The document outlines a presentation from the Jean Nidetch Women's Center about their Peers Advocating for Anti-Violence Education program, which trains students to be advocates for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; it discusses definitions of sexual assault, consent, and Nevada law; and provides statistics and information about the impacts of violence and myths and facts regarding domestic violence and sexual assault.

1. Jean Nidetch Women’s Center
PAAVE Presentation
2009

2.  Workshops and presentations
 Events on campus
 Advocacy for violence prevention and
breast cancer awareness
 Academic involvement
 Two on staff, certified victim
advocates

3.  Peers Advocating for Anti-Violence
Education
 Formerly known as SAFE Team,
began in 2002
 Completed 18-hour training on domestic
violence and sexual assault

4.  Sexual Assault
◦ Definitions
◦ Consent
◦ Statistics
◦ Effects on Victims
◦ Rethinking Violence

5.  Nevada Revised Statutes: Sexual Assault
◦ “A person who subject another person to sexual
penetration, or who forces another person to
make a sexual penetration on himself or another,
against the victim’s will or under conditions in
which the perpetrator knows or should know that
the victim is mentally or physically incapable of
resisting or understanding the nature of his
conduct, is guilty of sexual assault”

6. Definitions
 Sexual assault is a broader category that the
Justice Department uses to classify rape,
attempted rape and other violent felonies that
fall short of rape.
 Consent?
 Mentally Unable?
 Physically Unable?

7. How do I get consent?
 Hypothetical situations…
◦ “What if we…”
◦ “How would you feel if we…”
◦ “What do you think about…”
 I statements…
 Coercion is NOT consent

8. What is consent?
Both parties are fully conscious.
Both parties have equal ability to act.
Both parties are positive and sincere in their desires.
Both parties have clearly communicated their intent.
Why don’t people get consent?
 Fear of Rejection
 May hear partner is a survivor
 May not know how

9.  25% of women and 7% of men will be victims
of domestic violence or partner rape.
 Six months following an experience of
domestic violence, 32% of battered women
are victimized again
 Yearly, 3.3 million children are exposed to
interfamily violence against their mothers or
female caretakers

10.  Only about 42% of rapes/sexual assaults
were reported to law enforcement in 2007
 1 out of 6 American have been the victim of
an attempted or completed rape in their
lifetime
 About 3% of men (2.78 million) have
experienced an attempted or completed
rape against them
 Rape is the most rapidly growing, most
underreported, and most rarely convicted
crime in the world

11.  The F.B.I. estimates that one in three
women in this country will be sexually
assaulted in her lifetime.
 According to the National College Health
Risk Behavior Survey, one in five
undergraduate women have been raped.
 In the majority of rape cases, 73%, the
perpetrator is someone the victim knows- a
partner, spouse, classmate, date, co-
worker, neighbor, or family member.

12.  Many different forms of violence in a
relationship
◦ Often are dismissed as “isolated” or “random” acts
of anger
◦ Media images contribute to a social complicity of
violence and often portrays signs of violence in
relationships as signals of “passion” or “lust”
◦ Signs of abuse overlap and escalate

13.  Has the abuser…
◦ Called you stupid or insulted your intelligence?
◦ Criticized your appearance?
◦ Told you that you could never leave him/her?
◦ Told you that you could be easily replaced?
◦ Said that no one else would want you?

14.  Has the abuser…
◦ Ridiculed or insulted your gender as a group?
◦ Ridiculed your beliefs, morals, race, religion or
heritage?
◦ Humiliated you in public OR private?
◦ Insulted or driven away your friends or family?
◦ Manipulated you with lies or contradictions?
◦ Threatened to hurt themselves if you left?

15.  Has the abuser…
◦ Held or restrained you to keep you from leaving?
◦ Slapped or pushed you?
◦ Locked you out of the house?
◦ Refused to help you when you were sick, injured or
pregnant?
◦ Forced or aggressively pressured you to consume
alcohol or drugs?

16.  Has the abuser…
◦ Forced you to strip when you didn’t want to?
◦ Been jealous or angry, assuming you have had sex
with someone else?
◦ Criticized you sexually?
◦ Forced you into unwanted sex?
◦ Withheld sex and affection?
◦ Insisted on uncomfortable or unwanted touching?

