All campus buildings are open to the public; face coverings and social distancing required. COVID-19 updates
Sexual violence can have lasting negative effects on victims, their families, friends, and communities.
The goal of sexual violence prevention is to stop it from happening in the first place.
This section offers more information about prevention and risk-reduction techniques. Check out the following pages:
Primary Prevention involves developing comprehensive strategies that stop violence before initial perpetration or victimization.
Risk-reduction techniques equip victims with knowledge, awareness, or self-defense skills to help individuals reduce their own risk (CDC, 2016).
Educational sessions are a commonly recognized form of sexual violence prevention work. These sessions often:
Bystander Intervention prevention strategies are often viewed as a form of primary prevention. They seek to change social norms that support sexual violence; they empower men and women to intervene with peers to prevent an assault from occurring (CDC, 2016).
Risk-reduction techniques focus on potential victims taking precautionary measures to reduce the likelihood of an act of sexual violence.
Risk-reduction techniques include:
Sexual violence solutions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are just as complex as the problem.
Prevention efforts should ultimately decrease the number of individuals who perpetrate sexual violence and the number of people who are victims.
Individual, relationship, community, and societal factors all influence sexual violence, and comprehensive prevention strategies should address each of these levels. The most common prevention strategies focus on the victim, the perpetrator, or bystanders.
Multiple sessions of adequate length and intensity are needed for educational sessions to be effective. Multiple learning styles and opportunities to practice new skills are also recommended (“Sexual Violence Prevention”).
At Northwest College, students are educated about sexual violence and Title IX in First Year Seminar classes, during kick off weekend, during campus-wide sexual violence prevention events, and in the residence halls with multiple programs. For additional risk-reduction skills, students can enroll in Women's Self-Defense and Risk Awareness.