Using a cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 7,945 college undergraduates, we report on the association between having received Green Dot active bystander behavior training and the frequency of actual and observed self-reported active bystander behaviors as well as violence acceptance norms. Of 2,504 students aged 18 to 26 who completed the survey, 46% had heard a Green Dot speech on campus, and 14% had received active bystander training during the past 2 years. Trained students had significantly lower rape myth acceptance scores than did students with no training. Trained students also reported engaging in significantly more bystander behaviors and observing more self-reported active bystander behaviors when compared with nontrained students. When comparing self-reported active bystander behavior scores of students trained with students hearing a Green Dot speech alone, the training was associated with significantly higher active bystander behavior scores. Those receiving bystander training appeared to report more active bystander behaviors than those simply hearing a Green Dot speech, and both intervention groups reported more observed and active bystander behaviors than nonexposed students.

Evidence suggests that interventions to engage bystanders in violence prevention increase bystander intentions and efficacy to intervene, yet the impact of such programs on violence remains unknown. This study compared rates of violence by type among undergraduate students attending a college campus with the Green Dot bystander intervention (n = 2,768) with students at two colleges without bystander programs (n = 4,258). Violent victimization rates were significantly (p < .01) lower among students attending the campus with Green Dot relative to the two comparison campuses. Violence perpetration rates were lower among males attending the intervention campus. Implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.

Introduction The 2013 Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act requires U.S. colleges to provide bystander-based training to reduce sexual violence, but little is known about the efficacy of such programs for preventing violent behavior. This study provides the first multiyear evaluation of a bystander intervention’s campus-level impact on reducing interpersonal violence victimization and perpetration behavior on college campuses. Methods First-year students attending three similarly sized public university campuses were randomly selected and invited to complete online surveys in the spring terms of 2010–2013. On one campus, the Green Dot bystander intervention had been implemented since 2008 (Intervention, n=2,979) and two Comparison campuses had no bystander programming at baseline (Comparison, n=4,132). Data analyses conducted in 2014–2015 compared violence rates by condition over the four survey periods. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate violence risk on Intervention relative to Comparison campuses adjusting for demographic factors and time (2010–2013). Results Interpersonal violence victimization rates (measured in the past academic year) were 17% lower among students attending the Intervention (46.4%) relative to Comparison (55.7%) campuses (adjusted rate ratio, 0.83; 95% CI=0.79, 0.88); a similar pattern held for interpersonal violence perpetration (25.5% in Intervention; 32.2% in Comparison; adjusted rate ratio, 0.79; 95% CI=0.71, 0.86). Violence rates were lower on Intervention versus Comparison campuses for unwanted sexual victimization, sexual harassment, stalking, and psychological dating violence victimization and perpetration (p<0.01). Conclusions Green Dot may be an efficacious intervention to reduce violence at the community-level and meet Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act bystander training requirements.

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Increasing attention has recently been paid to the development of prevention programs designed to actively engage bystanders in prevention efforts to reduce the risk of sexual and dating violence; yet, few evaluations have been conducted. Our proposed plan to rigorously evaluate a randomized intervention trial of the Green Dot bystander program as it is implemented in high schools across Kentucky is presented. We highlight the value of measuring violence victimization and perpetration outcomes, capturing actual and observed student bystander behaviors, and testing the diffusion of Green Dot training through students' social networks.

Intimate partner violence has been hypothesized as a factor associated with women's risk for problems in contraception use or access. This article explores differences in contraceptive use between abused and nonabused women, using a case-control study of 225 women. Women experiencing physical and emotional abuse were more likely to report not using their preferred method of contraception in the past 12 months compared with nonabused women (OR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.0 to 3.7). Health care providers need to consider how intimate partner violence may influence their patients' use of contraceptives, which has implications for the high risk of unintended pregnancies among abused women.

This large, population-based study is one of the few to examine prevalence rates of sexual harassment occurring during the past 12 months by victimization and perpetration among adolescents. In this large, cross-sectional survey of students attending 26 high schools, sexual harassment was defined using three questions from the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire. Among 18,090 students completing the survey, 30% disclosed sexual harassment victimization (37% of females, 21% of males) and 8.5% reported perpetration (5% of females, 12% of males). Sexual harassment perpetration was highly correlated with male sex, minority race/ethnicity, same-sex attraction, bullying, alcohol binge drinking, and intraparental partner violence.

Background Pregnant and postpartum women may be at increased risk of violent death including homicide and suicide relative to non-pregnant women, but US national data have not been reported since implementation of enhanced mortality surveillance. Objective To estimate homicide and suicide ratios among women who are pregnant or postpartum and to compare their risk of violent death to non-pregnant/non-postpartum women. Study Design Death certificates (n=465,097) from US states with enhanced pregnancy mortality surveillance from 2005–2010 were used to compare mortality among four groups of women age 10–54: pregnant, early postpartum (pregnant within 42 days of death), late postpartum (pregnant within 43 days to 1 year of death) and non-pregnant/non-postpartum. We estimated pregnancy-associated mortality ratios and compared to non-pregnant/non-postpartum mortality ratios in order to identify differences in risk after adjusting for potential levels of pregnancy misclassification as reported in the literature. Results Pregnancy-associated homicide victims were most frequently young, Black, and undereducated while pregnancy-associated suicide occurred most frequently among older White women. After adjustments, pregnancy-associated homicide risk ranged from 2.2–6.2 per 100,000 live births, depending on the degree of misclassification estimated, compared to 2.5–2.6 per 100,000 non-pregnant/non-postpartum women aged 10–54. Pregnancy-associated suicide risk ranged from 1.6–4.5 per 100,000 live births after adjustments compared to 5.3–5.5 per 100,000 women aged 10–54 among non-pregnant/non-postpartum women. Assuming the most conservative published estimate of misclassification, risk of homicide among pregnant/postpartum women was 1.84 times that of non-pregnant/non-postpartum women (95% confidence interval: 1.71, 1.98) while risk of suicide was decreased (relative risk=0.62, 95% confidence interval: 0.57, 0.68). Conclusion Pregnancy and postpartum appear to be times of increased risk for homicide and decreased risk for suicide among women in the US.