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Abstract

This study aimed to examine the correlation between knowledge of sexual health and sexual assault, and the subsequent disclosure of sexual assault amongst undergraduate women in sororities at St. John’s University. During the academic year (2019-2020), the number of reported sexual assaults on campus was discrepant among the perception of the student body, with students believing there to be a higher number of incidents than reported to the University. Possible causes of the lack of formal sexual assault reporting were investigated. This included the knowledge of undergraduate women at St. John’s University pertaining to sexual health, reproductive health, university resources, and the various avenues of reporting sexual assault.

The study found that most participants did not have a comprehensive knowledge of sexual education as well sexual assault. The majority of participants reported “nothing” (33%) in reference to prior sexual assault/health education. 39.7% of participants did not know how to report sexual assault on campus. More than a third (36.9%) of participants indicated that they had been sexually assaulted while being a student and the majority of those participants (79.2%) did not report their sexual assault formally to public safety or the police. After the pilot program, participants reported an increase in sexual health knowledge by 22.9%, an increase in sexual assault knowledge by 30% and the amount of participants who stated they would not disclose sexual assault formally or informally to St. John’s University decreased by 49%.

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