The challenge
Sexual violence, which includes sexual harassment, is often first experienced in middle or high school, but bystander programmes had rarely been rigorously evaluated in high schools.
The case
Green Dot is a bystander programme, originally developed for college students and adapted for high schools, that trains people to recognise situations that may lead to violence and to act directly, distract or delegate to reduce the likelihood of violence. In a cluster randomized trial led by Ann Coker at the University of Kentucky, 26 Kentucky high schools in 13 rape crisis centre regions were randomized to receive the programme or to a wait-list control. From fall 2010, trained rape crisis centre educators gave schoolwide presentations and recruited student popular opinion leaders for bystander training. Anonymous surveys were completed by 89,707 students between 2010 and 2014. In Years 3 and 4, when Green Dot was fully implemented, sexual violence perpetration in intervention schools relative to control schools had prevalence rate ratios of 0.83 and 0.79, and the researchers estimated the programme prevented 120 and 88 sexual violence events in those years. Similar patterns were observed for sexual harassment, stalking and dating violence.
Why it worked
The researchers conclude that Green Dot 'significantly decreased not only sexual violence perpetration but also other forms of interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization'; the reported reductions are for Years 3 and 4, when the programme was fully implemented.
Sources
- Coker, A. L., Bush, H. M., Cook-Craig, P. G., DeGue, S. A., Clear, E. R., Brancato, C. J., Fisher, B. S., & Recktenwald, E. A. (2017). RCT testing bystander effectiveness to reduce violence. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 52(5), 566–578.
- Bush, H. M., Coker, A. L., DeGue, S., Clear, E. R., Brancato, C. J., & Fisher, B. S. (2021). Do violence acceptance and bystander actions explain the effects of Green Dot on reducing violence perpetration in high schools? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(21–22), 10753–10774.
Spot an error or know a better source? Tell us