Well, here we are again. Another headline in the news. Another sexual assault case under investigation. Lives forever changed. Another round of people choosing sides and verbally throwing stones, and we weren’t even there, nor do we have all the facts…and due to privacy laws, we may never have them. Another story unfolding for us to dissect and see where things could have been different, if only… I would have done this, or I would never have done that, or how can this happen, or what was the school doing, or where was one person to stop this when so many knew, or worse…more jokes to perpetuate a culture that thrives on instilling doubt in a victim’s story. Well, she chose to go out, chose to drink, and well, what was she expecting?
I can tell you what she wasn’t expecting: to be gang raped and to have not one single person help her or put a stop to the harm that the group was causing her. Not one single person.
Why do we have to wait for some horrific tragedy before we briefly examine the conditions in which it happened in the first place and examine how we can do more to prevent it? Yes, I said briefly, because sadly what happens over and over again is the headlines fade, people move on. People feel compelled to use their voices on campus or in the media, and then the attention to the “sudden wave” of sexual or relationship violence dissipates. I’ve been in the field a long time and I’ve seen this pattern repeat again and again.
Sexual and interpersonal violence is happening at alarming rates, and has been for a long time. Take a look at the data from the Centers for Disease Control or at the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. Depending on where you look for your information, you will see that approximately 1 in 3 people experience some form of sexual or relationship abuse/violence during their college years or during their lifetime. In the U.S., someone is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds, mostly by someone they know, and it continues to be the most underreported crime.
I serve on local sexual assault response teams (SART) and I hear the hospital reporting rates for sexual assault and domestic violence forensic exams here in the Capital Region. It’s heartbreaking, and over the years it feels like it’s getting worse, not better. The short- and long-term impacts are extensive, including mental and physical health, financial, educational, and employment success and opportunities (to name a few).
Most people may wonder how this is possible. If it was this bad, we would definitely be doing something as a society to fix this. My personal and professional experiences and my education tells me this: we have a public health crisis. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the American Public Health Association (APHA) have officially recognized sexual and interpersonal abuse and violence as major public health crises and preventable epidemics. Preventable.
Preventing and addressing sexual and relationship violence takes a lot of work, and a lot of time; in fact, it never ends. It takes each and every one of us accepting the responsibility, the personal ownership of preventing harm to others every single day. Most people would prefer to not hear or talk about sexual or relationship violence at all, ever, which helps no one. Colleges and universities have federal and state compliance obligations to fulfill, including ongoing prevention education and annual training requirements. But where are those focused efforts in K-12?
Learning to not talk to strangers, then later how to put a condom on a banana, and that sex would lead to unwanted pregnancy or STDs didn’t prepare me with skills to combat sexual violence by someone I knew. We need to teach younger middle school and high school students to clearly communicate personal boundaries, become more in tune with verbal and non-verbal communication to recognize when someone is uncomfortable, how to handle rejection without retaliating, how to manage emotions and hurt feelings without hurting others, comprehensive sex education, along with empathy, and bystander actions (and more). Prevention should be treated as a community-wide responsibility. And we should not rely on colleges and universities to be the only ones teaching lessons that need to be learned much sooner, before the harm, before the tragedy. Each one of us is responsible: families, schools, churches, workplaces, communities.
The CDC supports this prevention framework approach, which includes building strategies at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels — not a single intervention or one-time program. Schools need to receive sufficient financial support to develop strong programs that are comprehensive, collaborative, and sustainable. We should not leave prevention education to one person or one office. We need to support these efforts on institutional levels. The culture we create determines whether or not people feel prepared to recognize and respond to harmful behavior, and whether or not victims feel safe enough to come forward, and whether or not they trust us with next steps. Some view increased reporting rates as a bad sign, but I don’t. I feel more nervous about the culture itself when they don’t receive reports, that people either don’t know where they can go to report and receive support services, and/or they don’t trust the person/office/system.
After nearly 15 years working in the field of sexual violence and interpersonal violence, what continues to stand out to me is that prevention education does not eliminate every risk or eliminate all harm, and it is not something we do once. It is something we can all build together through ongoing education, communication and intervention skills, trusted relationships, strong campus and community partnerships and resources. Sexual and interpersonal violence is 100 % preventable. The question is, what are we willing to do collectively to prevent these tragedies?
Amanda Bastiani has been working at local colleges and with community agencies in the Capital Region for nearly 20 years, and she has been working with victims of sexual and interpersonal abuse and violence for nearly 15 years.
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