Challenges in Preventing Violence against Women: A Male Practitioner's Perspective

Few issues pose a greater challenge to public health and American society than violence against women. Sexual violence, particularly of adolescents and young adults, is endemic in U.S. culture (Humphrey & White, 2000). Two national studies of college students expose the startlingly high rates of sexual violence perpetrated against college-aged women. The National College Women Sexual Victimization Study (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000) revealed that 2.8% of females surveyed had experienced either a completed rape (1.7%) or an attempted rape incident (1.1%) in the preceeding 6-month period. The victimization rate reported by study authors was 27.7 rapes per 1,000 female students. If this 2.8% is projected for a 12-month period, the data indicate that 4.9% of college women may experience a rape or attempted rape. Study authors suggest that if this figure is projected over the course of a woman’s entire college career—which may last up to 5 years—between 20 and 25% of women may experience a rape or attempted rape (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000). Data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (1997) support these findings. According to this study, one in five (20.4%) female college students sampled reported being forced to have sexual intercourse at some time in their lives. Other prevalence studies have reported varying levels of sexual victimization among college women. These studies usually involve nonrandom sampling of female students on a single college campus and report rape prevalence among college women to be anywhere from 11.9 to 42% (Baier, Rosenzeig, & Whipple, 1991; Finley & Corty, 1993; Humphrey & White, 2000; Mills & Granoff, 1992; Sawyer & Schulken, 1997; Synovitz & Byrne, 1998). Preventing this problem can be an extremely complex task. Historically, campus based violence against women prevention programs have focused on talking about rape incidence statistics, date rape drugs, and laws and campus policies regarding sexual violence. Although these issues are important to discuss, programs that aim to reduce sexual violence must also focus on the root causes of sexual violence. Yet addressing the root causes of sexual violence is a difficult task. In my years entrenched in work to prevent violence against women—three as a health education practitioner with a university-based health center and three as a graduate student and peer educator—I have experienced a host of challenges. First, college men do not accept personal responsibility in preventing sexual violence, often viewing the prevention of such violence as a woman’s issue. Second, acceptance of rape myths and victim blaming continues to be prevalent in male social groups. Third, many men lack effective communication skills required for discussing sexual activity desires and limits with partners, including consent. Finally, traditional masculine identities remain pervasive in men’s lives, which reinforce that men have power in relationships and should be sexually dominant over women. The purpose of this personal perspective is to share my experiences, both as a health education practitioner and as a man, on the challenges of preventing violence against women on campus and to make recommendations to those working to prevent violence.