand that in a fraternity, all the guys are there for common goals, ideals, aspirations. So you get a group of guys who are all thinking the same. Guys who will turn on you in a second if you say one thing [to disagree with them]. After all the things you have to do to get initiated into the house, you better have the same ideals and stuff and same feelings as the other guys. Because in our house, especially, guys are pretty tight. Basically, they’re all the same type of guys."

-Warshaw, R. (1994). I Never Called it Rape: The Ms. Report on Recognizing, Fighting, and Surviving Date and Aquaintance Rape. Harperperennial Library.

On encouraging bystanders to intervene...
"...they need to have an awareness of the problem and its negative impact on the victim. They will be more likely to help if they are asked to make a commitment to help and see themselves as partially responsible for solving the problem. They also need to view victims as not the cause of their own problems. Finally, bystanders need to feel that they possess the skills to intervene and have the opportunity to view individuals who model such behaviors." p. 69

-Banyard, V. L., Plante, E. G., & Moynihan, M. M. (2004). Bystander education: Bringing a broader community perspective to sexual violence prevention. Journal of Community Psychology, 32(1), 61-79.

The need to clearly define sex and rape in sexual assault intervention...
Koss et al. report that one out of every twelve male respondents had acted in a manner which would be defined legally as rape. 84% of these men did not believe their actions to be illegal.

- Koss, M. P., Gidycz, C. A., & Wisniewski, N. (1987). The scope of rape: Incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of higher education students. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 19, 1182-1197.

Anger as a motivator to social justice action...
"anger is not the problem, violence is...anger does not have to be destructive. It can be a guide to injustice, a clue to powerlessness. Anger can excite, mobilize, and bring us together. It is a touchstone of our deepest sense of truth and rightness...Anger can be the force behind revolution, consciousness raising, and community building. We've been taught to fear anger because we associate it with violence...As men we can use our anger to guide us in constructing a more just society. Or we can use it to destroy ourselves and those around us."

-Kivel, P. (1992). Men's work: How to stop the violence that tears us apart. New York: Ballantine Books.