1. society
2. crime
3. personal offense
4. assault

Gender-Based Violence
•  What Is It
•  UVA Policies
•  Resources for Survivors
Claire N. Kaplan, PhD
Director, Gender Violence and Social
Change Program
Sexual Misconduct at UVA:
•  is defined broadly to include all acts of non-consensual
sexual contact (including non-consensual sexual
intercourse), sexual harassment, sexual exploitation,
dating or domestic violence (also known as relationship
violence), and stalking.*
*University of Virginia Policies and Procedures
for Student Sexual Misconduct Complaints
Sexual Assault
•  can be any form of forced or non-consensual physical or emotional sexual
contact involving threats, intimidation, pressure, or coercion.
•  Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse which is
initiated by one or more persons against another person without that
person's consent.
• 
Rape is the least reported of all violent crimes.
• 
Nine out of ten offenders in cases of heterosexual rape or sexual assault were
known to the victim (boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, classmate, friend, acquaintance or
co-worker).
• 
7% of college women who experience drug, alcohol, or incapacitated rape report
it to the police.
• 
Of those cases reported to the police, less than 10% of rape cases result in
criminal charges against a defendant.
SSN Training Manual, page 29
Child Sexual Abuse:
•  is defined as sexual activities between a legal adult and a child (less than 18
years of age) which are intended to erotically arouse the adult, without
consideration for the reactions or choices of the child;
•  often involves bodily contact, such as sexual kissing, touching, fondling of
genitals, and oral, anal and vaginal intercourse;
•  may also include non-contact behaviors, such as genital exposure
(“flashing”), verbal pressure for sex, and sexual exploitation for
pornography or prostitution.
• 
The average age for first abuse is 9.9 years for boys and 9.6 years for girls.
Victimization occurs before age eight in over 20 percent of the cases. Another
study found 24 percent of female child sexual abuse survivors were first abused
at age five or younger.
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SSN Training Manual, page 41
Intimate Partner Violence/Dating Violence:
•  is a pattern of physically, sexually, and/or emotionally abusive behaviors
used by one individual to maintain power over or to control another
person in the context of an intimate or family relationship.
• 
Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or
former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year to three million women who
are physically abused by their their husband or boyfriend per year in the US.
• 
Among female students between the ages of 15-20 who reported at least one
violent act during a dating relationship, 24 percent reported experiencing
extremely violent incidents such as rape or the use of weapons against them.
• 
In the North Carolina study, women who had been physically assaulted in any
year of college were significantly more likely to be sexually assaulted that
same year.
SSN Manual, pages 10 & 17
Stalking
•  is behavior wherein an individual willfully and repeatedly engages in a
knowing course of harassing conduct directed at another person, which
reasonably and seriously alarms, torments, or terrorizes that person.
•  involves one person's obsessive behavior toward another person. Initially,
stalking will usually take the form of annoying, threatening, or obscene
telephone calls, emails or letters, and covert surveillance of the victim.
• 
1,006,970 women and 370,990 men are stalked annually in the U.S.
• 
77% of female victims and 64% of male victims know their stalker; of these; 59%
of female victims and 30% of male victims are stalked by an intimate partner.
• 
73% of intimate partner stalkers verbally threatened victims with physical
violence, and almost 46% of victims experienced one or more violent incidents
by the stalker.
SSN Training Manual, page 23
Incidence of Sexual Violence Among
UVa Students
Mapping Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey (ACE) data onto UVA student
population suggests:
•  2,875 female students may have experienced contact sexual assault, before arriving at
UVa
•  1,650 male students may have experienced contact sexual assault, before arriving at UVa
Mapping Campus Sexual Assault Survey data onto UVA student population suggests:
•  400 female UGs may experienced sexual assault yearly
•  1,000 current female UGs may have experienced sexual assault while enrolled at UVa
•  1,340 current female UGs may have experienced sexual assault before enrollment at
UVa
Mapping NIPSVS1 data onto UVA student population suggests:
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127 on-Grounds female students aged 18-25 who may be raped each year
607 female UGs who may have been raped before matriculation
192 current female UGs who may have been raped while enrolled at UVa
4,565 of the 11,500 female students, almost four in ten, who may have experienced
sexual assault during their lifetime
1National
Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010 Summary Report
Sexual violence among UVA faculty members: 1000
females, 1700 males
Lifetime prevalence of victims and perpetrators by sex1
Violence Type Rape Female Vic/ms 183 UVa Perpetrators against females Male Female 61 4 Male Vic/ms 24 UVa Perpetrators against males Male Female 5 0.2 Comp. forced penetra/on 123 15 A<empt forced pen. 52 7 Alcohol/drug facilitated 80 10 (3.6%) (0.07%) (0.26%) (0.02%) 446 82 7 377 30 27 * 82 3 13 Sexual coercion 130 102 3 17 Unwanted sexual contact 272 199 19 21 Unwanted non-­‐contact sex 337 218 21 16 (8.2%) (0.71%) (1.78%) (2.67%) 143 7 401 35 27 Weighted Incidence2 Other Made to penetrate Weighted Incidence2 Life9me Prevalence 629 Definition of Trauma
Individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or
set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as
physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has
lasting adverse effects on the individual's functioning and
physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.
