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American College Health Association Task Force on Campus Violence

April, 2000

WHITE PAPER: Responding to Violence in U.S. Institutions of Higher Learning

This document was collaboratively written by Luoluo Hong, Ph.D., MPH, Assistant Director of the Student Health Center at Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, and Rhonda H. Luckey, EdD, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania with the editorial and consulting support of the members of the 1999-2000 ACHA Task Force on Campus Violence

Mission of the Task Force on Campus Violence

Violence is defined as any act perpetrated by an individual or individuals with the intention or consequence of hurting another person. Acts of interpersonal violence can range from verbal to physical, from emotional to sexual (Roark, 1993). Student behaviors which fall under the purview of this definition include, but are not limited to, assault, bias-related violence, fighting, hazing, homicide, relationship violence, sexual assault, sexual/racial harassment, suicide, verbal abuse, stalking, and vandalism.

One of the key goals of the Task Force is to foster respect for self and others within the college and university community, as well as to promote individual and community responsibility for both the causes and consequences of campus violence. As such, Task Force members seek to create dedicated and collaborative partnerships among administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni and community organizations.

Our dedication to the reduction of all forms of campus violence, whether verbal, psychological, physical, or sexual, stems from our belief that campus violence impedes the ability of our students to pursue higher learning. As health professionals and university administrators, we believe we are morally obligated to participate in proactive efforts to create a campus environment free of violence if we are truly to foster student growth and development. We therefore dedicate our efforts to promulgating model student-focused strategies, programs, policies and practices for prevention, intervention, and treatment in the area of campus violence, and we encourage your campuses to do so as well.

Scope of the Problem

Most acts of violence, which involve university students either as perpetrators, victims, or bystanders, are preventable. The research of Mead (1935), Sanday (1981), and Hong (1998) demonstrates that violence is not instinctual or biologically determined among humans. Rather, it is a learned behavior. Because men comprise over 90% of the perpetrators of violence (Miedzian, 1991), researchers such as Marshall (1993), Kimmel (1993), Kivel (1992), and Hong (In press) have examined the undeniable connection between traditional stereotypical norms of masculinity and violence. Moreover, college men whose primary social affiliation is with other men - primarily fraternity members (Martin and Hummer, 1989; O'Sullivan, 1993; Sandler and Ehrhart, 1985) and student-athletes (Benedict, 1998; Crosset and McDonald, 1995; Messner, 1992) - tend to display exaggerated conformity to traditional male role norms. Therefore they are involved more often than their male peers as perpetrators of campus violence. However, such males perpetrate not all campus violence. Additionally, violence of any nature is a deeply complex psychological and sociological phenomenon. Therefore any effort to decrease violence on campus necessitates a two-pronged approach to prevention: 1) educational programs to change individual behavior and beliefs about normative gender roles, and 2) social policies to fundamentally change the specific campus cultural climate and sub-climates (e.g., Greek culture, athletic culture) which promote and condone violence.

Federal Mandates Addressing College Crime

During the decade of the 1990s, federal laws were passed raising the public's awareness about violence on a college campus, as well as mandating institutional responses to campus crime. These mandates include the Student Right-to-Know Act of 1990, the Campus Sexual Assault Victims' Bill of Rights of 1992, the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1993, the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 also know as the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act of 1998. For detailed information about these federal mandates visit the Security on Campus, Inc. website at www.campussafety.org. Campus communities working to decrease violence need to become familiar with these federal mandates as they not only help to define the problem across the country but also outline required campus policies and reporting procedures. Adherence to this legislation is of utmost importance to campus administrators as it is directly tied to the distribution of federal financial aid.

Violence on U.S. College Campuses

Reports of campus crime do not fully reflect the experience of interpersonal violence occurring on college campuses. Sloan, Fisher, and Cullen (1997) analyzed victim-reporting practices of college and university students and found that "only 25% of all victimizations were reported to any authority" (p. 157). 43% of 89,874 students surveyed in 1995 and 1996 reported being the victims of violence in the past year (Presley et al., 1997). Luckey (1999) reports that less than 10% of the most recent experiences of interpersonal violence among students living on campus had been reported to campus officials. Luckey (1999) also found that 30% of the students living on campus reported being victimized by at least one type of interpersonal violence during the academic year. And yet, "over 36%, roughly 1 in 3 [students], report being the victim of at least one crime during their university experience" (Siegel, 1990, p.27-28).

Alcohol is a major factor in the experience of violence on campus according to Presley et al. (1997) and Wechsler (1998). Presley et al. (1997) reported that students were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs in 13% of incidents of ethnic harassment, 46% of incidents of theft involving force or threat of force, 51% of threats of physical assault, 64% of the physical assaults, 71% forced sexual touching, and 79% of unwanted sexual intercourse.

University communities must identify ways to encourage students to seek help when they have been subject to such violence. As most students do not report their experience to campus officials, their needs remain hidden from campus care givers, making it impossible for the appropriate individuals to offer a full continuum of care as soon as possible, and to provide ongoing support to reduce any long-term effects.

