Abstract
Violence against women on college campuses continues to be a pervasive public health problem with approximately one in five women experiencing sexual assault and one in nine women experiencing rape while in college. The current study examined relationship and sexual violence among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I universities. Based on previous research, Division I universities seem to report higher rates of sexual assault, but within-group differences have yet to be examined. The data include 1422 four-year private and public institutions with at least 1000 students who submitted Clery data (2014) on rape, domestic and dating violence, and stalking. Division I campuses reported significantly higher reports of violence against women compared to Division II, III, and universities with no athletic programs. There were no differences in violence reported across the three subdivisions within Division I, however, certain conferences reported significantly higher relationship and sexual violence within the football bowl and football championship subdivisions. These findings have important implications for targeting higher risk campuses, such as the Big 10, Big 12, Ivy League, Pac-12, and SEC with much needed sexual assault prevention programs.
Highlights
Sexual violence on college campuses continues to be a pervasive public health issue with approximately one in five women experiencing sexual assault and one in nine women experiencing rape while in college [1]
The current study contributes to the growing body of literature by examining sexual and relationship violence across National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisions and, within Division I schools as these campuses seem to be at greater risk for sexual violence [21,22,28]
Consistent with previous work, we found that when compared to Division II and III campuses and campuses without an NCAA affiliation, Division I campuses reported higher sexual and relationship violence
Summary
Sexual violence on college campuses continues to be a pervasive public health issue with approximately one in five women experiencing sexual assault and one in nine women experiencing rape while in college [1]. Perhaps the most disconcerting part is that the prevalence of sexual violence on campuses has not changed in nearly sixty years [10,11]. In other words, this problem is by no means a new one. When examining factors related to sexual violence on college campuses, previous research has primarily assessed individual-level risk factors such as prior victimization (both sexual and physical violence) [12], substance use [13], age [14], ethnicity (i.e., White/Caucasian) [15], membership in a Greek organization [16,17], number of previous sexual partners [18], and attitudes and beliefs such as masculine ideology [2,18,19]. Recent research suggests [20] that there are university level characteristics which may increase certain campuses’ propensity toward violence against women
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