Toward the Next Generation of Bystander Prevention of Sexual and Relationship Violence

Prior Sexual Victimization and Disclosure of Campus Sexual Violence Among College Students

“…By providing all students with information about sexual violence and supports to address it, colleges and universities can better equip those who receive disclosures from their friends and roommates to provide a supportive, informative, and empathetic response. This finding supports the need for universal education with approaches such as the bystander intervention framework, which encourages all members of the community to take responsibility for responding to and preventing sexual violence (Banyard, 2015).…”

Sexual Violence in Academia: Policy, Theory, and Prevention Considerations

“…Students, staff, and faculty have the ability to assist and inform victims of sexual violence (Banyard, 2015), particularly by steering them toward formal services and encouraging victims to seek help. In this issue, Schulze and Perkins' (2017) work examines students' awareness of sexual assault services.…”

Rural Young Adults’ Lay Theories of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Examination

“…Participants likely mentioned risk factors that were perhaps more obvious (e.g., known history of family violence) or proximal (e.g., alcohol intoxication) to IPV incidents rather than variables that are perhaps less obvious or more distal (e.g., collective efficacy). Given that there is an increasing focus on bystander‐focused prevention initiatives (Banyard, ), it is interesting that the role of bystanders and peer group norms were rarely mentioned by participants in our sample. Instead, participants located their theories of IPV within individual people or within dyads (parent–child or the violent couple themselves).…”

“…Regarding the second major theme to emerge, participants reported that IPV could most effectively be prevented through strategies that reflect these lay theories of causes: (a) education and awareness; (b) victim‐focused efforts (e.g., teaching self‐esteem); and (c) job creation. Although education, awareness, and job creation are seen as important pieces of a comprehensive prevention strategy, a number of other aspects considered to be key to effective prevention (e.g., engaging bystanders, men; transforming peer and community norms; Banyard, , ; Banyard, Plante & Moynihan, ; Miller et al., ; Nation et al., ; Paul & Gray, ) were rarely, if ever, mentioned by participants. This is perhaps not surprising given that participants did not mention passive bystanders as a causal factor in the problem.…”