Components of A Comprehensive Prevention and Intervention Program for Campus Violence

Following is a list of recommended steps institutions of higher education can take to address campus violence:

• Take a strong institutional stand against violence on campus by owning the problem and expressing a sincere commitment to addressing it.
• Actively seek to change the social atmosphere on campus by committing to taking a leadership role in promoting higher levels of academic achievement and social learning.
• Adopt and publicize a written policy statement on violence, which is prophylactic rather than remedial.
• Address alcohol and other drug abuse on campus, acknowledging that alcohol is one of the greatest contributing factors to campus violence. Consistently enforce campus alcohol and drug policies.
• Critique and reframe predominant and stereotypical gender role expectations for beliefs and behavior which are associated with violence, especially for men.
• Plan and implement comprehensive, proactive educational programs, which are campus-wide, continuous, and institutionalized.
• Develop and distribute a protocol to all members of the campus community, especially the helping professionals, which details steps to follow every time a report of a threat or an act of violent crime is made.
• Establish a comprehensive array of services for assisting victims.
• Educate and rehabilitate perpetrators of violent crime to minimize the likelihood of future violent behavior.
• Revise the campus judicial system to be more effective in addressing cases of campus violence.
• Review and improve campus safety and crime reporting procedures on a regular basis.
• Disseminate information and accurate statistics to all members of the campus and the surrounding community on a regular basis.

ACHA Position Statement

In 1999, the ACHA Executive Committee adopted a position statement for the association that addresses acts of violence, bias, and other violations of human rights that have been occurring all too often within or adjacent to college communities.

"The American College Health Association is deeply saddened by the many acts of violence. Hate crimes, and loss of life over this past year. We, the members of the association, believe that for a campus community to be truly healthy, it must be guided by the values of multicultural inclusion, respect, and equality. Intolerance has no place at an institution of higher learning. The association supports all individuals regardless of sexual orientation, race, national origin, age, religion, or disability. We encourage all campus health professionals to be actively engaged in the struggle to end oppression, to prevent bias-related violence in our campus communities, and to take action to eradicate injustice."

References and Sources

Benedict, J.R. (1998). Athletes and acquaintance rape. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Crosset, T.J.B. and M. McDonald. (1995). "Male student athletes reported for sexual assault: A survey of campus police departments and judicial affairs offices." Journal of Sports and Social Issues.

Hong, L. (In press). Towards a Transformed Approach to Prevention: Breaking the Link Between Hegemonic Masculinity and Violence. Journal of American College Health

Kimmel, M.S. (1993). "Clarence, William, Iron Mike, Tailhook, Senator Packwood, Spur Posse, Magic...and us." In E. Buchwald, P.R. Fletcher and M. Roth (Eds.), Transforming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.

Kivel, P. (1992). Men's work: How to stop the violence that tears our lives apart. Center City, MN: Hazelden.

Luckey, R.H. (1999). A study of interpersonal violence among college students living on campus. (Unpublished dissertation). University of Pittsburgh, PA.

Marshall, D.L. (1993). "Violence and the male gender role." Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 8 (3): 203-218.

Martin, P.Y. and R.A. Hummer. (1989). "Fraternities and rape on campus." Gender and Society, 3: 457-473.

Mead, M. (1935). Sex and temperament in three primitive societies. New York: Morrow Publishers.

Messner, M.A. (1992). Power at play: Sports and the problem of masculinity. Boston: Beacon Press.

Miedzian, M. (1991). Boys will be boys: Breaking the link between masculinity and violence. New York: Doubleday Publishers.

O'Sullivan, C.S. (1993). "Fraternities and rape culture." In E. Buchwald, P.R. Fletcher and M. Roth (Eds.), Transforming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.

Presley, C.A., Meilman, P.W., Cashin, J.R., and Leichliter, J.S. (1998). Alcohol and drugs on American college campuses: Issues of violence and harassment. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University; 1997.

Prothrow-Stith, D. (1993). Deadly consequences. New York, NY: HarperCollins, Publishers.

Rickgarn, R.L.V. (1989). "Violence in residence halls: Campus domestic violence." In J.M. Sherrill and D.G. Siegel (Eds.), Responding to violence on campus (pp. 29-40). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Roark, M.L. (1993). "Conceptualizing campus violence: Definitions, underlying factors, and effects." Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 8: (1-2): 1-27.

Sanday, P.R. (1981). "The sociocultural context of rape: A cross-cultural study." Journal of Social Issues, 37: 5-27.

Sandler, B.R. and J.K. Ehrhart. (1985). Campus gang rape: Party games? Washington, D.C.: The Project on the Status and Education of Women, Association of American Colleges.

Siegel (1990). Hearings by the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, House Committee on Education and Labor, H.R. 3344, The Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1989. 101st Cong., 2d Sess. 35 (1990). (Testimony by D.G. Siegel).

Sloan, J.J., Fisher, B.S., and Cullen, F.T. (1997). "Assessing the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990: An analysis of the victim reporting practices of college and university students." Crime and Delinquency, 43, 148-168.

Wechsler, H., Dowdall, G.W., Maenner, G., Gledhill-Hoyt, J., and Lee, H. (1998). "Changes in binge drinking and related problems among American college students between 1993 and1997: Results of the Harvard School of Public health College Alcohol Study." Journal of American College Health, 47 (2), 57-68.

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