Many non-government agencies state that raising community awareness is a strategy employed to prevent sexual violence, however the resources of these agencies primarily focused on the counselling and support of victims. the programs being run by non-government agencies focus mainly on raising awareness about what causes sexual violence and implementing educational processes within the area and context of a counselling setting (National Youth Affairs research Scheme 1995 cited in Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.57).
Government and non-government education programs which have been developed to respond to sexual violence include:
Protective behaviours
Protective behaviours are an anti-victimisation program that deals with the issue by suggesting non-violent interventions and safely interrupting violence or abusive situations (Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.58). This program is based on two notions:
- ‘we all have the right to feel safe all the time’
- ‘Nothing is so awful that we cant talk with someone about it’ (Queensland Police Service 1997 cited in Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.58)
This program helps individuals to identify dangerous situations, and take action in the best interest of safety. (Queensland Police Service 1997 cited in Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.58). This program covers a range of situations in which it can prevent sexual violence but it can be said that it will not always work under all circumstances, if violence is severe to a point where it cannot be stopped then the intervention would be beyond the individual’s hands, and knowledge alone will not be enough to stop the situation.
Schools Work Towards Gender Equity
Schools work towards gender equity is a program funded by the department of education and relates to gender reform. This program relies heavily on the experiences of school staff and provides a practical guide for Australian schools (Butorac & Lymon 1998 cited in Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.58). according to Buorac and Lymon (1998 cited in Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.58) the focus of the program is to provide schools with material which can be used to analyse gender equity needs as a basis for planning their gender equity programs. This can provide them with a practical guide and help them work on gender issues or work that has already begun.
The national framework is based on five strategies as stated by Cook, David and Grant (2001, p.58):
- understanding the process of the construction of gender;
- Curriculum, teaching and learning
- Violence and school culture;
- Post-school pathways; and
- Supporting change
Key areas covered in this study refer to the interface between gender and violence, Harassment and bullying. In many schools gender construction is identified as the main factor in violent behaviour of boys. Carmody argues that Attitude does not necessarily reflect behaviour and this automatic assumption is a current problem within the Australian anti-violence programs (Department of Training, Education and Youth Affairs 2000 cited in Carmody 2006, p.467). dominant gender relations should not be enforced and there have been hardly any published evaluations which are targeted at gay men or lesbians (Carmody 2006, p.467), even tho this program is run in schools, it cannot simply be assumed that young adolescents do not have sexual identities, there are young gay men and lesbians in schools.
Tell a Friend… It’s Never Too Late
Developed by the New South Wales child protection council, the tell a friend, it’s never to late approach was a strategy aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. It includes a video and a sourcebook which is suitable for use with groups of children in schools (aged 8-13 year), counselling services and any other form of community groups and work in conjunction with other programs such as the protective behaviours program (Cook, David & grant 1002, p.59).
the package aims to ‘raise awareness and understanding of child sexual abuse, promote recognition of sexual abuse, and promote early disclosure of child sexual abuse and to encourage a positive response to the needs of abused children’ (New South Wales Child Protection Council 1997 cited in Cook, David & Grant, p.59).
Sexual Assault: A Resource Book For Students
This program was developed on behalf of the Victorian Centre Against Sexual Assault and is primarily aimed at secondary students with some relevance to tertiary students. (MacDonald 1993 cited in Cook, David & Grant 2001, p. 61). The book contains information on ‘known incidence rates, the myths which surround sexual assault, theoretical understandings relevant to the issue and legal and cultural aspects of sexual assault’ (Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.61). The book has general information on sexual assault and contains some discussions on what to do in case of being sexually assaulted and also has some input from people that have been affected by sexual assault along with protective actions which can be adopted (National Youth Affairs Research Scheme 1995 cited in Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.61).
Boys Talk: A Program For Young Men About Masculinity, Non-Violence And Relationships
Boys Talk is a program developed by Men Against Sexual Assault (MASA) in south Australia which prolongs over a 10-week period. This program has been developed, trialled and implemented by a range of schools, youth custodial institutions and youth health and welfare agencies, it promotes interaction through respectful sharing of ideas, thoughts and experiences (Cook, David & Grant 2001, p.62).
This program encourages men (aged 13-26) to resist aspects of gender identity that hurt themselves and others, and take responsibility for their actions and not participate in violence towards women, children and other men (Mugford & Nelson 1996 cited in David, Cook & Grant 2001, p.62).
Education might be seen by many to be an effective discourse in regards to sexual violence, but it can be argued that its effectiveness is not considered a major one in Australia. The rape prevention efforts on college campuses in the USA which receive federal funding have stopped short in Australia due to funding (Carmody 2006, p.466). a major problem with education as a discourse is that little is know about which programs are effective; you have one program that teaches against violence and introduces non-violent approaches to dealing with the issue, while at the same time you have programs which suggest “training in self-defence” (Gabaeff 2006, p.5). this raises a great concern about the consistency of the programs.
It can be said that knowledge on the impact of crime on victims can lead to behavioural change or in other words, reduce violence, but Carmody (2006, p.467) argues that attitude does not necessarily reflect behaviour.
Another concern is the way which dominant gender relations are reinforced by these programmes (Carmody 2006, p.467), all the programmes which were looked at for this study were mostly for women, while only one was aimed at changing the behaviour of men (Boys Talk), and no published evaluations were found of the anti-rape programmes aimed at lesbians or gay men (Carmody 2006, p.467).
Education as a discourse for sexual violence is effective to the extent that it focuses too much on “preventing” sexual violence, and not so much on intervention. Education might not always be the best way of preventing sexual violence in society, while victims of this crime benefit from education maybe as a path to recovery, it is legal discourses such as early police intervention which might be seen as a better remedy in dealing with this concerning issue. Educational discourses will not always be effective as we don’t know how effective they really are, how it helps the victim or how it prevents the issue from happening in the first place. Biggest question lies within the outcome for offenders of sexual violence in terms of rehabilitation, it can almost be said that educational discourses don’t recognise this term, how is education methods going to rehabilitate an offender better than legal remedies such as imprisonment?
Overall it can be said that tis discourse achieves prevention very well as it outlines the risk factors and teaches those that are vulnerable how to reduce these risks to prevent sexual violence, it attempts to educate society at an early age to lower the number of potential offenders (Boys Talk Program) and looks at tertiary methods in dealing with victims and areas of recovery. ‘education programs delivered to women focus on raising awareness of sexual assault and dispelling women’s belief that “it wont happened to me”, encouraging women to reduce or avoid “risk”, and enhancing “protective” factors’ (Neame 2003, p.11).
References
Carmody, M (2006) ‘Ethical erotics: reconceptualizing anti-rape education’ sexualities: Journal Of Culture And Society, pp 469-485
Cook, B. David, F. Grant, A (2001) ‘Sexual Violence In Australia’ Australian Institute Of Criminology
Gabaeff, S.C (2006) ‘Sexual Assault: Preventing sexual assault’ Medical Board Of California
Website available at: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sexual_assault/article_em.htm
Neame, A (2003) ‘Differing Perspectives on ‘preventing’ sexual assault’ ACSSA Newsletter, 8 No.2, November, pp 8-14