- SAMHSA [Substance Abuse & Mental Health
Services Administration]
The Nature of Trauma
The conflict between the will to deny horrible events
and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central
dialectic of psychological trauma. People who have
survived violence often tell their stories in a highly
emotional, contradictory, and fragmented manner
that undermines their credibility and thereby serves
the twin imperatives of truth-telling and secrecy.
Traumatic events call into question basic human relationships. They breach the
attachments of family, friendship, love, and community. They shatter the
construction of the self that is formed and sustained in relation to others.
They undermine the belief systems that give meaning to human experience.
They violate the victim’s faith in a natural or divine order and cast the victim
into a state of existential crisis.
-Herman, Judith (1997)Trauma and Recovery
Trauma Shatters Our Assumptions
•  Safety: Do I live in a safe world?
•  Meaning: Why did this happen?
•  Loss of control/Death: I and/or other people
are vulnerable and not in control of everything.
•  Pain: Why is there suffering?
•  Identity: Who am I if this can happen to me/in my
world?
•  Free will: Who is responsible for this trauma?
Trauma Shatters Our Assumptions
•  The college student who experiences a sexual assault or
trauma commonly loses his/her dream of what college
would be.
•  To others, the person who has been assaulted may
appear to be emotionally over-reactive, acting out
(excessive drinking, drugs or sex), clingy, distant,
unengaged, or disconnected.
How Can I Help?
SSN Training Manual, page 57
Resources On Grounds
•  Office of the Dean of Students
–  Sexual Misconduct Board
–  Advocacy, support and guidance
•  Equal Opportunity Programs
–  Sexual misconduct investigations
•  Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center
–  Counseling Services [trauma specialists]
–  Survivor Support Group for Faculty/Staff [jointly run with Women’s Center]
–  Gender Violence and Social Change Program [victim advocacy and
accompaniment, case management, Survivor Support Network training for
faculty, staff, students, Gender Violence and Social Justice course,
publications, prevention and awareness education]
•  Counseling and Psychological Services
–  Short-term counseling for survivors
–  Survivor Support Group for Students [jointly run with Women’s Center]
Resources Off Grounds
•  Sexual Assault Resource Agency
–  24/7 hotline
–  Counseling, advocacy, hospital accompaniment (all services free)
•  Shelter for Help in Emergency
–  24/7 hotline
–  Counseling for shelter residents and non-residents
–  Crisis shelter for women and children; emergency housing for male
survivors of IPV; medical clinic on site; transitional housing
–  Court accompaniment and case management
•  Victim-Witness Programs
–  Support for victim/survivors throughout criminal justice process,
whether or not case is taken to trial
How We Work with Trauma at the
Women’s Center
•  Establishing safety is the first priority
•  Goals that help the student or staff/faculty member
feel in charge of the process
•  Move out of isolation and re-establish social
connections
•  Move into some type of action that is meaningful to
them
•  Trauma Stewardship
Advocacy: Creating Safety for Survivors
•  Be up front at the start regarding
your role (as a Responsible or
Confidential Employee) and
explain that role;
•  Respect confidentiality within the
limits of your role;
•  Listen to, believe, and affirm
survivors’ experiences;
• Avoid judgmental statements and questions that imply bias
(“why did you…” “you should….”)
• Acknowledge the injustices and remind survivor that they are
not at fault;
SSN Training Manual, 51
Advocacy: Creating Safety for Survivors
Allow survivors to prioritize their own goals;
Provide assistance in locating resources and services;
Respect their rights;
Brainstorm options to resolve problems but let them
take the lead and respect their choices;
•  Foster feelings of confidence, control, competence, and
self-help
•  The most important thing you can do is to listen
without judgment. You may be the first person to
have done this.
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How Do We React When We Hear
About Trauma?
—  Feeling helpless and hopeless
—  “I can never do enough”
—  Rigid thinking: It is either this or that – no middle
ground
—  Physical issues
—  Anger and cynicism
—  Numbing
—  Survivors of this violence may be unconsciously
triggered by what they hear and react instinctually