NCJ Number
192016
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 7 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2001 Pages: 1186-1201
Date Published
October 2001
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article summarizes the collaborative evaluation of a sexual assault prevention education program.
Abstract
The rape-awareness education program involved adolescents 12- to 18-years-old throughout a single county. The program was presented in classrooms at the request of individual teachers. Workshops followed either a 1-day or 2-day format. The content included the definition of sexual assault, statistics, legal aspects of criminal sexual conduct, a discussion of consent versus coercion, gender socialization, what to do if raped, how to respond to a survivor of sexual assault, and local resources. After 3 years of operation, the program providers sought a collaboration with researchers to design and implement an effective program evaluation. The collaboration began when the prevention agency contracted with a research group. This article identifies the problems encountered in the collaboration between the researchers and the prevention agency regarding the goals and methods of the evaluation within budget limitations. Although the collaboration and the compromises made led to a more limited evaluation than that initially proposed by the researchers, the evaluation conducted was an important step toward improving the prevention program and working toward more in-depth evaluation research. Some lessons learned about conducting collaborations in the design of evaluation research are identified and discussed. 13 references