Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Dr. Blumenstein awarded College of Health Women's Issues Mini-grant to study students' understanding of sexual misconduct

Dr. Lindsey Blumenstein, Justice faculty, was recently awarded a 2015 UAA College of Health Women's Issues Mini-grant. 

The title of her research project is "Sexual Victimization of Women on College Campuses: How Do UAA Students Define and Identify Sexual Misconduct?"

The main goal of this project is to empirically evaluate which types of sexual violence students at UAA define and do not define as sexual victimization. Using focus group discussions with students across the UAA campus, this project will examine how students’ definitions of victimization affect their decisions to identify and report sexual misconduct. Male and female students will be invited to participate in separate focus group discussions.

To start a dialog on how and why students define sexual misconduct, scenarios will be presented during the focus groups. Collectively, these focus group discussions will provide a comprehensive understanding of how sexual misconduct is understood by students across our campus.

Dr. Blumenstein's research areas include intimate partner violence, campus sexual assault, substance abuse, and criminological theory.