Responding to Gendered Violence Among College Students: The Impact of Participant Characteristics on Direct Bystander Intervention Behavior

ABSTRACT

Bystander intervention has been an effective strategy for crime prevention and has been successful in the context of campus sexual assault. Less is known about the extent to which individual-level factors correlate with intervention behavior in situations of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual harassment. The present study used a sample of 377 undergraduate student surveys on a campus without a bystander intervention program to examine the impact of individual-level participant factors on direct intervention across sexual assault, IPV, and sexual harassment scenarios. Findings demonstrated statistically significant differences where positive bystander attitudes and violence prevention efficacy correlated with direct intervention for sexual assault; positive bystander attitudes, personality extroversion, and exposure to a victim increased intervention behavior in an IPV scenario, and positive bystander attitudes and violence prevention efficacy increased direct intervention and lifetime experience of IPV decreased direct intervention in a sexual harassment scenario. Research and policy implications are discussed.