Unwanted Sexual Experiences in University Settings: Survivors’ Perspectives on Effective Prevention and Intervention Strategies

ABSTRACT

Unwanted sexual incidents on university campuses pose significant public health and safety risks for students. This study explored survivors’ perspectives on secondary prevention of campus sexual assault and effective strategies for intervention programs for unwanted sexual incidents in university settings. Twenty-seven student survivors of unwanted sexual experiences participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and a constructionist perspective. The findings were contextualized using the ecological model. Barriers to reporting included concerns about one’s story not being believed, personal minimization of the incident, belief that no action will be taken after reporting, confidentiality concerns, and other perceived costs of reporting. Survivors provided valuable insight on potentially effective prevention and intervention strategies to address the problem of unwanted sexual incidents on university campuses. These findings may be useful for prevention and intervention policies and programs in university settings and for providers who assist survivors of unwanted sexual experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Campus
• reporting
• sexual assault
• students

Declaration of interest

There are no conflicts of interest to report by any author.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All study procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Johns Hopkins University Provost Office; Dr Sabri was supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health & Human Development [K99HD082350]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.