University of New Hampshire

Background
The focus of sexual violence prevention has, for the most part, been on victims and perpetrators. Increasingly, that focus is shifting toward the community as a mechanism for reducing the numbers of victims and perpetrators. Some prevention strategies have now begun to focus on the role of bystanders in intervening in situations related to violence against women. This approach involves teaching bystanders how to intervene in situations that involve sexual violence. While still involving programming that trains groups of individuals, this model takes next steps toward a broader community approach to prevention. The bystander model gives all community members a specific role, which they can identify with and adopt in preventing the community problem of sexual violence. This role includes interrupting situations that could lead to assault before it happens or during an incident, speaking out against social norms that support sexual violence, and having skills to be an effective and supportive ally to survivors. It is based on studies that point to the role of community norms as a significant cause of sexual violence, particularly in communities like college campuses.

In 2002, University of New Hampshire (UNH) researchers received a U.S. Department of Justice grant to evaluate the effectiveness of an in-person rape prevention program that approaches men and women as potential bystanders or witnesses as opposed to men as perpetrators and women as victims and found it to be successful. The Bringing in the Bystander in-person prevention program has both a long and short version. Male and female participants learn strategies for intervening in a safe and appropriate or pro-social manner in situations where sexual violence is occurring or has the potential to occur. Evaluations following the programs and at four and twelve month intervals indicate that the knowledge gained from the program is retained.

In 2004 a different group of UNH researchers received a grant from the Office on Violence Against Women to develop a poster campaign aimed at reducing violence against women on campus. A media work group (MWG) was formed with representatives from the university student body, staff, and faculty. The MWG reviewed the existing sexual violence prevention campaigns aimed at college students and realized two things; first the campaigns did not focus on the role of the bystander in community prevention efforts and second, the vast majority of existing campaigns had not been evaluated. The MWG decided to develop a social marketing campaign modeling bystander roles taught during the Bringing in the Bystander in-person prevention program.

The Bringing in the Bystander Project includes the in-person prevention program and the social marketing campaign. According to the researchers, to the best of their knowledge they are the only sexual violence prevention bystander program that has both an in-person and social marketing component. Ongoing administration and research efforts for the Bringing in the Bystander Project are being sponsored by a grant to the UNH Police Department from the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice and a grant from the UNH Parents Association.

Bringing in the Bystander In-Person Prevention Program
The Bringing in the Bystander prevention program provides a framework for training community members to become more sensitive to issues of sexual violence and teaching them skills to intervene with the intent to prevent assaults from occurring and support survivors. The bystander approach teaches how to intervene safely and effectively in situations that involve sexual violence. While still involving programming that trains groups of individuals, the program at the UNH takes next steps toward a broader community approach to prevention. The bystander model gives all community members a specific role with which they can identify and adopt in preventing the community problem of sexual violence. This role includes interrupting situations that could lead to assault before it happens or during an incident, speaking out against social norms that support sexual violence, and having skills to be an effective and supportive ally to a survivor after an assault.

During the in-person bystander prevention programs trained peer facilitators raise college students’ awareness of sexual violence, teach them to recognize incidents of sexual violence, train them on the importance of the bystander role, and provide them with opportunities to practice bystander behaviors through the use of “role play.” Program content covers basic information about sexual violence as well as discussions of how community members can play important prevention roles as bystanders observing risky situations before and during acts of sexual violence (e.g., observing a very intoxicated person being led into a bedroom at a party by a group of people), and afterward if a friend discloses that they have been a victim. Active learning exercises (e.g., role plays) were used to model how participants could intervene safely and be a supportive ally to survivors. Particular emphasis is placed on participants’ safety and on using resources such as campus police and rape crisis center. Participants are asked to generate a “bystander plan” and to sign a pledge that they would be active, prosocial bystanders in the community.

In-Person Program Evaluation
A recent study used an experimental design to evaluate a sexual violence prevention program based on a community of responsibility model that teaches women and men how to intervene safely and effectively in cases of sexual violence before, during, and after incidents with strangers, acquaintances, or friends. It approaches both women and men as potential bystanders or witnesses to behaviors related to sexual violence. Three hundred and eighty-nine undergraduates participated and were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or a control group. Results from the research reveal that up to two months after participating in either a one- or three-session version of the program, participants in the treatment conditions showed improvements across measures of attitudes, knowledge, and behavior while the control group did not. Most program effects persisted at 4- and 12-month follow-ups.

Bringing in the Bystander Social Marketing Campaign
As another component of the Bringing in Bystander prevention program, researchers at UNH developed and evaluated a social marketing campaign to determine if students increase their knowledge of prosocial bystander behaviors and willingness to intervene in instances of sexual violence after viewing a series of campaign posters where student actors model appropriate bystander behaviors. The bystander-oriented social marketing campaign portrayed bystander behavior through a series of four posters that illustrated typical college scenes explicitly modeling bystander behavior in the prevention of violence against women. One poster shows a young man forcing a young woman up against the desk in her dorm room as she protests that he is hurting her. Outside the room, two dorm residents prepare to intervene. Another poster features a triptych of friends listening to and caring for friends who have experienced sexual violence. All four posters feature the campaign tagline “Know your power. Step in, Speak up. You can make a difference,” and provide specific advice about what to do in a situation similar to the one depicted. For example, the first poster above offers the following advice: “Intimate partner abuse is everyone’s problem. Intervene when you see it or hear it.” The campaign was evaluated through focus groups and a pilot study in the residence hall and using the internet following a campus wide administration of the campaign.

Campaign Evaluation
During the campus wide administration of the social marketing campaign the researchers used a post-test only design to assess student awareness of the bystander role in reducing sexual violence. Their goal was to measure the campaign’s impact on a broad segment of the student body. To do that they administered a Web survey that had the potential to reach a diverse sample of the student body. University officials cooperated with the campaign evaluation efforts by allowing the project to advertise a student-awareness survey on the homepage portal where students log on to their university e-mail accounts and blackboard sites. As an incentive, survey participants were given the chance to win an iPod Video. Flyers featuring the same advertisement were distributed to students at high foot-traffic campus sites and adjacent downtown areas. Students who clicked on the link were taken to the university’s IRB-approved online survey that took approximately five minutes to complete. Students answered questions about their attitudes regarding sexual violence prevention, bystander behaviors, and views on the extent of violence against women on campus. The students were then asked to provide relevant demographic information and then asked whether they had seen the posters.

The results of this research indicate that social marketing campaigns can be an important tool in raising awareness of sexual violence on the college campus even though poster campaigns should not be the only tool that college communities use to facilitate change. Participants who reported seeing the posters exhibited greater awareness of the problem and greater willingness to participate in actions aimed at reducing sexual violence compared to those students who did not report seeing the poster. The poster campaign offers college students a reason to think about sexual violence on campus and to consider actions to reduce it. Provocative imagery can stimulate contemplation, an important step in reducing sexual violence on campuses where prevailing norms and culture too often facilitate rather than discourage sexual violence.

Conclusion
Recently the UNH researchers administered a pilot study to determine if students exposed to both the social marketing campaign and the in-person program show increased knowledge, modified attitudes, and behavioral change as compared with students who only receive one form of prevention program (in-person program or social marketing campaign), or none. The results are currently being analyzed.

Colleges and universities should also take responsibility to provide students with in-person programming or other strategies to enable them to practice their skills at intervention in safe prosocial ways.