17.  Has the abuser…
◦ Taken credit cards/checks/money away as a form
of punishment?
◦ Forced you to hand over money or your
paychecks?
◦ Refused to tell you about bills?
◦ Are they the only one “allowed” to work?
◦ Taken your name off crucial documents
(insurance, leases) to prevent your access to
them?
◦ Drained your bank account?

19.  Can be short or long term
◦ Cutting/ self-mutilation
◦ Eating disorders
◦ Depression
◦ Alcohol and substance abuse
◦ Re-entrance into a violent relationship
◦ Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
◦ Academic Career

20.  Abuse in relationships is any pattern of
behavior that is used to coerce, dominate or
isolate the other partner to gain control
 Abuse knows no boundary concerning race,
class, gender, sexual orientation etc.
 Remember, violence may take a different
form in different communities but that does
not make one form more important than
another

21.  Similarities
1. Abuse is always the responsibility of the
abuser. It is their choice.
2. Victims are often blamed for the abuse by their
partner.
3. It is difficult for victims to leave their
relationship.
4. Victims often feel responsible for their abuse.
5. Abuse escalates over time.
6. The abuser is often apologetic after abusing,
giving false hope that the abuse will stop.

22.  Differences
1. There are limited resources available for
abused and abusive LGBTQ people.
2. Homophobia in society denies the reality of
some same sex relationships, including their
very existence, let alone abuse.
3. Shelters for women may not be sensitive to a
victim of same sex assault.
4. Gay/Bi/Trans men have even fewer options for
help.
5. Reporting may result in a feeling or experience
of being excluded from the LGBTQ community.

23.  The Role of Alcohol
Alcohol is the most common drug used to
facilitate sexual assaults- particularly among college
students. As opposed to other drugs (such as GHB
and Rohypnol) that are often given to victims without
their knowledge, alcohol is often consumed
consensually.
Perpetrators often take advantage of victims who
are already intoxicated, or purposefully get a target
drunk in order to facilitate a sexual assault. These
perpetrators most often have had much less to drink
than the victim and in some cases have not
consumed alcohol at all.

24. Seriously! check your phone, talk, party it up!

25. Battered spouses leave their abusers an
average of 7 times before they leave for good

26.  MYTHS  FACTS
1. Battering occurs more 1. Violence occurs in all
frequently in certain racial and ethnic
groups and in all
ethnic or
class levels of society
socioeconomic groups
2. Substances can
2. Violence is caused by trigger violence but
substance abuse batterers are violent
3. Women who stay in even when sober
violent situations are 3. Many mothers choose
not good mothers to stay because
there’s no where else
to go and often, to
protect children

27.  MYTHS  FACTS
1. Violence only 1. 25-50% of all women
affects a small part are abused. Battering
of the population deaths are more
common than cancer
and car accidents
4. Fights in combined
relationships
are normal and 3. Disagreements occur
natural
but “heated”
arguments must be
analyzed for signs of
violence

28.  Myths  Facts
6. Sexual assault is a crime of
6. Sexual assault is a
crime of passion and violence. Assailants seek to
lust. dominate, humiliate and
punish their victims.
“Rape is primarily an act of
violence with sex as the
weapon” (Burgess &Holmstrom).

29. Myths Facts
7. Persons who 7. Many convicted
dress or act in a sexual assailants are
unable to remember
"sexy" way are what their victims
asking to be looked like or were
sexually wearing. Nothing a
assaulted. person does or does
not do causes a
brutal crime like
sexual assault.

30.  Anyone can be a victim of sexual assault or
domestic violence. If you or someone you
know is involved with interpersonal violence
know that there are resources to help you.

31.  Safe House (Domestic Violence Support)
◦ 702.451.4203
 Abuse Crisis Center / DV Hotline
◦ 702.646.4981
 Rape Crisis Center
◦ 366-1640
 More information available at:
◦ The Jean Nidetch Women’s Center, UNLV
SSC A, 255 – 702.895.4475