John D. Foubert, Ph.D.
National President, One in Four (www.oneinfourusa.org)
Professor, Higher Education and Student Affairs
Oklahoma State University
Principal, John D. Foubert, LLC
John.Foubert@gmail.com
405-338-8046
@JohnFoubert









Not a briefing on SAU policy
Sexual Violence in a Christian Context
Sexual Violence Statistics
Perpetrator Behavior
Today’s Legal Environment
Sexually Explicit Media
Neurobiology of Sexual Trauma
Educating Others about Sexual Violence
Practical Advice


May have fewer cases, but they exist
We answer to a higher authority than the
federal government
 What will we have done to support victims of
trauma?

There are conduct codes that prohibit
consensual behavior
 Stakes even higher for perpetrators
 Reporting even tougher for survivors

Shun, blame, and ridicule (like the Pharasees)
 does nothing to help and everything to harm.
 Pretend we are good, survivors are not, be self-
righteous

Compassion
Matthew 9:36 - When he saw the crowds, he
had compassion for them, because they were
harassed and helpless, like sheep without a
shepherd.




Speaking for God about why things
happened.
Presuming sexual violence is a result of a
survivor’s sin instead of the reality of evil in a
fallen world.
Denying grace to trauma survivors.
Shunning survivors because we
misunderstand, seek to distance ourselves
from, or don’t want to think about it
God is grieved when someone rapes a person made
in His image.
 David’s son, Amnon, raped his half-sister Tamar.
 Amnon planned this rape out carefully, with the
advice on how to carry it out by his uncle, Jonadab.
 Amnon would later regret it when Tamar’s brother,
Absolom, ordered his men to go get Amnon drunk
and then kill him.
 Absolom’s men obeyed that order, and Amnon, the
rapist, was struck dead.





Rape is well-planned
Rape is often encouraged by others.
At some point, God will deliver justice to
men who commit rape.
When a man decides to rape a woman and
does so, he is raping one of God’s daughters.
And woe be unto the one who rapes one of
God’s daughters.



Paul exhorts us to avoid sexual immorality,
even noting that the sexually immoral will not
inherit the kingdom of God, the people of that
day recognized rape as one of the acts that was
sexually immoral.
Will all who commit rape not inherit the
Kingdom of God?
I don’t think the full counsel of scripture would
say so. Some (rare) cases who commit heinous
crimes and then recognize their need for Jesus
and accept him as Savior and Lord (Paul).

Use Data-Based Approach
 Educate about Helping Survivors
 Focus on Bystander Intervention
 Use Different Approaches for Men &
Women
Sexual Violence Statistics
A look at generalizable studies


Rape during high school
Attempted rape
11.8%
1.2%

Total
13.0%

Young, Gray & Boyd, 2009

Women

Men




Fisher, Cullen & Turner; US Department of Justice, 2006
Kilpatrick, Resnick, Riggierio, Conoscenti, & McCauley, 2007; American College Health Association, 2013
(Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006).
(Dube et al., 2005).
 One in four – lifetime
 5% per year in college
 3%
 16%
 11% of college men
 Men are the perpetrators in 98% of cases
where woman is survivor and 93% of cases
where man is survivor.


(Swartout, Koss, White, Thompson, Abbey, & Bellis, 2015).
(Black, Basile, Breiding, Smith, Walters, & Merrick, 2011).
Survivors and Perpetrators
A Frank Discussion

Difficulty being assertive

Delayed response to danger

Binge drink frequently

More consensual sex

In sororities

Consume alcohol two or more times a week

Have peer support for behaving in an
emotionally, physically, and sexually violent
manner toward women
(DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 2014)
Believe women lie about not wanting sex.
Have low empathy.
 Are more sexually active than other men.
 View women as sexual objects to be conquered, coerced and
used for self-gratification.
 Much more likely to believe women and men should have
separate and proper roles in society.
 Needs to dominate be in control of women.
 Behave in rigidly and stereotypically masculine ways, on the
alert for any perceived slight to their masculine identities.
 View aggression and violence as marker of his adequacy.



