Risk Reduction Tips
Salve Regina believes it is never the victim's fault when a sexual assault occurs. However, recognizing patterns can help students reduce both the risk of victimization and the risk of perpetrating.
Generally, sexual assault by a known offender follows a pattern. Steps in the sexual assault sequence:
- Target and gain the victim's trust
- Isolate the victim
- Sexual exploitation/assault
- Maintaining control
Helpful Safety Tips
- Be aware of your surroundings. Knowing where you are and who is around you may help in finding a way out of an uncomfortable or unsafe situation.
- When you go out, go with a group of friends. Take care of your friends and ask them to take care of you.
- When you hang out with someone new, let one of your friends know - give them a heads up about who you are with and where you are going. Ask them to check in with you.
- Trust your instincts. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe in any situation, trust your gut.
- Don't accept drinks from people you do not know or trust. Avoid large common sources of alcohol (such as punch bowls, large containers of mixed drinks).
Tips for Consent
If you find yourself in a position of being the initiator of sexual behavior, you owe sexual respect to your partner.
- Do not make assumptions about consent, someone's sexual availability, whether a person is attracted to you, how far you can go and/or whether a person is physically or mentally able to consent to you. If there are any questions or confusion, then you do not have consent.
- Clearly communicate your intentions to your sexual partner and give them a chance to clearly communicate their intentions to you.
- Mixed, confusing or unclear messages from your partner should be a clear indication that you should stop. Perhaps you are misreading your partner, or perhaps your partner has not figured out how far they want to go with you yet. You must respect the timeline for sexual behavior with which your partner is comfortable.
- Do not take advantage of someone's intoxication or drugged state. Know the signs of incapacitation.
- Understand that consent to some forms of sexual behavior does not necessarily imply consent to other forms of sexual behavior.
- Silence and passivity cannot be interpreted as consent. Pay attention to verbal as well as non-verbal communication and body language.
- Never force someone to have sex with you, or have sex with a partner who has not clearly consented to you by words or actions unmistakable in their meaning.
Required Training for Employees
All Salve employees, including staff, faculty and adjunct faculty, are required to take training on preventing harassment, discrimination and sexual violence. Based on real-world scenarios from higher education, the required courses teach all employees - faculty and staff, supervisors and non-supervisors - how to identify, address, and prevent sexual violence and workplace harassment issues.