The main goal of the project is to develop a scale to assess degrees of himpathy, an excessive
sympathy unconsciously extended to certain perpetrators of sexual violence, so that it can be
used to decrease sexual violence on campuses and other communities through different
mechanisms (e.g., selecting Title IX officers and individuals involved with development of
campus policies to prevent sexual violence, selecting jurors and legal professionals involved in
sexual violence cases, and many others).

The development of the Himpathy Scale has so far progressed as expected. Most of the work has
involved the theoretical structuring of himpathy for scale development purposes and the writing
of items (sentences) that can fully capture the construct. For example, what are sub-constructs
that make-up himpathy based on how it was first described? And what sentences would represent
such sub-constructs? We included the following sub-constructs and came up with sentences to
represent them: ‘centering the perpetrator’, ‘temporal sympathy’, and ‘loyalty to
perpetrator/willful ignorance’. After many rounds of edits, I am now collaborating with Dr. Kate
Manne, who originally coined and described the construct of himpathy, to finalize the scale so
that it can be used for my first study.
​
The next steps involve finalizing the scale based on expert review and submitting Study 1 for
IRB approval. We seem to be on track to start implementing Study 1 in January and begin data
collection.

After years of research, RaeAnn and her team have published their findings!

“Resilience and Low Substance Use Among Indigenous College Students from a Sexual Assault Prevention Study” was published in the Adversity & Resilience Science Journal. Click here to read an abstract of their research.

Their study on acceptability of interventions is under peer review, and POC was given a sneak preview! Click here to read. They are also working with an Indigenous graphic designer to condense their findings into an infographic to make it accessible to the community.

RaeAnn and her team have also been busy presenting at the Society for Prevention Research, Society of Indian Psychologists, ResilienceCon, and the Northern Lights Conferences.

They are still hard at work during further analysis on the data from all their surveys, which will undoubtedly provide many more rich insights!

Project Update: Understanding and Combating Cyber-Sexual Violence
We are excited to share the latest developments in our research, aimed at addressing the pressing issue of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII), a form of cyber-sexual violence. Our project seeks to establish a validated measurement tool for NCII and identify shared risk and protective factors across online and in-person sexual violence.
 
We have assembled an expert panel to provide valuable insights into the development of our measurement tool, ensuring its accuracy and effectiveness. Additionally, through active engagement, we successfully advocated for the inclusion of our scale in the gold standard campus climate survey, which will help standardize the measurement of online sexual violence victimization on U.S. college campuses. We are very excited about this development and hope to speed up our data collection process in order to incorporate the scale in the upcoming implementation of campus climate surveys.
 
Following data collection and analysis, we will refine our NCII measurement tool, understanding its latent structure and establishing construct validity. We will investigate shared risk and protective factors across modes of perpetration, shedding light on the connection between online and in-person sexual violence. Our goal is to promote this measurement tool to policy makers and researchers, ensuring that it reaches a broader audience to drive change in addressing cyber-sexual violence.
 
This research is crucial in making our campuses safer for all students, both online and in person. As online education and hybrid programs become more prevalent, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding and preventing NCII is of utmost importance. We are excited to share that we have been accepted to present at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators' conference in the spring, where we will highlight the diverse experiences of violence among different student groups. This conference will be a great opportunity to raise awareness about the lethality of online sexual violence and help college administrators combat this new form of gender-based violence.
 
We look forward to providing further updates as our research progresses. Thank you for your support in our mission to combat cyber-sexual violence and create safer environments for students.

POC has been honored to support the Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellow, RaeAnn Anderson, over the past few years! Her project, "Empowering Indigenous College Women to Stop Rape: A Treatment Development Study," has produced extensive and sobering facts and statistics. 

Below is a condensed summary she has provided for us: 

Many Indigenous families discuss rape in terms of when, not if. It is something that is so
widespread and pernicious it is expected. The upside of that is, people know and care and want
to change the ride. Indigenous college students we surveyed and interviewed are willing to try
many different types of prevention strategies. We also found very few gender differences,
Indigenous men see this as just a big a problem as Indigenous women and two-spirit folks.

Providers of prevention programs absolutely must account for historical trauma and how that
has influenced the current context. Indigenous people know Pocahontas not by her Disney name
and tale, but by her real name of Amonute. They know her as one of the first and not last
Indigenous girls to be kidnapped and raped by White outsiders. The scars of this type of ongoing
abuse and broader American cultural ignoring of Indigenous people still stings and has many
wide-ranging effects from attacks on tribal sovereignty, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the
60s Steal/boarding school abuses to current human trafficking and poverty on reservations.

RaeAnn has taken her research on the road:

Conference Presentations (4):
Cole, R. E., Armstrong, C., Barker, B., Blair, A., Cole, A. B. (2022, April). Empowering
Indigenous College Students to Stop Rape: A Formative Study. Poster presentation submitted to
the inaugural Oklahoma State University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Stillwater, OK.

Armstrong, C.M., Unger, L., Cole, A.B., & Anderson, R. (2022). Empowering Indigenous
College Students to Stop Rape: A Treatment Development Study. Poster presentation accepted to
the 2022 APA Convention, Minneapolis, MN.

Cole, A. B., Anderson, R., Unger, L., & Armstrong, C. M. (2022, January). Empowering
Indigenous college students to stop rape: A treatment development study. Roundtable discussion
presented at the 2022 biennial National Multicultural Conference and Summit, Santa Fe, NM
(virtual). 

Anderson, R. E., & Hanna, A., (2021, November) Self Defense for Indigenous Peoples Study:
Sovereignty for your Body -  Psychology colloquium on Diversity Research at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Community Talk:
Anderson, R. E., (2021, October) Self Defense for Indigenous Peoples Study: Sovereignty for
your Body – introductory presentation to UND AISES club (American Indian Science and
Engineering Society)

Public Lecture:
Anderson, R. E., (2022, April). Alcohol-Facilitated Sexual Victimization Among Indigenous
College Students. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Rural Drug Addiction Research Center
Seminar Series. Lincoln, NE, USA. (virtual), www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL3x367aggk

If you would like to read more, please click the links below, which include her findings on:

• "Needs for Sexual Victimization Risk & Reduction Programs and Associated Gaps in Current Services"

• "Summary of Cultural Adaptations to Improve Sexual Victimization Risk Reduction Programs for Indigenous College Students" 

​PEACE OUTside Campus Co-Founder and Vice Chairperson, Kathleen Bonistall, speaks about the loss of her daughter Lindsey to a violent crime while in college, which inspired the family to establish PEACE OUTside Campus, The Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation for the purpose of advocating student safety. Kathleen recounts her personal journey of grief, loss, recovery and healing, in the hope of inspiring others to connect to support services, advocate for student safety, and practice compassion and understanding for those enduring the complexities of grief and loss due to violent crime.

Please note that this podcast includes difficult language, such as sexual assault and homicide, which may be difficult for some listeners to hear. We encourage you to do what’s right for you, even if that means saving this episode for a time when it feels healthier to listen. We hope you will utilize the links and helpful resources provided on our website click here and urge you not to suffer in silence if you are a victim of sexual assault or have lost a loved one due to violence. 

This podcast is hosted by the Mental Health Association of Westchester where Kathleen serves as a program director. (www.mhawestchester.org).

Listen to the podcast at: surfacing.buzzsprout.com/1648633/8795399?fbclid=IwAR1Cwwy5vKv3Y-AlrgZMJXPzOAVOglHce6YikQchY4FE_Id9lMHtHNianKU