Sexual Assault Primary Prevention Program - Essay Example

Research Paper affiliation: DEGUE SARAH, Preventing Sexual Violence on College Campuses: Lessons from Researchand Practice Available from: < https://www.notalone.gov/assets/evidence- based-strategies-for-the-prevention-of-sv-perpetration.pdf, [30 December 2014] Introduction The criteria of evaluating online sources keep changing with the changing technology. Due to the new online sources, the online status as an academic source is not established, and, therefore, their credibility raises concerns. The above article addresses issues on sexual assault primary prevention program vital for a social change. The complexity of multi-level interventions for sexual assault primary prevention requires intervention because of the wide scope of sexual assault definition, and culture. This paper discusses the innovative methods, credibility, and adequacy of the above-chosen research. While information seems to be everywhere due to technology, online research seems to gain more popularity due to its easy access, and time saving. At the comfort of a desk, the internet makes it easier and faster to access all forms of information, and therefore it is a one-stop shop. However, it is important to confirm its credibility and professionalism. The world is on a fast lane, and there is no time to walk or drive to the libraries. In addition, the online library is a great storehouse for recorded information in deliberate and organized methods whether in audio, digital, and video among others. The process of gathering information online is easier and faster than looking for physical books. The online libraries have several types of information resources. These resources include reference books, audio and video recordings, online magazines and articles, and online databases among others. There are searching and accessing tools. There are online catalogs, magazine print indexes, and online indexing and abstracting tools for database. Every library currently has information available in all formats. First, the user identifies the required information in order to help with the search. In this particular study, I searched for sex assault prevention because it is an area of my concern. I did not have any library access, and so I used the Google search engine to search for the relevant topic. The website was the best resource for me because I only typed the topic on the search engine and got a variety of topics related to it. I perused through all the listed topics and browsed each one of them ensuring it had the relevant information that I required. Secondly, I kept repeating the process, and narrowing up the searches with different topic titles. The process helped me get the research I needed based on sexual assault. It was a research by Degue (2014 p. 6) “Issues in Evaluation of Complex Social Change Programs for Sexual Assault Prevention”. This topic carries a lot of weight considering social and community development issues, and sexual assaults are among the prevailing issues in the society. Sexual assault primary prevention targets the complex, systematic causes of this crime. While the causes continue expanding, the key social factors include the gender inequality and the social norms in relation to gender roles, violence, and sexual behaviour. The aim of prevention includes effecting change in individual communities or making a social change to eliminate conditions that enhance sexual assault. Sexual assault is a public health issue along other gender-based violence. The primary interventions include preventing violence before it occurs; while secondary intervention involves strategies used after, the crime occurs. Therefore, there is a need to understand the causes of sexual violence at a personal, social, and community level. These factors go beyond the individual to shape collective behaviours forming part of the culture. According to Davis et al. (2006), the social norms include, tolerating violence, women and gender roles, value based on masculine power, and notions of family privacy. According to VicHealth (2007 p. 23), different supporting approaches are fundamental for successful primary prevention across different levels of manipulation across different settings. The influencers of sexual assault exceed government portfolios, public, and private sector, and require attitude, social, and behavioural change. According to Deguel (2014 p. 4), interventions in this area become difficult because the researcher requires defining concepts like culture and community. Davis et al. argues that the best data comes from insights and experiences of the participants, survivors, perpetrators, educators, and the people delivering the services. This process makes the outcomes difficult in such interventions because of different definitions. Evaluating a research’s objective includes determining the merit, or value of something (Patton 2008 p. 32). In addition, every researcher has different views depending on their perspectives sometimes termed as paradigms. According to Denzin and Lincoln (2005 p. 16), each research has its paradigms guiding him or her on the questions to ask. Earlier, many researchers preferred quantitative measures (Patton 2005). Tomison (2000 p. 122) argues that experimental data had higher value meaning it was more robust and precise. However, according to Fitzpatrick et al. (2011 p. 6), valid and reliable information should be useful and meeting the stakeholders’ needs. For primary prevention intervention in sexual assault, this method, the data may be unavailable especially during a short period. Furthermore, very few people report the cases of assaults due to embarrassment. Therefore, it would be easier to identify positive changes in the social structure that would minimize the occurrences of sexual assault. Quantitative analysis is the preferred method of research in this study. It is difficult to apply the quantitative methodology because it is hard to quantify merit. In qualitative methodology, a researcher can collect information from the relevant stakeholders. The quantitative methods include questionnaires with choices. The participant has a guaranteed privacy meaning that his or her data is safe. The participant may not have to give his or her personal details meaning they remain anonymous. According to Parker (2010 p. 35), this method remains the world’s gold standard of research. In this case, the stakeholders include people who have experienced sexual; harassments, and the service providers like the counselors among others. Research shows that most victims will not give out information about their experiences. According to Degue (2014 p. 5), picking random participants help in balancing the region of research. It ensures that the random people represent all regions covered by the study. The random control should also include people who have received an intervention, and those who have not, while ensuring there is no systematic bias. However, this is quite an expensive method of doing research considering the