Lisak & Miller, 2002

Who Are the Perpetrators?

Transcript of an Interview

Woman never reported, thus he was
‘undetected’

What was the woman going through?

What does he believe about women?

Does he define his behavior as rape?

In what ways is this person like some men
you have met at some point in your life?

When they talked this way, did you think
they might be rapists?

Did he plan to rape this woman?

Was he just overcome by his lust?

Who supported his plan?

How might his friends challenge these
attitudes and behaviors?

How might your students challenge him –
here or at home with friends there?
 We need to teach students
 Being that guy is not ok
 We might all be a friend of that guy
The Legal Environment of Today
Title IX, VAWA, Campus SAVE, etc.

Federal civil rights law that prohibits
discrimination on the basis of sex in federally
funded education programs and activities.

All public and private elementary and
secondary schools, school districts, colleges,
and universities receiving any federal
financial assistance must comply with Title IX.

In the late 1980s, the Department of
Education for the first time stated that Title
IX applied to gender-based violence.

The United States Supreme Court also ruled
in a series of cases that sexual harassment
and assault were civil rights issues providing
redress under Title IX.

”Unwelcome”
 a person subjectively does not want sex (may be
easier to establish at a Christian College).
 a student did not "request or invite" it and if she
"regarded the conduct as undesirable or offensive.”

Conduct is unwelcome if a student acts out of
fear, or because her capacity is diminished due
to alcohol or drugs.

March 7, 2013 – VAWA Reauthorization passed
Congress with Campus SAVE act as
amendments.

Next, a long process to operationalize it

July 2015 – Regulations from US Dept. of Ed.
take effect



Applies to every institution using federal
financial aid
Include information about available programs
for DV, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault and
Stalking in annual security report
Procedures, standard of evidence, sanctions,
data, programming
Sexually Explicit Media
A Catalyst for Sexual Violence
Low/Rare
Violence
More
Violent
Extremely
Violent
 88% of scenes: Spanking, open-hand slapping,
hair pulling, choking, and bondage
 41% of movies: man puts penis in a woman’s
anus then her mouth (ATM)

Another practice: Shoving penis down throat to cause
gagging and vomiting.

(Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, Sun, & Liberman, 2010; Malarek, 2009).
Man hits woman
95%
Pleasure
No response
She likes
to be hit.
(Bridges, Wosnitzer,
Scharrer, Sun,
& Liberman, 2010)
If he hits me,
I should like it.
The Neurobiology of Sexual
Trauma
What Happens in the Brain?

Changing disposition of survivors
throughout the process

Rape Trauma Syndrome/PTSD
 Acute Disorganization
 Denial
 Long Term Reorganization
 Integration/Recovery
Does the way the brain
works during trauma have
anything to do with how a
survivor reacts?
Does the way the brain
remembers events have
anything to do with how a
survivor reports an
assault?
Hypothalamus:
sends message to
the pituitary gland.
Pituitary
contacts the
adrenals.
Adrenals:
Trauma! Release
hormones!
Adrenaline
helps with the fight
Catecholamines
help with the flight
Opiates
natural morphine to fight
physical pain
Oxytocin
increase positive feelings to
counteract emotional pain

Hippocampus – turns information into
memories. Organizes information. Groups
information together and stores it in the
correct place in the correct part of the brain.

Amygdala -- If the information involves emotion
or fear, it goes to the amygdala first and then to
the hypothalamus to make it a memory.

Amygdala and hippocampus are highly
influenced by changes in hormone levels.
Hormones help and harm the person
experiencing trauma.

Southwick et al., 2005

Help: Huge release of hormones help the
emotional and physical safety of survivor.

