Security Guards, CCTV, and Panic Buttons Won't End Rape at University

There's a popular idea of what campus sexual assault looks like. The Law & Order version: a young, usually white, female student who leaves the library after a long night studying. The brazen stranger who stalks her across the empty, darkened quad. He attacks, and she's left for dead.

The recently released Changing the Course report into sexual assault and harassment at Australian universities lays bare a very different reality. Surveying more than 30,000 students from 39 unis around the country, the landmark report found 1.6 percent of students were sexually assaulted in a "university setting" in 2016. That means in classrooms and around campus, but also on the tram on the way to campus, at uni social events, or while a student is working for the university.

With an estimated 1.3 million students enrolled universities around the country, the scale of the problem comes into sharp focus: at these rates, some 20,800 students may have been sexually assaulted at Australian unis last year.

But if we now know more than we ever did ever about this issue, is it possible to end on-campus sexual assault in Australia? What actually works, and what's a waste of time?

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O-Week, and the days following, is known commonly known as "the red zone" by counselling services. Organisations including Canberra Rape Crisis Centre and Rape and Domestic Violence Services have spoken publicly about being flooded with calls during this window from students who've been assaulted. US research points to a similar pattern, suggesting students are most at risk of assault in the first two months of their first year at college.

It makes sense then that many residential colleges, clubs and societies, and student unions try to start the year with consent training for students. Increasingly, universities are also offering training around respectful relationships. But make no mistake, one online quiz isn't going to have any impact on sexual assault rates.

"Universities in the US require students to complete mandatory consent training before they are allowed to enrol in their course," says Sharna Bremner, the director of End Rape on Campus (EROC) Australia. "So if you haven't completed the training, the system physically won't allow you to enrol."

But Bremner says she doesn't know of any institution in Australia that's made consent training a condition of getting into your course. While some unis have introduced "online training modules" around consent, she doesn't think they are good enough. "You can click through them without answering a question," Bremner explains. "You can literally just click through to the end and it says you've done it."

This isn't just a case of a missed opportunity. Research suggests badly designed consent training can actually make things worse. And a recent survey found that, in 2017, only one-in-six university residential colleges would involve a qualified sexual assault service in their consent training.

In the days after Changing the Course's release, Curtin, Edith Cowan, Murdoch, Notre Dame, UWA, the University of Canberra, and the University of Sydney all committed to enhancing security on campus. Many others have already installed security lighting, CCTV cameras, panic buttons, and emergency phones.

And when advising students on how to stay safe, almost every uni relies on the same stock phrases: walk in well lit areas, call security if you feel threatened. There's little evidence though to suggest any of these interventions make a difference.

"I'm not aware of any research that points to any significant reduction in rates of assault that is directly linked to the use of [CCTV cameras, panic buttons, and security guards]," says Professor Andrea Durbach, who recently released her own comprehensive report on what Australian universities need to be doing to reduce sexual assault and harassment. "In isolation, they cannot really serve to make a significant difference to the problem."

Looking at CCTV in particular, studies have found time and again they do very little to reduce crime. While cameras may affect behaviour when they are first installed, this impact quickly fades. And given what we now know about the nature of campus assault, attacks are more often than not happening in private spaces—far from CCTV cameras, security guards, and panic buttons.

"What was really clear in the report was that people are being sexually assaulted in residences and at university events, by people they know. Lighting and CCTV cameras don't actually prevent those sorts of assaults, and they make up the vast majority of assaults that are taking place," Bremner says. "Those sorts of things are pretty superficial responses."

Amy Culp agrees. She's the director of the Sexual Harassment & Rape Prevention Program (SHARPP) at the University of New Hampshire, which was just voted America's safest college. Amidst the panic that's gripped the US around campus sexual assault, SHARPP has been looked to as a beacon of best practice.

"Highly visible interventions can be one component of prevention," Culp says. "However, we know that it is not the only component."

For UNH, Amy Culp says the key has been changing behaviour through education, not intimidating potential offenders with security. "Internally, our office says we hope that one department (prevention and education)… puts the other department (response) out of business," she says.

But consent training that's actually effective is rare. A recent review by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of 140 programs attempting to reduce sexual violence, found only three had any real impact on behaviour long term. And two of these were designed for middle school students.

The one college course that showed any promise, RealConsent, targets only male students but did see lasting results. Even six months after the course, these young men were intervening more often and engaging in less sexual violence. And all they needed to do was complete six 30-minute online training modules.

In Canada, there's been research to suggest that "resistance training" for women can significantly reduce their risk of assault. However, perpetrators tend to just move onto other targets who've not had training—so this approach does little to reduce overall rape statistics.

According to QUT's Michael Flood, the most effective consent training happens face-to-face. He says students need to be attending at least five of these sessions, and they need to be interactive. "They must tackle the factors known to drive violence, including violence-supportive and sexist attitudes and gender inequalities," he says. "[And] tackle both physical and sexual violence."

For Professor Durbach, cultural change needs to happen at the university level, but she's also thinking beyond their walls. She wants to see serious national reform, like the government making university assaults a priority under the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010–2022.

Sasha Bremner also wants to see the government take leadership on the issue of campus sexual assault. She points to the US' Cleary Act, which requires all universities to log and publish crime stats, including sex offences. In 2013, the Act was amended in 2013 to also mandate that universities educate student, faculty, and staff about rape, abuse, stalking, and more.

Australian universities don't have any of these federal requirements.

"We know the federal department of education has threatened to withhold funding from universities if they didn't adhere to certain other things the government thought they should be doing," Bremner adds. "If universities aren't able, or aren't willing, to act to ensure student safety… I would love to see the federal government withhold funding from them.

"Because if there's one thing universities understand, it's the bottom line. They understand money."

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