![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/campuscameras.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The excitement of entering a new academic year for university and college students can be palpable and filled with hope. But the start of the school year in post-secondary settings also has a shadow side, known as the\u00a0red zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n The red zone is one of the riskier times for gender-based and sexualized violence to occur \u2014 about\u00a050 per cent of sexual assaults on campus<\/a>\u00a0happen during this period. The impact on victims can be tremendous and devastating.<\/p>\n Others on campus are left to worry about their personal safety, while families and friends become concerned about their loved ones being on campus grounds or attending campus events.<\/p>\n After an incident of violence occurs, universities and colleges start thinking about\u00a0reputational harm<\/a>\u00a0and what impact this might have on enrolment in the long-term.<\/p>\n The post-secondary environment is a unique community focused on teaching and learning. Education should be at the heart of these learning environments, but this is affected after on-campus incidents of assault.<\/p>\n Victims have expressed feelings that an assault forces them to the margins of these communities. They experience institutional betrayal when their university or college failed to have policies or measures that would ensure their safety and failed to do what was reasonably expected to prevent further violence.<\/p>\n Post-secondary institutions and their communities should be resolutely driven to maintain a\u00a0strong, safe and quality-focused place of learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n Universities and colleges also need to focus on prevention and intervention in their campus community, in addition to\u00a0effectively responding to victims and the individuals who caused harm<\/a>. Ensuring campus safety and reducing reputational harm to the institution means assessing every incidence of gender-based and sexualized violence.<\/p>\n It is important to not only assess the risk presented by perpetrators, but to also proactively identify areas within the institution that may enable future gender-based and sexualized violence to occur on campus. This analysis should be the sole responsibility of the institution \u2014 using a risk assessment tool can help meet such objectives.<\/p>\n It can be used to identify those areas that are in need of intervention or areas where prevention work can happen.<\/p>\n In light of the enormous scientific research in the field of risk assessment, it is surprising there has been no tool developed for use in universities and colleges. To address this gap, the\u00a0Gender-Based and Sexualized Violence Community Risk Assessment Tool<\/a>\u00a0was launched in September.<\/p>\n We developed the tool to help prevent gender-based and sexualized violence on campus. We reviewed existing risk assessment tools for sexual and intimate partner violence and comprehensively reviewed research literature on campus sexual violence and gender-based violence risk factors.<\/p>\n We also conducted an environmental scan of risk assessment tools in use to ensure there weren\u2019t tools that were unpublished but being used by practitioners. Our research helped us identify over 20 risk factors.<\/p>\n We then convened two advisory groups to help us determine which factors would be included in a final tool. Each group was comprised of sexual violence co-ordinators, student conduct officers, academic administrators, violence risk experts and, most importantly, students. These post-secondary stakeholders were drawn from across the country, from a variety of institutions and represented a number of viewpoints from across the post-secondary community.<\/p>\n The resulting tool includes 16 risk factors clustered into four groups related to the victim, campus community, violence incidence and the person who caused harm. A few of these 16 risk factors included institutional student life culture, sexual preoccupation and participation in hypermasculine culture.Institutional betrayal<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Identifying areas of risk<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n