Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

[Alan Berkowitz <>]

Dear Colleagues,

Over the years I have given a lot of thought to the question of how to 
evaluate men's change in response to sexual assault prevention programs. 
In response to the recent query on this list I would like to share the 
following thoughts and observations. Please forgive me for the length..

Evaluations of sexual assault prevention programs have traditionally 
focused on measures of attitude change as an outcome variable. These 
measures are weak and in addition do not address behavior change. It is 
my belief that men's change occurs along a continuum, and that many of 
the variables along this continuum could serve as outcome measures. The 
ultimate goal, of course, is a reduction in violence against women. 
There are many steps along the way that could help us evaluate if we are 
coming closer to this goal, even when we fail to reach it.

In order to do this it is helpful to think developmentally and ask 
ourselves what process or stages do men go through from being unaware of 
the issue of violence against women and of our privileges as men, to 
being aware activists who will confront and intervene in other men's 
behavior? Here's how I see the stages of change and some of the 
variables that we might survey.

Men's sensitivity to the climate for women on campus

I would survey men and women, to see how safe women feel on campus and 
then to compare men's responses to see if men have any sense of how safe 
women feel.

For example, for women I would ask:

To what extent do you feel safe on campus at night?
What measures do you take to increase your safety when you are on 
campus? (check off examples)
Please rate the following places with respect to how safe you feel in 
them? (your room, the library, walking on campus, etc)

Then I would ask men the same questions in a different format: To what 
extent do you think women feel when they are on campus at night?

The idea here would be to document that men are not aware of the safety 
and violence issues that women face. The outcome variable would be to 
increase men's awareness of these issues so that men's perception is 
closer to the reality of women's  experience.

We could also ask about the actual rates of victimization experienced by 
women and then ask men what they think they are.

Men's attitudes (in addition to rape myths and gender scales)

I would survey men's attitudes for a variety of controversial issues 
such as:

false reporting of rape
if men feel that women get too much attention on campus
if men feel that men don't get enough attention on campus

Misperceptions

Men misperceive other men with respect to a variety of variables

how often men are sexually active
how willing men are to use coercion to get sex
how willing men are to use alcohol to get sex
how much men believe in rape myths

how uncomfortable men are with objectifying and sexist language about women

I would ask men about their behavior, and then to rate other men's 
behavior. The outcome variable would be that men will become more 
accurate in their perception of other men's behavior, thus creating a 
climate for men to act on and express their healthy attitudes and behavior.

Bystander behavior

One goal is to get men to intervene in other men's behavior. To assess 
this I would ask men how often they are uncomfortable with other men's 
behavior or with aspects of rape culture (for example, pornography or 
pin-ups in a friends room). I would expect an increase in discomfort as 
a result of you're a prevention program.

Then I would ask men if they do anything when they are in such 
uncomfortable situations, and what they do. I would expect that we would 
see an increase in interventions as a result of programs directed at men.

There are certainly other outcome variables that could be surveyed. The 
above will hopefully provide some ideas about how to think of evaluation 
of men's programs and help us to identify more salient measures of 
change for me. I would love to hear your thoughts to the above or any 
other suggestions for how we might measure men's change.

Sincerely,


Alan Berkowitz
Trumansburg, NY