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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — High school students at 13 Kentucky public schools who acknowledged they committed acts of sexual violence dropped by more than half over the past five years, according to a new $2 million study based on more than 80,000 anonymous student surveys.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paid for the study beginning in 2010 to test the effectiveness of the Green Dot violence prevention program created at the University of Kentucky. The program teaches students to recognize warning signs of potential sexual violence in others and how to intervene safely to prevent it from happening. The program's name comes from turning potential instances of violence, often symbolized with a red dot on a map, into green dots.
In 2010, about 2.8 percent of students in the 13 high schools that used the program disclosed on anonymous surveys that they had either forced someone to have sex or took advantage of someone who was too drunk or too drugged to consent to sex. By 2014, that rate had dropped to 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, that rate in 13 schools that did not include the program increased to 2.9 percent from 2.5 percent during the same time period, according to Ann Coker, a University of Kentucky professor in the school's Center for Research on Violence Against Women.
"These increases are highly statistically significant and suggest that the program reduces sexual violence perpetrations," Coker said.
The Green Dot program started at the University of Kentucky in 2004 after school leaders commissioned an anonymous survey of 1,000 female students about their perceptions of campus safety and the prevalence of sexual assault. About 5,000 students have participated in the program since then, according to University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto.
In 2009, the university and the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs announced it had received a $2 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the program at 26 high schools. Now that the study is over, schools can choose to continue the program using federal rape prevention education grants.
Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear joined Capilouto on Wednesday to announce the study's findings. She praised the program while criticizing what she called the "glorification of alcohol and drug consumption and sexual violence" in today's "mainstream media pop culture." She cited the case of former NFL running back Ray Rice, who lost his job this week after a graphic video surfaced showing him punching his then-fiancee in an elevator.
"It's amazing that there is still that public debate in our opinion polls about what his punishment should be," Beshear said. "It begs the question: How are we to stop the cycle of violence and influence on our children? Answers: Early intervention, education, access to treatment and laws that protect our young people."
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