Research Summation

Harassment has always been a topic of concern for modern societies because of the

devastating effects it has on the victims of this tragedy. In schools, and more specifically, on

college campus harassment as it relates to sexual violence has been a major topic of discussion

because of the growing voice of women and the amount of research showing the large amounts

of people victimized by this crime. One focus of this issue is consent awareness and how this

affects all parties involved in this problem our society is facing.

To start discussing this topic it best to look at the scope of the issue to see how large the

problem is. According to a study of women at a college campus from Fantasia, Sutherland, and

Fontenot (2015) “Forced sex was reported by 22% of participants” (S57) showing that one of the

most extreme forms of sexual violence has occurred in the lives of almost a quarter of women.

Knowing this we know that other forms of sexual assault will affect an even larger portion of the

population. It also important to not what all we might start to consider as a form of sexual

violence/assault Buchhandler-Raphael (2011) notes that “rather than defining rape as engaging in

nonconsensual sex, it would be defined as engaging in an act of sexual abuse of power,

dominance, and control” (p. 200). By challenging our common notions we look at what might be

at the heart of the issue of consent awareness and why it occurs.

However one piece of issue that can make fighting this problem so challenging is the

different communication styles people have. Inevitably people express what they want in many

ways so recognizing that this occurs is an important in overcoming the issue. One of the ways it

is seen to have an effect on sexual consent is that “Women scored higher than men on Passive

Behaviors and No Response Signal” (Jozkowski, Sanders, Peterson, Dennis, & Reece, 2014, p.

446). Here we see that women and men have differences in how they might show consent,
women tend to wait for initiation and exhibit passive behaviors where men initiate showing more

active behaviors.

Making changes that will combat the issue of consent awareness and sexual violence

might take a retraining of how institutions have generally looked to solve this problem. Camp,

Sherlock-Smith, and Davies (2018) found a problem with how most universities try to combat

this issue “workshops which suggest explicit consent is always needed incorrectly assume people

do not know how to consent and need to be taught, and this can lead to a rejection of the

message” (p. 442). So just telling students what consent is and how to do it ignores important

factors surrounding the problem at large, like the environment students are in and what they

already know. Shafer, Ortiz, Thompson, and Huemmer discovered one way to prevent this issue

from growing and to help the number of incidents of these crimes decrease stating:

Greater sexual communication assertiveness was associated with positive attitudes,

intentions, and ability to interpret sexual consent communications. Sexual consent education

programming should consider providing instructive practice on how to engage in sexual

communication that is assertive (not aggressive). The importance of normalizing sexual

communication assertiveness makes intuitive sense as assertive communication inherently

considers the rights and the wellbeing of the communication partner, which are aligned with

healthy sexual consent communication practices. (p. S48)

So looking at this issue through the lens of changing our environment to one of positivity and

communication around sex and consent can help effectively combat an issue that needs to be

fought and overcome

 References

Buchhandler-Raphael, Michal. (2011). The Failure of Consent: Re-Conceptualizing Rape as

Sexual Abuse of Power. Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, 18, 147-485.

Camp, S., Sherlock-Smith, A., & Davies, E. (2018). Awareness and support: Students’ views

about the prevention of sexual assault on UK campuses. Health Education, 118(5), 431-

446.

Fantasia, Sutherland, & Fontenot. (2015). Forced Sex, Alcohol Use, and Sexual Consent Among

College Women. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 44(S1), S56-

S57.

Jozkowski, K., Sanders, N., Peterson, S., Dennis, Z., & Reece, D. (2014). Consenting to Sexual

Activity: The Development and Psychometric Assessment of Dual Measures of

Consent. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43(3), 437-450.

Shafer, A., Ortiz, R., Thompson, B., & Huemmer, J. (2018). The Role of Hypermasculinity,

Token Resistance, Rape Myth, and Assertive Sexual Consent Communication Among

College Men. The Journal of Adolescent Health : Official Publication of the Society for

Adolescent Medicine, 62(3S), S44-S50.