This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: There is approximately 60 years of research on campus sexual assault and shelves full of books on young people's sexual experiences and behaviors, including their experiences with assault. More is likely to be generated following the September 2026 high-profile lawsuit by a female former Cornell University student, known as Jane Doe, who says that a group of seven Chi Phi fraternity members drugged and gang-raped her when she was a sophomore in 2024.
Yet, there is very little research about the role parents have played, or should play, in educating their children about campus sexual assault prevention. I am a sociologist who spent 2024 and 2025 interviewing 56 parents across the country about this issue. Collectively, they sent 74 children off to college between 2017 and 2024.
Most parents of college-bound young people know there is a sexual assault problem on campus, but they do not see it as a problem that is likely to affect their child or children, my research shows. The problem of campus sexual assault is well documented. Almost 1 in 4 undergraduate women, 1 in 20 undergraduate men and nearly 1 in 4 transgender and gender-diverse young people report experiencing sexual assault while in college.
Almost 11% of undergraduate men have committed sexual assault, according to one estimate. Almost 80% of campus sexual assaults go unreported. This disconnect can be explained by the fact that most of the parents I spoke to unconsciously rely on rape myths to understand campus sexual assault.
Rape myths refer to widely held and inaccurate beliefs about rape, rapists and rape victims that serve to deny, justify or downplay sexual assault. Most parents of sons I spoke with, for instance, said that their son is not the kind of person who would jump out from behind a bush wielding a weapon and attack a young woman walking alone at night. Campus sexual assault is rarely perpetrated by an armed stranger.
More often, it is committed by someone who knows the victim. In most campus sexual assaults, as well, the victim and the perpetrator know one another, a pattern known as date rape or acquaintance rape. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. d research that matter—daily or weekly.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
