FOR RELEASE: March 15, 2000
CONTACT: Dick Gunn
405/271-5601

Sexual Assault Prevention Education Offered for Males by Males

Did you know:

• Thirty-five percent of men report some likelihood that they would rape if they could be assured they wouldn't be caught and punished.
  _{[Malamuth, NM, "Rape Proclivity among Males," Journal of Social Issues 37 (1981):138-157.]}
• Eighty-four percent of men who committed rape said that what they did was definitely not rape.
  _{[Warshaw, R, I Never Called It Rape, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994.]}
• All-male peer education programs are the most effective means to change men's attitudes toward rape.
  _{[Lonsway, KA, "Preventing Acquaintance Rape Through Education: What Do We Know?" Psychology of Women Quarterly 20 (1996):229-65.]}

These statistics may seem shocking, but to those who work with young men on college campuses, as well as law enforcement and criminal justice officers, and professionals who work with sexual assault victims, they sound all too familiar. The problem of sexual assault and date rape with college age men is a growing problem.

To counter this trend, several agencies have joined together to offer The Men's Program: Sexual Assault Prevention Education for Males by Males to be presented this Friday, March 17, at the Oklahoma State University Student Union in Stillwater. This free program will feature John D. Foubert, PhD, a consultant to many of the nation's leading universities on the subject of sexual assault prevention education. The program will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Little Theater, Room 203.

"The Men's Program is an all-male, sexual assault prevention, peer education program for young men," said Kathy Middleton, coordinator of the Sexual Assault Prevention Education Program with the Chronic Disease Service of the Oklahoma State Department of Health. "The program is designed to be relevant to men as potential helpers, not as potential rapists."

Middleton said the program has been validated in numerous scientific journals with studies showing that the program significantly reduces the likelihood of rape with those most at risk for committing rape. "The Men's Program has been shown to be the most effective rape prevention workshop designed, and the only one that has ever led to long-term change in men's likelihood of raping," she noted. "In addition, the program will provide valuable information for both males and females who work with or are responsible for young men."

Along with the Oklahoma State Department of Health, the program is sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, OSU Student Union, Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police, Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center, Oklahoma Council on Violence Prevention, Tulsa County Sheriff's Department, and Stillwater Domestic Violence Services, Inc.

For more information about this program or other sexual assault prevention education programs available this spring and summer, contact Middleton at 405/271-4072, ext. 57107.

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