President’s Advisory Committee on Sexual Violence, Intervention and Prevention Subcommittees

Prevention Subcommittee

  • Prevention refers to efforts intended to STOP the perpetration of unhealthy, harmful, dangerous, and/or illegal behavior and acts, as well as victimization and re-victimization by others.
  • Prevention efforts include (but are not limited to) developing the attitudes, knowledge, skills, behaviors and resources necessary to promote individual and community health, safety and wellbeing. 
  • The field of public health prevention defines three levels of intervention in a social problem. Based on when the intervention is used in targeting prevention of problem, they are primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.  This subcommittee will be looking at primary prevention.
  • Primary preventionapproaches that are employed before any sexual violence has occurred to prevent initial perpetration and victimization. Primary prevention includes building an environment that encourages well-being and healthy choices.
  • Primary prevention can be directed toward either "universal" or "selected" audiences.  “Universal” reflects strategies aimed at everyone in the population of interest, independent of risk.  “Selected” denotes strategies directed toward those in the population at increased risk for sexual violence perpetration or victimization.  
  • A sound prevention program enhances and assists protective factors and reduces (and in many cases, eliminates) the identified risk factors AND seeks to understand the complex interplay of individual, relationship, social, political, cultural, economic and environmental factors that influence and/or create the conditions that perpetuate the problem of sexual violence.

Response Subcommittee

  • Response is a form of secondary prevention.  Secondary prevention is defined as an immediate response after sexual violence has been perpetrated. Secondary prevention deals with the short-term consequences of violence; it attempts to reduce the harm to individuals reporting they have experienced sexual violence and to locate, contain and/or address those reported to have committed sexual violence.
  • Areas this group will look at include (but are not limited to)
    • Sexual misconduct policy and procedures
    • Formal complaint resolution process
      • Investigative and adjudicatory response systems
      • Sanctions
    • Informal and alternative resolutions
    • Crisis counseling
    • Interim measures

Reporting Subcommittee

  • For purposes of this subcommittee reporting refers to informing an employee or student employee at Pomona College that an incident of sexual misconduct has occurred. It does not refer to confidential disclosures made to confidential resources at the College, TCCS or community-based resources. (Seeking help from and confiding in confidential resources will be covered by the Support Subcommittee)
  • The remarkable prevalence of underreporting is well established, in fact the vast majority (estimated to be 64-74 percent per the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and even higher for campuses) of sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults are not reported.

Support Subcommittee

Support is a form of tertiary prevention. Tertiary prevention is focused on the long-term response after sexual violence perpetration. Tertiary prevention addresses the lasting consequences of victimization and perpetration on individuals, relationships and the community. The Support Subcommittee is focused on examining and strengthening support for victims/survivors, respondent services/support and addressing community/secondary harm.

Examples include:

  • Ongoing counseling and support for victims/survivors
  • Respondent services
  • Healing circles
  • Awareness raising programs/events (i.e. Take Back the Night)
  • Treatment/interventions for perpetrators of sexual violence to minimize the possibility of re-offense
  • Strategies for addressing secondary/community harm

Under federal law, when a school knows or reasonably should know that one of its members has experienced sexual violence, it is obligated to act. A school is charged with providing a safe living, learning and work environment for all students, faculty and staff. That can mean a number of things – from providing a confidential place to turn for advice and support, to supporting those experiencing secondary harm or caregiver stress, providing accommodations, and more.