PREVENT | Stop Sexual Assault

Reduce Your Risk

How can I reduce my risk?

There is no way to make yourself immune to sexual assault. However, you can reduce your risk by practicing safety.

Below are 10 safety tips:

1. Learn the area

Familiarize yourself with the buildings, streets, and routes that make up your campus and local area. Also, if your college or university has them, memorize where the blue lights or emergency buttons are. This will help you get around easier and, if necessary, quickly get out of danger. (1)

2. Be prepared

When you go somewhere, bring extra cash with you for emergencies, such as needing to get yourself home or not having a working credit or debit card. (1)

Also, be sure to always have your phone near you, charged with the numbers and apps for campus police, transportation services, and other emergency resources saved to it. (2)

If possible, download a mobile safety app. An app like this will create a network of people you trust, allowing you to immediately alert them if you're ever in danger.

Lastly, to defend yourself or get someone's attention, think about carrying a whistle or pepper spray around; and, consider taking a self-defense class on-campus or in the local area. This class could be both fun and life-saving. (1)

3. Stay alert

Instead of listening to music, looking at your phone, or doing other distracting things while you're out and about, pay attention to what's going on around you. This will help you identify signs of danger so you can react accordingly, if necessary. (1)

6. Drink safely

If you consume alcohol, never binge drink. Instead, drink in moderation, eat, and avoid exceeding your limits. (2) You never want to lose control of yourself or your surroundings. (1)

Additionally, only drink what you opened, ordered, or watched being made; and, never take your eyes off of your drink. If you do, get a new one. (2)

Most importantly, if you ever feel overly intoxicated or sick, get help immediately. You may be drugged or have alcohol poisoning, which can both increase your risk for sexual assault and lead to death. (3)

To learn more about drinking, visit NIAAA; and, to learn the warning signs of date rape drugs, refer to the Office of Women's Health.

7. Date safely

If you are going to meet or leave with someone, tell a trusted friend your plans beforehand and give them identifying information about who you will be with. This should include the person's name, appearance, contact information, and license plate number, if possible. (2)

Also, try to get to know the person in public places, go on group dates until you get to know them better, and know what your limits and expectations are from the start. Never be afraid to tell anyone what you are and are not comfortable doing sexually. (2)

Remember: nothing that occurs without a clear, informed, and positively-given "yes" is ever okay. If anything like this begins to happen, or you start to feel uncomfortable, try to leave. (2)

4. Don't be alone

When going anywhere, try to avoid areas, routes, and times of day where not a lot of people are around you. When you cannot, walk in well-lighted areas, travel with friends, or use a public safety bus or escort if you can. There's power in numbers. (2)

5. Party safely

When you go out, always go in a group, determining who is in that group prior to leaving. (2)

Also, before you go, designate someone to stay sober, whether or not driving will be involved; and, plan when and where you all will meet to return home, just in case someone's phone dies or anyone gets lost. (2)

For risky situations, develop code words to use in case one of you feels unsafe or needs help. (2)

Most importantly, If you all decide to split up at the party, separate into smaller groups or pairs, and check on each other regularly. Do not allow yourself, or any of your friends, to be alone with someone you or they do not know well; and, never leave a member of your group alone at a party. (2)

8. Trust your gut

Again, if you start feeling uncomfortable, do whatever you can to safely get out of that situation, even if it means lying, hurting someone's feelings or being teased. The risk of being harmed is not worth staying; and, you feel that way for a reason. (2)

9. Be mysterious

Regularly switch up your daily routine; and, never post things on social media that you would not want perpetrators to know. Anyone can use this information to stalk you or plan a sexual assault. (2)

For more information about digital safety, please visit RAINN.

10. Lock up

To protect yourself, always lock your doors and windows, especially while you're sleeping. Although other students may seem nice, like they would never harm or steal from you, that is not always the case. Even on college campuses, you cannot trust everyone. (1)

Through the practice of safety, you can deter a someone from committing sexual assault in certain situations. However, there are situations where, no matter what you do or do not do to protect yourself, you will still be harmed. So, practicing safety cannot guarantee that you will never be sexually assaulted; and, not practicing safety would not make you responsible for your sexual assault, if you were to suffer one.

As we work towards a world free from perpetrators, we should do everything we can to protect ourselves and other people from them. Simultaneously, we should refrain from blaming any survivor for their sexual assault who did not practice safety, stating or implying that what happened to them was their fault.

Remember: sexual assault is always caused by the perpetrator, never the survivor.

Active Bystander

What is an active bystander?

An active bystander is anyone who intervenes when they notice a risk, occurrence, or promotion of violence, such as someone drinking too much at a party, a classmate crying out for help, or a friend making sexual assault jokes or survivor-blaming comments. Intervening can involve directly confronting a person's inappropriate words or actions. However, it can also involve non-confrontational intervention, focusing on the harmed or at-risk person instead. (4)

To learn the warning signs that someone is at-risk of sexual assault or needs help as a survivor, visit RAINN. You can also go to the How Can I Help A Survivor? section of our GET HELP page. We provide more information about supporting survivors there.

