Gehr Thesis Proposal 2014

Designing a System that Encourages
College Survivors of Date Rape to
Record and Share their Experiences
Jeri-lynn Gehr
North Carolina State University
Master of Graphic Design
Committee Members:
Denise Gonzales Crisp
Deborah Littlejohn
Meredith Davis

GD 581 FINAL PROJECT RESEARCH PROPOSAL FALL 2014 JERI-LYNN GEHR NCSU MGD 2015
Bolger, Dana. “Where Rape Gets a Pass.” NY Daily News. 6 July 2014.
Cohen, Noah. “3 More Ramapo College Students Charged in Campus Sex Assault, Prosecutor Says.” NJ.com. 24 Nov. 2014.
Editorial Board. “Campus Rape Culture Has No Easy Remedy.” Chicago Tribune. 28 Nov. 2014.
Gordon, Claire. “Timeline: The Year of College Sexual Assault.” Aljazeera America. 11 Nov. 2014.
Norman, Jim, and Stefanie Dazio. “5 William Paterson Students Charged in Sexual Assault, College President Says.” NorthJersey.com. N.p., 30 Nov. 2014.
Perez-pena, Richard, and Ian Lovett. “2 More Colleges Accused of Mishandling Assaults.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2013.

The United State Department of Justice
defines sexual assault as:
any type of sexual contact
or behavior that occurs
without the explicit consent
of the recipient
Fisher, Bonnie, Francis T. Cullen, and Michael G. Turner. The Sexual Victimization of College Women. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of
Justice, 2000. Web. < https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf>.

Date rape, and offset of aquaintance
rape, is characterized by:
a familiar relationship
between the victim and the
offender, ranging from a
first date to an established
romantic relationship
Kouta, C., E. L. Tolma, and S. E. Pavlou. “Date Rape among Cypriot Female College Students: An Explorative Study.” Global Health Promotion20.3 (2013): 38-46. Web. <http://ped.sagepub.
com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/content/20/3/38.full.pdf+html>.

PREVENTION REPORTING
THE ISSUES

THE ISSUES
Awareness and
Education
http://itsonus.org

THE ISSUES
“Take Back the Night.” NC State Women’s Center. 2014.
Awareness and
Education

Safety
THE ISSUES
“How It Works - Circle of 6 App.” Circle of 6 App.

THE ISSUES
Safety
“How It Works - Circle of 6 App.” Circle of 6 App.

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
RSVP Crisis Line
Counseling Hotline
Student Conduct
Campus police
Counseling Center
Resident Advisor
Women’s Center

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
“While the majority of all rapes
are widely underreported, date or
acquaintance rape is reported even
less. In fact, it is estimated that the
cases of rape by an acquaintance
reported to police only constitute about
five percent of the total incidents of
rape by an acquaintance.”
— Chambliss, Crime and Criminal Behavior
Chambliss, William J. Crime and Criminal Behavior. SAGE Publications, 2011.

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
Why is date rape so underreported?
Offendors are oftentimes not punished
These facts were abstracted from http://projectcallisto.org/.

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
Survivors feel doubted, blamed, and judged

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
Survivors feel a lack of control

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
Survivors don’t know how to label
their experience

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
What is the importance of reporting?

Safety
Awareness and
Education
THE ISSUES
What is the importance of reporting?
If we could stop college sexual assault
perpetrators after their second assault, we would
prevent 60% of sexual assaults.

Research Question:
Sub-Questions:
How can the design of a system that facilitates
storytelling encourage college students who are
survivors of date rape to record and share their
experiences from beginning to end?

1. What are possible visual representations that communicate to date
rape survivors that the system is survivor-centered and that their privacy
is protected?
2. How can the public display of date rape survivor stories encourage
motivation for other date rape survivors to report their experiences to the
police or university?
3. How can annotation of the written recorded experience allow
for reflection and understanding of the survivor’s experience?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS

THE USER
Not ready
to know
Ready to
advocate
Ready to hold
an opinion
Outreach programs
Awareness
Education
Ready to know Ready to act
The Audience Receptivity Gradient
The Audience Receptivity Gradient was developed by David Rose.

THE USER
Not ready
to know
Ready to
advocate
Ready to hold
an opinion
Outreach programs
Awareness
Education
Why Storytelling?
The Audience Receptivity Gradient was developed by David Rose.
Storytelling creates a shared experience between
the teller and the listener/reader.

Christy Burch, writer and creator of Kitchen Table Revival
THE USER
Not ready
to know
Ready to
advocate
Ready to hold
an opinion
Outreach programs
Awareness
Education
Why Storytelling?
http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/where-your-writing-can-go-storytelling-as-advocacy/
“Stories shape the culture; they set the norm. And many of
us aren’t okay with the current story: the pain and violence
it generates. So we have to tell the stories that are silenced,
including our own. In doing so, we start to rewrite the norm.”
— Christy Burch, Writer and creator of Kitchen Table Revival

RESEARCH

WHAT’S NEXT
Small Studies
Interviews
Location of the system. What is private and what is public?
Moving users from one point to the next on the Audience Receptivity Gradient
How do you convey trust and protect the users’ privacy?
NCSU Police Department
Office of Student Conduct
Counseling Center

THANK YOU

Gehr Thesis Proposal 2014

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