What Is Bystander Intervention?
Bystander Intervention is a sexual assault prevention program that focuses on the importance of prosocial bystander behaviors. The program seeks to empower Boston College students to stand up and speak out to prevent instances of rape and sexual assault from occurring.
Program Objectives
As a result of participating in Bystander Intervention education, students will be able to:
- Define sexual violence and identify examples of it.
- Articulate ways that they can actively prevent situations that might lead to sexual violence.
- Develop safe, effective, and personal plans to combat situations that could lead to sexual violence.
- Execute such plans if a situation arises that merits action.
- Recognize the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, jokes, and images.
- Identify professional bystanders (i.e., police, counselors, healthcare professionals).
Learn More About Bystander Behavior and Sexual Assault Prevention
The "Bystander Effect"
Research has shown that several factors influence whether or not bystanders are likely to help a person in need. People are more likely to step in if they can easily recognize that a situation is wrong, are directly asked to help, and witness others helping. People in a large group are less likely to help because everyone assumes someone else will step in.
Bystander Experiments
These videos put bystanders to the test in several different situations. What would you do?
- In this clip, NBC sets up a fake abduction to see how Bystanders react.
Bystander and Sexual Assault Prevention
This video shows how the silence of bystanders can allow for assault to happen. It also shows a variety of techniques bystanders can use to prevent sexual assault.
Techniques for Intervention
Hopefully these videos give you a sense of how important it is for bystanders to speak out! Here are some suggestions on how to intervene. We encourage you to intervene in a way that feels comfortable to you. Please call in professional bystanders, like the police, if ever you feel unsafe!
If you see a friend or a stranger in a situation that doesn’t seem right, you could:
- Distract: Redirect the focus elsewhere. At a party for example, you could spill a drink, put on a popular song, or ask someone to take a picture.
- Separate: Separate the people involved. You could ask someone to dance, ask your friend to come with you to the bathroom or to grab late night food.
- Recruit: Ask others for help. You could recruit the help of your own friends or friends of the people who are involved in the situation. This is especially helpful if you don’t really know the people involved. Depending on the situation you may also want to recruit a professional bystander, like the police.
Derogatory language contributes to a culture of sexual violence. A rape joke, for example, can minimize someone’s experience as well as normalize that type of behavior. If you hear a friend use the word rape casually, or tell a homophobic, sexist, or racist joke, you could:
- Reframe: Respond as if you’re coming from a place of concern for that friend. For instance, you might say something like “Hey, Tom, you might offend someone by telling that type of joke. I just don’t want people to get a wrong impression of you.”
- Use “I” statements: When using “I” statements, you want to state your feelings, name the behavior, and state how you want the person to respond. This focuses on your feelings rather than on criticizing the other person. “I feel really uncomfortable when you talk about hooking up with drunk girls. I’d really appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about that, at least in front of me.”