Harm: Hormone release also makes it very
hard for the brain to save and remember
information!
Massive
Amygdala
detects a
threat.
Activates the
Hippocampus
Hippocampus
tells the adrenals
to send out
hormones.
flood of
hormones
enter the
blood
stream.
At extremely high levels during a sexual assault
Good:
Bad:
Worse:
Very helpful for fight or flight
Very harmful for memory!
(Memory is accurate but fragmented,
unless too much alcohol).
They get in the way of rational thought!
During an assault, survivor often doesn’t think to
do something rational “you could have, should
have done this,” and they can’t even do them.
Roozendale et al, 2009; Rubin et al., 2008; Cambpell, 2013
Good:
Blocks physical and emotional pain.
Bad:
Cause flat affect.
Worse:
Flat affect makes survivors seem
aloof and uncaring about what
happened.
Terrible: People question veracity of survivor
because she isn’t as emotional as they
expect.

The body is working on blocking pain, so it
has less energy.
Many victims freeze!

Flood of 4 hormones lead to either:

 Fight
 Flight
 Freeze – tonic immobility; the body shuts down.





Autonomic nervous system response
(automatic; not under our control)
Happens to all mammals in extremely fearful
situations.
Not a conscious response.
Body shuts down, plays dead, because it is the
safest thing for survival.
Almost 50% of rape victims experience this!





A college house party -- common context for
sexual assault on campus.
20 year old woman went with her friends.
Met a guy there, liked him, flirted, and
engaged in consensual touching in one of the
bedrooms – not sex.
He began to try to have intercourse, she said
“no, no, no, I don’t want to do this. I don’t
know you.”
(Campbell, 2013)



He doesn’t listen, and pins her down with his
forearm; not hard to do for a man larger than a
woman.
She realizes she is pinned down and he is going
to rape her, is extremely fearful, then – bam –
hormone flood happens producing tonic
immobility.
She is completely frozen throughout the rape.

He completes his assault, sees her just lying
there, goes out of the room to his buddies
and says “I just had sex with Jane Doe and she
is still in there.”

Men lined up on the porch and went in the
bedroom one by one, to rape her, while she
remained in tonic immobility.



One of her friends overhears the guys talking
about lining up on the porch to go in and
sexually assault her.
Friend barges in and gets woman out.
Main point:
 “I felt like I was lifting a dead body. I was like
shaking her, trying to get her to like snap out of it.
I had to sort of physically drag her out of there.”




Friend takes her to the hospital, she emerges
tonic immobility before getting there.
A sexual assault exam is done, a police report is
filed.
Police would not pick up the kit.
Because she was sexually assaulted by multiple
men at the party, they said the kit would be “a
sloppy mess” and it would be too difficult to
figure out whose DNA was in there.

Police closed the case.
 “Well, she just laid there, so she must have wanted
it. No one wants to have a train pulled on them, so
if she just laid there and took it, she must have
wanted it.”



He is trying to make sense of what happened.
He assumes she wanted it, because he doesn’t
know of an alternate explanation.
The other explanation is tonic immobility, and
he just didn’t know about tonic immobility. A
documented, neurobiological condition.
What an opportunity for change!
How to Educate People About
About Sexual Violence
Theory, Research and Practical Suggestions

To produce lasting attitude change,
messages must be designed to maintain
people's existing self-conceptions
(Grube, Mayton & Ball-Rokeach, 1984).
 Behavior
change most likely:
 Motivated to hear the message
 Can Understand it Well
 Perceive it as Personally Relevant
(Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

Goal is to give everyone the skills to
intervene and reach out to help others.

Creates a broad community context for
prevention that includes everyone.

