Interview with Christopher Krebs on Campus Sexual Assault, Part 1

Drugs and Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Thomas Feucht: Hi, Chris. I’m glad you could take time to be with us today. Tell us a little bit about this study on campus sexual assault and drug-facilitated sexual assault.

Christopher Krebs: Sure, thank you for having me. We conducted the campus sexual assault study for NIJ and our intention was to collect data on the prevalence and nature of different types of sexual assault on college campuses. And when I say different types of sexual assault, what I’m referring to are different modes, different tactics used by perpetrators to sexually victimize women. Sometimes women are physically forced and sometimes they’re sexually assaulted when they are incapacitated and unable to provide consent.

We conducted a Web-based survey with these samples of women. We choose the Web-based survey methodology because it’s an incredibly efficient way to collect data. This is a very Internet-savvy population who’s comfortable entering information in this way. And it also afforded respondents a completely anonymous and private survey environment, which we know improves the quality and validity and honesty of responses. So we feel very good about that methodology.

Thomas Feucht: And what were the results from the study? What kind of things did you find out?

Christopher Krebs: We found that sexual assault when women are incapacitated and unable to provide consent is the most common type of sexual assault. About 11 percent of the women in our sample were victims of incapacitated sexual assault. About 5 percent of the women in our sample were victims of physically forced sexual assault, so they were physically forced or threatened with force into having unwanted sexual contact. We also asked about this concept of drug-facilitated sexual assault, which is when a woman is sexually assaulted when she’s incapacitated after having been given a drug without her knowledge or consent. And we found that this type of sexual assault was relativity rare—less than 1 percent of our sample, or 31 women in our sample, were victims of drug-facilitated sexual assault.

Thomas Feucht: Those sound like small numbers. We hear an awful lot about sexual assault and drug-facilitated rape. Do these numbers surprise you or are they square with what the research to date has said?

Christopher Krebs: You’re right. We do hear a lot about drug-facilitated sexual assault, and I think possibly because of the media attention that’s been directed towards it and there certainly have been some high-profile cases. I won’t say that it surprises me, but it certainly has surprised some people who are interested in the issue.

 One interesting fact is that we found that a fairly large proportion of our women, 5.3 percent of the women in our study, had been given a drug without their knowledge or consent at some point since entering college. But the reality is that very few of those women were subsequently sexually assaulted. So, clearly, women being given a drug without their knowledge or consent does happen on college campuses and I think that we should all be concerned about that. But I think the reality is that actually instances of drug-facilitated sexual assault, although they do happen, continue to be relatively rare.

Thomas Feucht: Chris, these are interesting results. In general, when we think about crime and being at risk, we often feel most at risk and most ill at ease when we’re in circumstances that are unfamiliar to us or in situations or with people that are strangers to us. This doesn’t sound like what’s happening in terms of campus sexual assault?

Christopher Krebs: You’re exactly right. Our data suggest that a lot of sexual assaults happen at parties. A lot of the victims of sexual assault are victimized by people who they know. These sexual assaults seem to often happen in social situations where alcohol is being consumed and where people are seemingly comfortable with who they’re around and their surroundings.

Thomas Feucht: The victims surrounded by people that they know and that they are familiar with?

Christopher Krebs: Yes, that certainly seems to be the case.

Thomas Feucht: We’re both fathers. We both got daughters. What do you want to see happen on college campuses? What should students and faculty and campus administrators know about this, or do about this, to keep women safer?

Christopher Krebs: I think that’s an excellent question. And I think there’s lot already being done. But certainly I think that more can be done.

First, I think a point worth mentioning is that perhaps college is too late. Some of the data that we collected show us that a large proportion of these women who were sexually victimized were sexually victimized before they ever got to college. And we also find that women who were sexually victimized before college were much more likely to be sexually victimized during college. So there is a real pattern of re-victimization here.

So certainly, I think a lot more needs to be done even before men and women get to college, in terms of educating them about sexual assault and how to avoid being a victim or a perpetrator for that matter. Because as we educate student about sexual victimization and what the consequences of sexual victimization may be and what the risk factors may be, we are educating women who may be victims in the future and, therefore, may know how to respond and what to do. But we are also educating their friends and we think those friends present a real opportunity to work with victims when they find out about sexual victimization and can talk to them about what resources are available and what they can do to seek services. Because we know that the consequences for sexual assault can be very serious. Physically, certainly emotionally and mentally, and those consequences can be short-term and long-term. And if reaching out to peers of sexual assault victims is one way to get them needed services, we think that is an important opportunity for campuses to capitalize upon.

But as far as what colleges can do, I certainly think more can be done to educate men and women about the dangers of alcohol. The link between alcohol and the risk for sexual assault are pretty overwhelming and undeniable, according to our data. Other researchers have found the same thing, but it really is an unbelievable relationship between consuming alcohol and the likelihood of being sexually victimized. So I certainly think any sexually assault prevention messages have to include a lot of discussion about the dangers of alcohol and consuming alcohol to excess.

I also think it’s very important that sexual assault prevention messages be delivered early in the college career of students. Because our data suggests that freshman and sophomores are at greatest risk of being sexually victimized. In fact, our data even suggests that the months during which sexual assault is most likely to happen are the fall months, the beginning of the school year. So we think it’s important that sexual assault prevention message be delivered early in the students’ college careers. We also think that they ought to be delivered often. We don’t think this is “once and done” approach to prevention. We think it needs to be delivered throughout someone’s college career.

Thomas Feucht: Chris, it sounds like a great piece of research. We’re glad that you were able to complete the study and share the results with us here. Thanks for coming in.