Student Attitudes Toward Sexual Misconduct at Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts. Like many institutions of higher education, Amherst College regularly surveys its community to assess the campus climate on issues related to sexual respect and sexual misconduct. Both the 2014-2015 and the 2015-2016 surveys provided benchmark data for students’ views toward sexual respect and sexual misconduct and helped the college gauge the extent to which students are experiencing various forms of sexual misconduct.
This study was designed as a follow-up to Amherst College’s quantitative survey on sexual respect and sexual misconduct. The Amherst College Offices of Title IX and Sexual Respect Education retained Market Street Research in May of 2017 to conduct a focus group designed to explore students’ attitudes toward and perceptions of both sexual misconduct and Amherst College’s response to sexual misconduct. The goal of the focus group was to delve deeper into students’ attitudes and experiences to better understand why they hold various opinions about sexual misconduct, why they do or don’t report instances of sexual misconduct, and what the college can do to best support both students who have experienced sexual misconduct and those who perpetuate it.
See the summary of the results of a May, 2017 online focus group: