Sexual Assault policies in universities across North- America more harmful than useful?

The recent controversial appointment of the Supreme Court Judge who was alleged of sexual misconduct and assault during his time at University and high school has yet again put a spotlight on University policies regarding sexual assault on campus. The incident between Kavanaugh and Ramirez accused the former of assault at party which was held on campus at Yale’s Lawrence Hall. 

One of the first steps taken to prevent sexual assault on campus was in 2013 when the Congress in the Unites States passed the Violence Against Women Act(VAWA) which  required all federally funded universities to introduce mandatory policy against sexual violence and introduce intervention programs across campuses. Most of these intervention programs include bystander training and intervention. But the question arises - that are these programs actually effective, or are they indeed backfiring?

While researchers whose area of expertise is rape and rape culture believe that there is a need for intervention programs especially in males who are at higher risk of sexual aggression, there is plenty evidence that suggest that on the contrary, intervention programs make individuals who are at high risk more likely to engage in such activities after the Intervention program.

In a research study by Malamuth et al, (2018) recognizes that the key cause to failure of intervention programs or their ability to cause the opposite effect of what was actually intended through the intervention is that they generate “hostility reactance” which is one of the unintended adverse effects as of intervention programs as well as the cause of sexual violence. Such a boomerang effect has been seen in various mass communication campaigns which intend on changing anti-social behaviours. One potential explanation of this phenomenon is increase in the cognitive accessibility of attractive features of the activities for which the intervention programs are designed, which is especially prevalent in individuals who rate high in narcissistic behaviour particularly because they have a sense of entitlement.Those who have a narcissistic personality also tend to become more aggressive when faced with rejection which is the cause of . sexual violence itself. Moreover, the perceived “preaching” nature of the program which could potentially be viewed as a threat to their freedom of thought and action. As studies reviewed by this paper, boomerang effect is seen among 30 per cent of the individuals who are at high-risk of committing a sexual assault.

Moreover, the VAWA in no form states of allocates funds for the efficacy research of such programs. And the very little programs that are in fact evaluated, the evaluation itself has methodological issues. Hence it's surprising but no unusual to find that  not a single efficacy study of such intervention programs has pointed out the boomerang effect- an effect which is extremely crucial because it puts high risk individuals at in fact a greater risk because such programs are specifically designed for those who are at a particularly high risk of being sexually aggressive and not just the male population in general.  Thus the result of the rushed implementation programs involving intervention, and the inability to assess its efficacy has led to intervention programs that are ineffective and potentially more harmful.

Soon after the VAWA, in 2014 the provincial government of Ontario surveyed universities across Canada to investigate which universities had policy regarding sexual assault on campus and results revealed that only nine out of 78 universities had such a policy. Consequently, in 2016, the provincial government passed Bill 132- the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act according to which, universities across Ontario had to implement policies on sexual assault on campus which had to come in to effect by January 2017.  Additionally, it required the institution to collect data and information about the prevalence of sexual assault on campus and to revise their policy every three years. The policies that have been put into place since, emphasize on prevention, education about consent, support as well as accountability for the survivor as well as the school community at large but does not have intervention programs.

 

Western University put into place it’s Sexual Violence Policy around the same time and 2018 marks the one -year mark of the implementation of the policy. Consequently, a Sexual Violence Review Team (SVRT) has also been put into place which is responsible for monitoring its efficacy and coordination of the University’s response to incidents involving Sexual Violence. Intervention programs were not introduced as they are potentially more harmful than good in high-risk male. 

To conclude, Sexual Assault policies involving intervention are more-harmful than those involving just training. There is a need to amend the VAWA such that it allots funds and mandatory studies to test the efficiency of the intervention programs in a scientifically methodological way, as well as the focus the policy of towards training, awareness and support rather than intervention

Malamuth, N. M., Huppin, M., & Linz, D. (2018). Sexual assault interventions may be doing more harm than good with high-risk males. Aggression and Violent Behavior,41, 20-24. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2018.05.010