Policies and Perceptions of Sexual Consent and Assault

American Bar Foundation, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The incidence and impact of sexual assault on college students produce profound effects, resulting in lower grades, higher dropout rates, higher rates of depression, drug use, and suicide attempts. Colleges and universities that receive federal funding are required to ensure equal educational opportunities, which include preventing and addressing sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination. To enforce this mandate, some states have passed laws that detail how their colleges define sexual consent. They are manifest in policies, rules, and training sessions for those on campus. This project will analyze the laws, policies, and practices that concern sexual behavior on college campuses as well as perceptions and understanding of sexual consent and assault. This project will examine how laws and policies affect college students’ understanding of sexual consent and related behaviors, as well as their reporting decisions for sexual assault. It will employ qualitative interviews of a large sample of undergraduate students, as well as archival research of primary source documents, in a matched campus design across several colleges and states. The project will ascertain students’ understanding of issues related to sexual consent, how consent was or was not achieved in their own sexual encounters, and how they understand campus processes designed to investigate and punish those who do not comply with campus rules about sexual assault. The research products will contribute to a variety of disciplines concerning the study of law and organizations, will examine how uniform law is enacted and enforced at different organizations in the field of higher education across different states, and will inform policy debates about sexual assault, training, and responses. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.