need to replicate findings. In addition, it is equally expensive especially depending on the size of the area. The main concern would be if changes in service provision affected positively or negatively the users of this service. According to Tomison (2000 p. 120), the qualitative tools and methodologies during the research on social change may give rich information and contextual understanding on the experiences of the participants. This study also can how and why the researcher derived policy outcomes. In addition, qualitative research may provide information concerning the nature of changes that come up with intervention. Moreover, it may provide information on improvements to an intervention where needed. However, applying both qualitative and quantitative methods has results that are more powerful. This research found that the alcohol directly relates to sexual assault especially among the University students. The research found that the policies are affecting alcohol-pricing, outlets; sexist marketing for the alcohol, bar management, and laxity in banning alcohol among students played a big role. In addition, it is clear that the communities around tend to influence these college policies on alcohol. Dejong (2006 p. 44) found that University campaigns against alcohol had no effects. Prevention of assault may work for different people, and therefore the researcher should apply different methods for different communities. There are also different types of assaults in different communities. Therefore, the recommendation would include undertaking the best prevention researches methods available in the University. The first step would include identifying the type of sexual assaults in the area under study. Collecting existing data on sexual assault in the campus may facilitate this process. A person may also consult some of the research groups in the University on data identifying the most risks and requirements. Secondly, it is important to create a University environment that supports respect, safety, and trust among all students. Research shows that students who trust their University environment are more likely to report violations. In addition, creating a comprehensive prevention plan according to Degue (2013 p. 12) is vital. The strategy should comprise multiple involvements and mechanism that work jointly in helping shielding and risk issues across the society. More so, it is important to identify the best practices for effective prevention while identifying the strategies to apply. This process is due to the many limitations of the current evidence base for sexual assault prevention. Effective prevention will have greater potential behavior change. Consequently, there is a need to evaluate the prevention strategies applied at the University ensuring the most rigorous strategies. Lastly, it is important to share the lessons learned with everyone around the University. This exposure may have positive effects among the students. While this research seems trustworthy, of course, a lot of information seems to be missing. First, there are no given figures or data in relation to research responses. This data minimizes the credibility of this research. The research seems equally shallow and summarized. It lacks tables and charts that emphasize on data collection. The researcher failed to enlist any qualitative information that may have given more strength to the research. Therefore, the reader does not know how many participants existed in the study. The researcher equally fails to identify the main study questions, which is a major flop. Every research requires a background history and the statement problem. However, this research gives a conclusive summary of events meaning it minimizes its credibility. Another problem is in text citation because the researcher fails to references the sources. Having proper references gives credibility and reliability to any research. Degue should have engaged more referencing in his research whereby the reader would refer in case of doubts and confirmation. The author seems to have used very few references for this broad research. He fails to identify his participants and the name of the institutions where he conducted his research. This approach makes his research unreliable and incomplete. His findings seem summarized too because no figures show in his report. This broad research requires samples of the questions and answers from the anonymous participants. It should have percentages of different answers for the reader to make their conclusions. It is clear that online research has many flaws despite the easy access. The major flaw includes the credibility and reliability of the information. First, identifying the author is a big problem despite different techniques to locate the author. In addition, it is hard to tell if the author is a professional or someone with copied information. Online research does not confirm if the sponsor of these sites is professional organizations too. Confirming the dates of the research is another big flaw because a researcher will only follow the dates given by the authors. Therefore, the given dates may be could be wrong, and this changes the whole purpose of the research especially if the author’s research is old. It is clear that the free search engines will never give the best information. Their researches are shallow and lack credibility. However, buying research materials from the online libraries can be expensive. After all, some of the libraries tend to limit the usage maybe due to net overload. Sometimes the libraries equally limit the regions that access the library materials. This process means that it is not all easy to use the online research. Online research has failed to confirm credibility and reliability of the information. There are different fraudsters online trying to make their kill by selling wrong information. There are all sorts of research information online, but the big problem is their credibility and reliability. Conclusion Conducting an online research is easy because it is a one-stop shop with all sorts of information. Online research saves time especially because a person does not need to walk or drive for miles looking for a physical library. However, it has many flaws in relation to credibility and reliability of this information. Many fraudsters online will sell false information to market their sites. The above research on sexual assault prevention lacks credibility because of its poor referencing. In addition, the research fails to identify the area of research and the number of participants among others. Whats more, the research seems too shallow, summarized, and therefore not concrete. However, the researcher should take time to browse through different websites and if possible avoid the free sites. References BOWEN, A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal,9 (2), 27–40 DAVIS, R., FUJIE PARKS, L., & COHEN, L. (2006). Sexual violence and the spectrum of prevention: Towards a community solution. 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