Below is the CARE method, which you can use to help you help another person. No More also provides information about ways you can intervene: (4)

1. Create a distraction

If you can do this safely, figure out a way to interrupt the situation. You can change the topic of discussion, suggest that whoever you're concerned about accompany you to the bar or restroom, invite them to dance, or start a game or debate for them to join.

3. Refer to an authority

If the situation is out of your control, go to your RA, the bartender, the security guard or another staff member for help, wherever you are. They should help; but, if they don't or someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or campus police right away.

2. Ask Directly

Whether or not you know the at-risk person or survivor, approach them as a caring human being if you can do so safely. Ask them if they're okay, find out who they came with, and offer to stay with them or accompany them to get help. This may mean a lot and show the person targeting them that they're not alone.

4. Enlist others

If you feel uncomfortable intervening alone, but don't think you need to refer to an authority, involve your friends. You can work as a team to create a distraction, approach the person you are concerned about together, or, if one of your friends knows the at-risk person or survivor, they can check on them for you.

People often don't intervene because they think someone else will or they don't want to make a scene, fearing they'll be viewed as dramatic or nosey. However, if everyone in a room waits for the person next to them to act, no one will act. The same person drinking too much will continue to drink, the same person being sexually assaulted will continue to be sexually assaulted, and the same person blaming the survivor will continue to blame the survivor.

When something may be wrong, it is better for two or more people to simultaneously take action than for no one to act at all. Also, saving someone from enduring the trauma of sexual assault is worth making a scene, stopping a sexual assault from progressing is worth being viewed as dramatic, and reaching out to someone who experienced sexual assault is worth being viewed as nosey.

However you can safely help, from standing up to a perpetrator to comforting a survivor, intervene when you notice a risk, occurrence, or endorsement of sexual assault. Even if the situation turns out to be okay, or you're not able to effectively help, your courage will inspire others and show everyone around you that there's support if anyone ever needs it; and, that can make all the difference.

Activisim

How can I make a difference?

In addition to reducing your risk, being an active bystander, and supporting a survivor in your everyday life, there are many other ways for you to help!

Below are activities you can engage in:

Activism

As an activist, you can work with others to petition federal, state, or campus officials to improve laws, policies, or procedures related to sexual assault. To learn more about federal and state activism, go to RAINN; and, for more information about campus activism, visit Know Your IX.

Donation

You can help fund an initiative working to stop sexual assault. This initiative can be anything from a campus or community organization to an individual or group crowdfunding project; and, your gift can be anything from a penny to millions of dollars.

Service

Through a campus or community organization, you can support survivors and their loved ones by serving on a crisis hotline or accompanying them to the hospital, police station, or court. Also, you can educate others about sexual assault by assisting with special events and programs.

Fundraising

To raise money for an initiative working to stop sexual assault, you can bring people together through a fun activity on your campus or in your community. This activity can be anything from a benefit concert or marathon to a car wash or bake sale; and, it would be a great way to raise awareness!

You can find organizations to get involved with by visiting RAINN, look for involvement opportunities through your college or university, or start your own initiative, like we did.

Anchor 24

What can colleges & universities do?

As stated on our LEARN page, schools should hold perpetrators more accountable and give more support to survivors and their loved ones, especially in the long term as they heal physically, mentally, emotionally, academically, and financially. Also, schools should implement, enforce, and improve security measures, policies and procedures regularly, providing their students with the best protection possible.

To learn how 2020's changes to Title IX are hindering this progress, visit Know Your IX.

Lastly, colleges and universities are required by law to have prevention programs for sexual assault and its related issues, including domestic violence, stalking, and substance abuse.

Below are links to these laws, provided by The Clery Center:

On many college campuses, prevention programs are conducted through brief programs, video, or large group settings. (5) However, a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the following discovery:

"Although these brief programs may increase awareness of the issue, it is unlikely that such programs are sufficient to change behavioral patterns that are developed and continually influenced and reinforced across the lifespan. Programs that fit within one class period or that can be delivered at low cost via video or in large group settings are appealing in educational and other settings. However, continuing to invest scarce resources in low- or no-impact strategies detracts from potential investments in more effective approaches and may be counterproductive." (5)

At colleges and universities, students should study sexual assault and its related issues just like they study math, English, and other academic subjects. Through long-term and engaging prevention programs, as well as campus climates of accountability, support, and safety, sexual assault on college campuses will dramatically decrease. (5)

Parents

What can parents/guardians do?

If you are the parent or guardian of a college student, or you are touring college campuses and making a decision about your child’s post secondary education, please investigate the topic of sexual assault on campuses.

To ensure your child's safety, the following questions need to be answered by the college or university your child attends or wants to attend:

How involved are they in the lives of their students?

What assistance do they provide freshmen in transitioning to college?
How do they support transfer students, international students, upperclassmen and graduate students?