Engaging Law Students in Sexual Violence Prevention and Intervention in Urban Public Middle Schools Using Proactive and Responsive Restorative Circles

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Session Type: Lightning Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: Yosemite A

Floor: Ballroom Level

The Levitas Initiative for Sexual Assault Prevention is a new and innovative clinical experience at University of Maryland Carey School of Law. The Initiative approaches sexual assault and sexual harassment as a public health problem, requiring a public health response. The Initiative draws on recent research on risk and protective factors related to sexual harm perpetration and victimization, and the effectiveness of restorative practices at affecting some of those predictors in contexts other than sexual assault. For instance, “peer network density” research by K.M. Swartout indicates that development of emotionally close relationships among male peers is a protective factor against future sexual assault, while “diffuse” peer networks are a risk factor. Restorative practices are a promising practice for strengthening relationships and building those community networks. Sexual harassment and homophobic name-calling, which are at their highest during middle school and are predictors of future sexual assault, yield few consequences for middle school students who engage in these behaviors. Thus, sexual assault prevention education and responses at the middle school level are key to prevention.
In their work with the Initiative, law students go into middle school classrooms to deliver a sexual violence prevention program using proactive restorative dialogue circles, and to facilitate restorative justice conferences responding to incidents of sexual harm as they occur in the school. The Initiative will be evaluating the curriculum and delivery method for their effectiveness at disrupting risk factors, and developing protective factors for sexual assault. This lightning session will present the program’s logic model and underlying research, and anticipated outcomes.