"She Wasn't Resisting": Students' Barriers to Prosocial Intervention as Bystanders to Sexual Assault Risk Situations. (March 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hoxmeier, Jill C.; O'Connor, Julia; McMahon, Sarah
• Is Part Of: Violence against women. Volume 25:Number 4(2019)
• Page Start: 485
• Page End: 505
• Publication Date: 2019-03
• Subjects: sexual assault -- college students -- bystander behavior; Abused women -- Periodicals; Women -- Crimes against -- Periodicals; Violent crimes -- Periodicals; Femmes victimes de violence -- Périodiques; Femmes, Crimes contre les -- Périodiques; Crimes violents -- Périodiques; 362.8292
• DOI: 10.1177/1077801218790697
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1077-8012

Abstract

The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault recommends bystander training as part of campus sexual assault prevention efforts. The current study sought to understand salient themes among students' qualitative responses for why they did not intervene in sexual assault risk situations. In 2014, undergraduate students ( N = 9, 358) at a large public university completed a web-based survey to assess bystander opportunities and responses for six risk situations. Content coding analysis indicated that students report several unique barriers to intervention. These findings have important implications for bystander training programs, as well as future research on bystander behavior.