College Students Knowledge of Policies, Procedures, and Reporting Options for Sexual Violence: Gaps, Disconnects, and Suggestions for Moving Forward

ABSTRACT

Purpose

We disentangle whether students who believe they know about campus reporting avenues and procedures for addressing sexual misconduct are able to correctly respond to factually – based knowledge statements related to procedures and reporting.

Method

Data from a climate survey administered at one university were analyzed to explore how well students’ perceptions of their knowledge about university sexual misconduct reporting and procedures match with their responses to factually – based knowledge statements (i.e., mandatory reporting, investigations, confidential resources, and accommodations for survivors).

Results

Many students who say they know about university reporting and procedures correctly respond to the factually – based statements. However, anywhere between one in five to one in three students responded incorrectly, and thus, have a disconnect between their perceived knowledge and factual knowledge.

Discussion

Implications for the inclusion of questions in climate surveys and future research are discussed.

Conclusion

It is important to ensure students have a comprehensive understanding of campus reporting and procedures for addressing sexual misconduct as universities continue to respond to experiences of the campus community.

KEYWORDS:

• Campus climate survey
• sexual misconduct
• campus procedures and policies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For example, in 2015, roughly 25% of undergraduate women reported they knew how sexual assault and sexual misconduct were defined at their university; in 2019, approximately 37% answered they knew the definitions. Smaller percentage increases (roughly 3 to 4%) were observed for undergraduate women reporting their knowledge about where to seek help, where to make a report, and awareness of what happens after a report is made. Somewhat similar trends were seen for undergraduate men and undergraduate students not identifying in the gender-binary. Larger changes were seen for graduate students.

2. No significant differences emerged between instructors who did and did not allow the survey team to sample their class and whether the class was a graduate or undergraduate course, upper-level or introductory, or STEM compared to other disciplines.

3. The majority of students answered “agree” or “disagree” to the statement assessing whether they perceived they had knowledge about SE4YU’s procedures for addressing sexual misconduct. Specifically, 14% responded “strongly agree,” 39% responded “agree,” 37% responded “disagree,” and 10% responded “strongly disagree.”

4. In response to the statement “I know how to report an unwanted sexual experience at SE4YU”, 18% responded “strongly agree,” 44% responded “agree,” 30% responded “disagree,” and 8% responded “strongly disagree.”

5. Data on demographics were drawn from a smaller sub-set of respondents who answered these questions (i.e., they were the last few pages of the survey). We caution readers in drawing conclusions about the composition of the sample.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.