Campus Violence: Home

The fear of campus sexual assault has become an inextricable part of the college experience. And for far too many students, that fear is realized. Research has shown that by the time they graduate, as many as one in three women and almost one in six men will have been sexually assaulted. But why is sexual assault such a common feature of college life? And what can be done to prevent it? Sexual Citizens provides answers. Drawing on the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) at Columbia University, the most comprehensive study of sexual assault on a campus to date, Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan present an entirely new framework that emphasizes sexual assault's social roots, transcending current debates about consent, predators in a "hunting ground," and the dangers of hooking up. Sexual Citizens is based on years of research interviewing and observing college life--with students of different races, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Hirsch and Khan's landmark study reveals the social ecosystem that makes sexual assault so predictable, explaining how physical spaces, alcohol, peer groups, and cultural norms influence young people's experiences and interpretations of both sex and sexual assault. Through the powerful concepts of "sexual projects," "sexual citizenship," and "sexual geographies," the authors offer a new and widely-accessible language for understanding the forces that shape young people's sexual relationships. Empathetic, insightful, and far-ranging, Sexual Citizens transforms our understanding of sexual assault and offers a roadmap for how to address it.

Sexual assault on the campuses of universities and private schools appears to be on the rise. Alcohol and fraternities are easy targets, but the issue is much more complicated. Despite attempts made by administrators to define consent clearly, it can be a legal gray area. Students condemned by a school's excessively broad definition of sexual assault can be branded rapists long after graduation. Victims must face their attackers on campus because administrators prefer to keep incidents out of the hands of law enforcement. Through balanced viewpoints, this powerful anthology addresses the complexities of an issue that has important social repercussions.