Gender and sexual violence among students at a brazilian university

Maria Helena de Sousa,Vilma Zotareli,Anibal Faúndes,Maria José Duarte Osis,Graciana Alves Duarte

doi:10.1590/s1519-38292012000100004

Maria Helena de Sousa, Vilma Zotareli + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/s1519-38292012000100004

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: the prevalence of gender and sexual violence, its association with gender and ethical attitudes and the experience of suffering and perpetration of violence were evaluated among students at a public university in Brazil. METHODS: a cross-sectional study analyzed the answers given by 2430 students to a questionnaire sent by internet. RESULTS: among girls, 56.3% had been subjected to some kind of violence and 9.4% to sexual violence since university admission; 29.9% of men reported having perpetrated some kind of violence, 11.4% gender and 3.3% sexual violence. Multivariate analysis showed that living with parents/relatives was a protective factor for women being subjected to and men perpetrating sexual violence but not for "any type of violence". Lower scores for ethical attitudes were associated with a greater likelihood of men perpetrating any kind of or gender violence. Student for whom religion was important had a lower risk of being a perpetrator of any type and of sexual violence, but not gender violence. CONCLUSIONS: the findings may be useful for the discussion of this problem and to propose interventions to prevent or minimize the problems of gender and sexual violence on campus. Further studies in other university contexts need to be carried out to increase knowledge and explore possibilities for intervention.

Highlights

Violence is defined as “every act and every idea that reduces an individual to the condition of an object; that violates the internal and external being of a person; that perpetuates social relationships of profound economic, social and cultural inequality”.1 There are many different forms of violence in society but women are vulnerable to gender and sexual violence.[2]The effect of violence against women involves society as a whole, since it occurs in almost all environments, even within socially privileged spaces such as universities
A study involving 18 to 21-year-old male and female students at a university in the city of São Paulo showed that 21.4% had suffered some type of aggression, psychological violence being the most common, followed by sexual violence, which was more common among women.[6]
In view of the need to reduce the current high levels of gender and sexual violence and the fact that social changes usually begin among those with higher levels of education, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of gender and sexual violence and to identify the factors that could be associated with the experience of suffering and perpetrating gender and sexual violence, among students at a public university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Summary

Introduction

Violence is defined as “every act and every idea that reduces an individual to the condition of an object; that violates the internal and external being of a person; that perpetuates social relationships of profound economic, social and cultural inequality”.1 There are many different forms of violence in society but women are vulnerable to gender and sexual violence.[2]The effect of violence against women involves society as a whole, since it occurs in almost all environments, even within socially privileged spaces such as universities. A study involving 18 to 21-year-old male and female students at a university in the city of São Paulo showed that 21.4% had suffered some type of aggression, psychological violence being the most common, followed by sexual violence, which was more common among women.[6]. In view of the need to reduce the current high levels of gender and sexual violence and the fact that social changes usually begin among those with higher levels of education, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of gender and sexual violence and to identify the factors that could be associated with the experience of suffering and perpetrating gender and sexual violence, among students at a public university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil Studies conducted in universities in the United States,[3] Venezuela[4] and Chile[5] found that a large proportion of students had experienced some form of violence: 44.7% any form of violence in the USA study; 79% psychological violence in the Venezuelan universities and 17% of the female students in the Chilean university experienced unwelcome sexual advances.

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