Editor’s Note: This story includes mention of sexual violence or assault. Resources are available here.
The seven sexual assaults and seven rapes reported on campus since Aug. 21, according to IUPD’s crime log, typically fall into the period known as the “Red Zone.” A recent literature review suggested that a “defined Red Zone” is yet to be reached.
The “Red Zone” is referred to as the period that spans the beginning of the fall semester to Thanksgiving break of the first semester on a college campus, when students are particularly at risk of sexual assault or rape.
Senior Scientist and Director of the Kinsey Institute Sexual Assault Research Initiative, Zoë Peterson, focuses her research on sexual assault and sexual aggression. She has researched the term “Red Zone” within her career, but the review explained there is not enough empirical evidence to establish the existence of a Red Zone within the first few months of the semester.
“No one’s to blame,” Peterson said. “We’ve all been promoting this idea of a Red Zone.”
The review found it more viable to extend the time of a potential Red Zone to include college women’s first or second year on campus, but the “usefulness of considering half of a woman’s college career as high risk for sexual violence” was questioned by researchers.
A rise in reports is often hard to interpret, Peterson said, because most sexual assaults are never reported to police or campus authorities. Increased reports do not always correlate with a rise in occurrences of assault.
“It could be a bad sign that actual rates of sexual assault are increasing, or it could be a good sign that people are feeling more comfortable coming forward and reporting their experiences to authorities,” she said.
Sexual assault is underreported for various reasons, but many victims who do not report their experiences often do not know if what happened to them qualifies as sexual assault or rape. Legal definitions of each vary by country and by state.
Most research definitions consider sexual assault to be nonconsensual sexual contact due to incapacitation from drugs or alcohol, threats or physical force. Rape is often reserved to penetrative acts that occur through similar circumstances, she said.
Sexual assault prevention programs are available on campus to educate students to make healthy decisions and remain safe.
You can report sexual assault to IU on the Stop Sexual Violence webpage. You can also report directly to campus authorities or Bloomington police.
If you are seeking support about an experience you may have had, The Office for Sexual Violence Prevention and Victim Advocacy can be contacted at cva@indiana.edu or 812-856-2469.
A list of resources is available here if you or someone you know has experienced sexual harassment or abuse.
