Agnes Rieger

In U.S. institutions of higher education (IHEs), mandatory reporting policies require certain designated employees to report any experience of sexual violence they learn about to IHE officials, regardless of victim/survivors’ consent to the report. Many IHEs designate all or nearly all employees as mandatory reporters (a Universal approach). However, others have more nuanced policies, such designating only select employees as mandatory reporters and requiring other employees to obtain survivor consent to reports made to IHE officials (a Selective and Survivor Directed approach). This mixed method study explored Title IX practitioners’ perspectives of two mandatory reporting policy approaches. We collected survey data from 260 Title IX practitioners at U.S. IHEs. Our quantitative analysis explored multiple factors associated with Title IX practitioners’ preference for a Universal or Selective and Survivor Directed approach (fear of lawsuits, fear of negative media, legal training, years of Title IX experience, trauma competency, mandatory reporting policy at their IHE, gender, residentiality). Only one was significant: participants whose IHE currently had a Universal policy (vs. an Alternative policy) were more likely to prefer the Universal approach. Our qualitative analysis offered nuanced insight into participants’ policy preferences. All participants wanted a policy they believed would effectively address sexual violence but differed in what they believed would be most effective. Participants who preferred the Universal approach believed an effective policy would be simple and center the Title IX office. Participants who preferred the Selective and Survivor Directed approach believed an effective policy would be flexible and center survivor autonomy. Participants also differed in their conceptualization of survivor autonomy. Findings underscore the need for empirical evidence on the intended and actual outcomes of mandatory reporting policies.

Needs assessments can be a pragmatic method to shape interventions addressing gender-based violence. They are complex endeavors even—or especially—at the local level (e.g., rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters). Focusing on the US context, we highlight examples of the ways needs assessments can support the gender-based violence movement, and key tensions and considerations within needs assessment practice. We explore decisions that practitioners make when pursuing needs assessments and highlight conceptual and design considerations. We also provide a general discussion of needs assessment approaches. This paper aims to support nascent practitioner and researcher/evaluator work in gender-based violence needs assessments.

There is relatively little research unpacking provider processes or tensions (e.g., leadership decision-making) when attempting to gather and incorporate community feedback into gender-based violence work. Across focus groups with 18 sexual violence preventionists, we explored experiences collecting information and perspectives from or with community members; barriers, and facilitators; and how they navigate possibilities of community-informed sexual violence prevention. We learned that preventionists want to gather input, and they gather it in nonsystematic ways; they face barriers familiar to many community-informed processes; and the topic of sexual violence complicates community-informed processes. Determining boundaries of possibility is central to navigating practice. Further, organizational settings are influential in determining boundaries.

Violence is a public health concern, negatively impacting individual and community health and safety. Although violence can be prevented, prevention efforts are complex in part because they require addressing community factors. Despite an increase in funding and support for community violence prevention, relatively little is known about what prevention practice barriers may be related to community factors. This study addressed this gap by surveying a statewide sample of violence preventionists. We explored if coordination and logistical barriers and rural geography are associated with perceptions of two community factors: community opportunities and leadership quality. As part of a statewide assessment of violence and prevention efforts, 130 violence preventionists completed surveys. Results showed that both perceived coordination barriers and rural geography were negatively associated with perceptions of existing community opportunities, representative/influential leadership, and leadership commitment. Perceived logistical barriers were positively associated with perceived leadership commitment. Findings suggest that support reducing community coordination barriers in particular—and to support rural violence prevention work more broadly—is needed.

This study investigates science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) PhD students' perceptions of organizational values and incivility. Interviews with 26 STEM PhD students elicited examples of and perceptions surrounding incivility and related harms. Productivity, prestige, expertise, objectivity, self‐sufficiency, and collaboration values were identified. Each included aspects deemed useful (e.g., productivity fueling discovery; expertise facilitating learning) as well as potentially contributing to harm when weaponized (e.g., productivity appeared in incivility stories when one “looked down” on those who did not work long days; expertise appeared when people gossiped about intelligence). Some aspects of collaboration (e.g., long‐lasting working relationships fueling scientific discovery) may be protective. Organizational values such as productivity appeared to supersede considerations such as well‐being. Current framing of these values may bolster refusal to engage in or support social justice and mental health efforts, which some participants identified as needed. Implications across settings are discussed.

This study examined the adoption and implementation process in early efforts to implement ecological (“outer layer”) sexual violence (SV) prevention strategies. Interviews with 28 preventionists from 26 local sites within a large, midwestern state, were conducted to examine individual preventionists' problem definitions of SV and ecological factors surrounding implementation. Findings suggest that SV prevention in the state is primarily implemented at the individual‐level; when preventionists described engaging in or anticipating outer layer interventions, they were often tertiary (i.e., responding after perpetration; e.g., Sexual Assault Response Teams). A majority expressed problem definitions rooted within the individual (e.g., perpetration due to a lack of consent education), and a majority of implemented efforts matched this individual‐level conceptualization. Yet, contradictions between problem definitions (e.g., SV stemming from oppression) and implemented activities (e.g., single‐session educational interventions) emerged. Such contradictions may be best understood in light of contextual implementation influences: diverse preventionist job responsibilities, less training/support for outer layer prevention, preventionist autonomy, leadership messaging, time requirements, partner reticence, and extensive work with schools. Inner layer influences, including identification with job roles, preference for, and a sense of urgency toward inner layer work, appeared to interact with contextual factors. Implications across community psychology domains are discussed.

Many universities have implemented mandatory reporting policies requiring most employees to report sexual harassment to the Title IX office, even if the victim/survivor does not want them to. Such policies constrain survivor autonomy and are particularly relevant for graduate students, who work closely with designated mandated reporter employees. This study examined graduate student sexual harassment survivors’ experiences disclosing to mandatory reporters, including interactions with mandatory reporters and the outcomes of their reports. We conducted interviews with graduate student survivors whose experiences were reported to their university's Title IX office and analyzed data from the cases involving a mandated report. Using thematic analysis, we identified three themes: survivors lacked knowledge that they were disclosing to a mandatory reporter, mandatory reporters lacked knowledge about Title IX processes, and mandatory reporters provided support. When analyzing outcomes of mandated reports, most did not result in formal grievance procedures, and the few that were investigated and adjudicated did not result in meaningful sanctions. Accommodations were rarely used, because they were not offered, were not perceived as helpful, or their requests were denied. Findings suggest that the purported goals of mandatory reporting policies were not met and that polices should afford survivors more autonomy.

In response to the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic, portions of the U.S. government implemented social distancing policies that, while necessary, yield unintended consequences. This article explores how risk for gender-based violence (GBV) has been exacerbated across the social-ecological model (SEM; e.g., by increasing economic stress and decreasing social support) and highlights differential impact across social locations (e.g., considering race, gender, social class). Drawing on gender-based violence prevention and response research, considerations for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners are delineated. A comprehensive framework adapting an intersectional lens and the SEM is used to explain the changes in risk and protective factors for GBV. Policy recommendations that serve to augment (not replace) social distancing policies are proposed. The pandemic has uprooted life in a way that impacts GBV prevention and response. Yet, this is also an opportunity to define a new way forward rather than return to "business as usual"; psychologists should strive to improve social services by utilizing the SEM and intersectionality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).