Tackling sexual violence at UK universities: a case study

Abstract

There has been international and national concern about the prevalence rates and impacts of sexual violence [Towl, G. J., and Crighton, D. A. (2016). The Emperor’s new clothes? The Psychologist, 29(3)]. In recent years this area has been brought into sharper focus in Higher Education. The film ‘The Hunting Ground’ shone a light on this area and particularly the inadequate responses of North American university administrations to the problem. The film has recently been shown widely at Australian universities and the same is the case in the UK. There have been concerns reported that university leaders are fearful of the perceived repetitional (and potentially financial) damage associated with high report rates of sexual violence. At Durham University the starting premise was a recognition that the problem of sexual violence is a societal problem and one that universities have an important role to play in addressing. In this paper I contest the premise that high levels of sexual violence reporting at universities will necessarily result in reputation damage. Indeed on the contrary this case study account makes a compelling case that the contrary is true. I argue that both the civic and educational responsibilities of universities are such that it is essential that such matters are addressed. This, ethically, is especially so in view of what we know about the under reporting of sexual violence and also the potential physical and mental health impacts. Much of the focus is on prevention. Contributions can be made to prevention, it is argued, through increased reporting and also potentially through bystander intervention initiatives and consent workshops. A key benefit of increased reporting is that if universities know there is a problem there is the opportunity to help. An underlying principle to policy and practice development in this challenging area is the empowerment of those with trust in us to make such reports.

Keywords:

• sexual violence
• higher education
• criminology
• ethics
• justice
• power
• safety
• universities
• HE leadership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Graham Towl is a Professor of Forensic Psychology at The Psychology Department, Durham University, UK. He Chaired the Durham University Sexual Violence Task Force as PVC. Previously he was Chief Psychologist at the Ministry of Justice. He is an expert on prisoner suicide and risk assessment. He is an experienced Senior Civil Servant, academic and practitioner and he is currently on a research sabbatical.