Preventing Sexual Aggression

The present research describes one arm of the Community Programming Initiative, a dualpronged sexual assault prevention effort (N = 1285). Men and women living in randomly selected 1 year residence halls participated in tailored single-sex sexual assault prevention, or risk reduction programs, respectively. An evaluation of the sexual assault prevention program for men is presented (N = 635). The program utilized an integrative model of sexual assault incorporating social norms and bystander intervention education. The program had an impact on self-reported sexual aggression, with men receiving the intervention self-reporting that they were less likely than men in the control group to engage in sexually aggressive behavior over the 4month follow-up. The program also had a positive effect on men’s perceptions that their peers would intervene when they encountered inappropriate behavior in others. Relative to the control group, participants also reported less reinforcement for engaging in sexually aggressive behavior, reported fewer associations with sexually aggressive peers and indicated less exposure to sexually explicit media.