This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Campus prevention initiatives targeting serial rapists overlook most offenders
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
A recent analysis of survey data found that most men who are at risk for committing rape during college are not serial rapists; therefore, prevention programs focusing exclusively on serial rapists will not identify them as a risk.
“These findings inform current policy discussions by cautioning against a uniform approach to high school and college rape response and prevention,” Kevin M Swartout, PhD, of the department of psychology at Georgia State University, and colleagues wrote in JAMA Pediatrics “Although some men perpetrate rape across multiple college years, these men … account for a small percentage of campus perpetrators — at least four of five men on campus who have committed rape will be missed by focusing solely on these men.”
Citing limitations in previous studies that concluded serial rapists made up the majority of offenders, the researchers conducted longitudinal studies of previous data sets to definitively determine the largest population of college men at risk for committing rape. The researchers used the Sexual Experiences Survey to measure rape perpetration, and questions were administered at a large university in the southeastern United States to first-year male students. Follow-up was administered in the proceeding spring semesters of each year the respondents attended college for both data sets.
Results indicated that 177 males met the FBI’s criteria for having committed completed rape before or during college, accounting for 10.8% of all respondents. The researchers said this is more than double the previously reported 4.4% of college males who have committed rape.
The researchers determined that serial rapists did not account for the majority of campus rape incidents, with 84 for the men having committed a rape before college, while only 34 of those 84 responded that they perpetrated a rape during college. Furthermore, 72.4% of the men who reported committing a rape during college were first-time offenders.
The researchers cautioned that programs exclusively targeting serial rapists could leave more young women at risk. They advised that rape prevention for men at risk for committing rape be initiated before college begins and continue throughout the college years.
“Child and adolescent health care professionals are well positioned to intervene during the early teenage years by informing parents about the early onset of nonconsensual sexual behavior.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts