Violence Knows No Gender on Campus

Physical and emotional violence on college campuses knows no gender bias, according to a recently released study covered by Inside Higher Ed.

Based on a survey of 2,000 students who visited health clinics at five universities in Wisconsin, Seattle, and Vancouver during the 2006-07 academic year, the study shows that nearly equal rates of young men and young women (17 and 16 percent, respectively) interviewed at the clinics reported experiencing violence during the previous six months.

The study, published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that men reported the highest incidence of physical abuse, while women reported the highest rates of emotional abuse. It also found that men suffered abuse most frequently at the hands of their friends, roommates, or acquaintances, while women reported physical abuse at the hands of a family member three times more often than men.

Elizabeth M. Saewyc, a nursing professor at the University of British Columbia and the study's lead researcher, says the findings surprised her. She "wasn't quite expecting the rate of violence to be as high," she said.