Makes it very difficult for people to say “this
doesn’t apply to me”

Bring in the Bystander (Victoria Banyard, UNH)
 Bystander efficacy, willingness, rape myth acceptance

Mentors in Violence Prevention (Jackson Katz)
 Lower levels of sexism, increased belief that they could prevent
violence against women

Green Dot (Dorothy Edwards)
 Rape myth acceptance and increased bystander intervention

The Men’s and Women’s Programs (John Foubert)
 Decline in sexual assault, rape myth acceptance, increase
bystander willingness and efficacy, increase in empathy
(Banyard, Moynihan & Plante, 2007; Banyard, Plante & Moynihan, 2004; Cissner, 2009; Coker, Cook-Craig, Williams,
Fisher, Clear, Garcia & Hegge, 2011; Foubert, Newberry & Tatum, 2007; Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Foubert, Brasfield,
Hill, & Shelley-Tremblay, 2011)


All-Male
Tone does not assume students are
sexually active
 Helps Christian College Students relate to
program regardless of their behavior

Focus:
 How to Help Survivor
 Bystander Intervention

Lowers the rate of sexually coercive behavior among
high risk men by 40%.

Decreases the severity of sexually coercive behavior
among high risk men eight fold.
Increases empathy toward female rape survivors.
 Two years after program participation, 79% of
participants reported either attitude or behavior
change due to the program’s effects or that the
program reinforced their current beliefs.
 Increases bystander intervention.

(Foubert, Godin & Tatum, 2010; Foubert & Newberry, 2006; Foubert, Newberry & Tatum, 2007; LanghinrichsenRohling, Foubert, Brasfiled, Hill, & Shelley-Tremblay, 2011).






Building rapport and basic definitions.
Video interviewing a man who set a woman up
so he could rape her.
Process video so you can help friends avoid
guys like him
How to help a friend who survives rape.
Interactive exercise about intervening as
bystanders.
Commitment to intervening.




Significant increases in bystander efficacy
Significant increases in bystander willingness to help
Greater ability to recognize risk cues
Greater willingness to engage in self-protective
behaviors
 Greater level of self-efficacy in handling threatening
dating situations


Foubert, J.D. & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., Brasfield, H., & Hill, B. (2010). Effects of a rape awareness program on college
women: Increasing bystander efficacy and willingness to intervene. Journal of Community Psychology, 38, 813-827.
Bannon, R. S. (2014). The bystander approach to sexual assault risk reduction: Effects on risk recogniation, perceived selfefficacy, and protective behavior. Doctoral Dissertation.
Practical Advice
What to Say


Share your values regarding when it is ok to
be intimate with another person.
Discuss how to establish consent.
 “How do you know someone you are interested in
wants to kiss you?”

Discuss how to intervene as an active
bystander.
 “If you are visiting some high school friends and
find yourself in a situation where you see a drunk
girl going off with a guy to his room, do you think
you have any responsibility to do something?”

“What kind of man do you hope to become in
the next 4 years?
 What experiences should you have, or not have, to
get there?”

“If you decide to drink alcohol and you are not
sober, what kinds of decisions do you think you
can make at that point?
 What kinds of decisions can you not make at that
point?
 Can you have consent to do something physical with
another person then?”

Note how common rape is, and how they can
help their friends avoid and recover from it.

Say it is OK to be ‘rude’ and leave a room or
friend’s house party if they think it is looking
sketchy.



Say how much you admire when they stand
up for themselves.
Talk about when it is ok to be assertive, and
when it is best not to.
Make sure they know they can always tell
you anything.
 Now that they are an ‘adult’ you will do more
listening, advice giving if they want it. You will
always support them.

Hospital
Listen
She makes the decisions
Believe
Don’t ask a lot of questions!
Counselor

If He is raped….








Oneinfourusa.org
Book: Rid of my Disgrace by Justin and
Lindsey Holcomb.
Online hotline from rainn.org.
1,270,000
145
(Black, Basile, Breiding, Smith, Walters, & Merrick, 2011).
ONE in FOUR college women have
survived rape or attempted rape.
Statistics can change.
Everyone can help.
One in Four™ and the One in Four logo are registered trademarks of One in Four, Inc.
All rights reserved.