Prevention Strategies
Sexual violence is a serious problem that can have lasting, harmful effects on victims and their family, friends, and communities. The goal of sexual violence prevention is to stop it from happening in the first place. The solutions are just as complex as the problem.
Preventing sexual violence requires addressing factors at all levels of the social ecology—the individual, relational, community, and societal levels.
CDC’s STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence pdf icon[2.85MB, 48Pages,508] highlights strategies based on the best available evidence to help communities and states prevent and reduce sexual violence. Many of the strategies focus on reducing the likelihood that a person will engage in sexual violence. The strategies and their corresponding approaches are listed in the table below.
STOP SV |
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|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Approach | |
| S | Promote Social Norms that Protect Against Violence |
|
| T | Teach Skills to Prevent Sexual Violence |
|
| O | Provide Opportunities to Empower and Support Girls and Women |
|
| P | Create Protective Environments |
|
| SV | Support Victims/Survivors to Lessen Harms |
|
Example Programs
Below are some examples of programs described in the STOP SV technical package.
- Safe Datesexternal icon
Program designed to prevent the initiation of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in adolescent dating relationships - Shifting Boundariesexternal icon
Program designed to reduce dating violence and sexual harassment among adolescents - Green Dot external icon
Bystander-based prevention program designed to reduce sexual and other forms of interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization - Second Step: Student Success Through Prevention (SS: SSTP)external icon
School-based program aimed at reducing bullying, peer victimization, and other problem behaviors - Coaching Boys Into Menexternal icon
Dating violence prevention program that uses the relationships between high school athletes and their coaches to change social norms and behaviors. - Bringing in the Bystanderexternal icon
Bringing in the Bystander is a bystander education and training program designed for male and female college students.
Applying the Principles of Effective Prevention to Sexual Violence
Program planners can use evidenced-based strategies and existing prevention principles to strengthen their approaches and evaluate the effectiveness of new or existing programs.
- DeGue S. Evidence-based strategies for the primary prevention of sexual violence perpetration. In Preventing sexual violence on college campuses: lessons from research and practice pdf icon[998KB, 40Pages, Print Only]external icon 2014; Available from www.notalone.gov/schools/external icon.
- Nation M, Crusto C, Wandersman A, Kumpfer K, Seybolt D, Morrissey-Kane E, Davino K. What works in prevention: principles of effective prevention programs pdf icon[65.8KB, 8Pages, Print Only]external icon. American Psychologist. 2003; 58(6/7): 449-56.