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

["Foubert, John" <>]

Lynn,

 

Although this doesn’t answer your question in the context of a counseling relationship, I began asking applicants to my all-male sexual assault peer education groups about their prior sexual behavior several years ago after I found that I was seeing perpetrators (past or future) getting into my One in Four chapters.  This was, as you can imagine, deeply unsettling.

 

The question I came up with after many iterations is below.  What I found is that with the follow-up questions used, respondents tended to answer in forthright fashion and I was able to get a wide variety of responses.  On that basis I weeded out applicants for peer education groups.  I do recognize that there are different schools of thought as to where the line should be on prior behavior for sexual assault peer educators.  For me, it is a combination of how severe the behavior was on the consent continuum, how long ago it was, and the degree of insight the individual has about the behavior.  I did find that this was useful though:

 

1.      Tell me about the time in your life when your behavior came the closest to meeting the legal definition of sexual assault? 

2.      Follow up if candidate says never: We recognize that there is nobody in our group who has always behaved perfectly.  We also talk about consent occurring on a continuum with rape at one end, say there is a continuum of 1 to 100 with rape being 100, and a “1” is a written contract where you decide ahead of time verbally and in writing everything you are going to do, sign it with witnesses, and have it on file in the Court Clerk’s office.  So with 1 being that, and 100 being rape, if you think about your whole life and any intimate activity in which you have engaged – anything from kissing to intercourse – think about that one time in your life when your behavior came closest to 100 on that scale, that one time you wish you could do things over, where it came closest to 100.  It could be a “2” on that scale, a “20” or who knows what.  Talk with us about that time and describe to us in detail what happened. (Ask more probing questions as needed).

This question is part of the interview questions in my new book The Men’s and Women’s Programs, however, I grant permission to anyone to use it.

John Foubert

 

 

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John D. Foubert, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Anderson, Farris, and Halligan Professor of College Student Development

Oklahoma State University

314 Willard Hall

Stillwater, OK 74078

(405) 744-1480

(405) 744-7758 fax

http://okstate.academia.edu/JohnFoubert

http://education.okstate.edu/index.php/csd-philosophical-framework

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003NCDDYM