CAREER: The Efficacy of Sexual Assault Mandatory Reporting Policies

性侵犯是对高等教育机构内部安全和受教育机会的严重威胁，特别是对妇女和代表性不足的群体。美国教育部民权办公室试图通过第九条指导来纠正这一问题，指示各机构制定政策，解决性侵犯问题，并确保性侵幸存者平等接受教育。当学院和大学解释和执行联邦法律指令时，很少有人关注评估由此产生的政策是否达到了预期的目标。许多机构制定了政策，要求大多数员工向大学官员报告他们了解的性侵情况，即使经历过性侵的人不想报告。据推测，这些强制性报告政策将增加报告并使幸存者受益，但缺乏证据支持这些假设。重新获得自主感和控制感对于幸存者在袭击后的康复至关重要，一些强制性的报告政策做法可能会造成意外伤害。因此，了解学院和大学强制性报告性侵犯政策的效果和结果，对于制定最能支持幸存者并确保平等接受教育的政策至关重要。这一职业项目将从两所高等教育机构(例如，强制性报告政策文本)和机构成员(即教职员工和学生)收集定性数据。对这些机构和个人层面的数据的分析将实现三个研究目标。研究目标1将评估机构强制报告政策如何反映在教职员工和学生对这些政策的理解和态度中，以及如何偏离这些政策。研究目标2将确定强制性报告政策对教职员工和学生的行为和结果的影响。然后，研究目标3将阐明教职员工和学生对给予幸存者更大自主权的强制性报告政策实践的看法。这些目标将得到教育目标的支持和支持，这些教育目标的重点是加强学生在定性研究方法和分析方面的培训和传播，并通过研究生研讨会和研究人力资源政策的实践经验来支持。教育目标2将为机构领导人和政策制定者提供机会，让他们了解如何利用定性研究来评估和制定循证政策。这项研究的结果将增进我们对学院和大学强制性报告性侵犯政策如何从纸面转化为实践的理解，确定此类政策在解决性侵犯和支持性侵犯幸存者(例如，确保他们获得教育的机会)方面的有效性，并促进基于证据的政策制定。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Sexual assault is a serious threat to safety and educational access within institutions of higher education, especially for women and underrepresented groups. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has attempted to remedy this issue via Title IX guidance, instructing institutions to establish policies that can address sexual assault and ensure assault survivors’ equal access to education. As colleges and universities interpret and implement federal legal directives, little attention has been paid to assessing whether the resulting policies achieve their intended aims. Many institutions have created policies that require most employees to report sexual assault they learn about to university officials, even if the person who experienced the sexual assault does not want to report. It is assumed that these mandatory reporting policies will increase reports and benefit survivors, but there is a lack of evidence to support those assumptions. Regaining a sense of autonomy and control is essential for survivors’ healing after an assault, and some mandatory reporting policy practices may cause unintended harm. Therefore, understanding the effects and outcomes of college and university mandatory reporting policies for sexual assault is essential for creating policies that best support survivors and ensure equal access to education.This CAREER project will collect qualitative data from both institutions of higher education (e.g., mandatory reporting policy text) and institutional members (i.e., faculty/staff members and students) at two institutions of higher education. The analysis of these institutional- and individual-level data will achieve three research aims. Research Aim 1 will evaluate how institutional mandatory reporting policies are reflected in and deviate from faculty/staff and students’ understandings and attitudes of those policies. Research Aim 2 will determine the impact of mandatory reporting policies on faculty/staff and students’ behaviors and outcomes. Research Aim 3 will then elucidate faculty/staff and students’ perspectives on mandatory reporting policy practices that afford survivors greater autonomy. These aims will support and be supported by education aims focused on enhance student training and dissemination in qualitative research methods and analysis, and through a graduate seminar and hands-on experience researching MR policies. Education Aim 2 will provide opportunities for institutional leaders and policymakers to learn about the use of qualitative research to evaluate and create evidence-based policy. Findings from this research will advance our understanding of how college and university mandatory reporting policies for sexual assault are translated from paper into practice, determine the efficacy of such policies for addressing sexual assault and supporting sexual assault survivors (e.g., ensuring their access to education), and facilitate evidence-based policymaking.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.