Sexual assault is a serious public health problem on college campuses. Nationally, an estimated 20% to 25% of college women experience some form of rape victimization during their college years. This problem is not limited to the United States. In Brazil, a woman is raped every eleven minutes and 700,000 live with regular aggression and assault. However, Brazil has formed innovative interventions such as specialized Women's Police Stations and court systems to respond to violent crimes against women. They have established Women's Right's Councils at the national, state, and city levels. Northern feminists have paid little attention to learning about or adapting models from Latin American countries. My hypothesis is that Brazilian students will have greater awareness of intervention strategies than University of Washington students. This project proposes a cross-cultural comparison on student perceptions of intervention strategies for sexual assault victims to evaluate the awareness, accessibility, and effectiveness of these services. I utilize a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collected from 245 surveys and interviews with students at the Methodist University of Sao Paulo, the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, and 245 surveys and interviews at the University of Washington, Tacoma. I employ Feminist and Post-colonial theory to analyze policymaking and the globalization of local women's agendas. Findings indicate a greater lack of knowledge of resources at the University of Washington. Brazil's experience suggests that implementing Women's Rights Councils in the United States may create space within the municipalities of our country for women's participation in elaborating public policies as well as in advising and supervising executive actions. Under a gendered lens and within a global perspective, Brazil serves as a leading case study in an ongoing movement toward the institutionalization of women's equality. 

Previous studies investigating the perception of sexual misconduct by individuals in a university setting have not examined the effects of socioeconomic status on attitudes towards sexual misconduct. While these effects were considered in a university setting, understanding male perceptions of sexual misconduct more broadly is becoming increasingly relevant as allegations against high status individuals of varying political backgrounds continue to emerge. This paper paves the way for future research as to the effects of socioeconomic status on these perceptions at a more universal level. Using a survey composed of different hypothetical scenarios, this paper examines the relationship between the socioeconomic status of a male perpetrator and the attitudes of male college respondents regarding sexual misconduct toward women. Male undergraduates at the University of Washington were recruited from different residence halls and classrooms on campus to ensure sociodemographic variation in the sample. The data supported an analysis of how perpetrator’s socioeconomic status and respondent’s socioeconomic status may separately or jointly shape perceptions of hypothetical misconduct, and whether a respondent’s beliefs about feminism influence these associations. This study expects to observe a significant impact from both the socioeconomic status of the perpatrator and the socioeconomic status of the respondent both jointly and when considered separately.

Understanding the sexual regulation of sorority women, and their role in it, is important in fully understanding the function and impact of sororities as a whole in modern collegiate experiences. Through my study of the Greek system at the University of Washington (UW) I worked to investigate the question: Do sorority women submit to sexual regulation in order to maintain or raise the house’s position in the sorority hierarchy? I surveyed 48 sorority women at the UW using vignette based questions to gauge sorority norms surrounding sexuality and its regulation in the Greek system. Within my research I am working under the assumption that sororities are reinventive institutions; institutions where women voluntarily join for empowerment and willingly submit to the regulation of all aspects of their identity. Through this perspective in the study I was able to gain insight into the underlying social mechanisms that maintain the social norms governing the sexuality of sorority members and how this is related to chapter status on campus, while recognizing the importance of the role individual members play within this process.

Increased racial tensions in America should be considered in evaluating current psychotherapeutic and social structures. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) argues that divulging vulnerable information about oneself is essential for emotional intimacy. When vulnerability is responded to with attempts to build safety, vulnerable behavior is reinforced (strengthened). This reciprocal process of vulnerability and building safety aids in the development of intimate relationships across social and psychotherapeutic settings. The interaction model of FAP has never been examined through an interracial lens. In interracial interactions, people may be less comfortable being vulnerable, which may contribute to increased social anxiety. These communication differences may partially explain lower rates of efficacy in cross-cultural psychotherapy. Our study analyzed the effect of race on vulnerability and anxiety as important elements in the well-established model of intimate relationship development. During same-race and interracial mock therapeutic interactions, undergraduate participants (representing clients) were asked questions intended to elicit vulnerability by research assistants. Heart rate (HR) data were recorded from participants as a physiological measure of anxiety throughout the interaction. Participant vulnerability was assessed through self-report and behavioral coding by blind, independent research assistants. We hypothesize that participants in the interracial interactions will show higher levels of anxiety, as measured by HR data, and lower levels of vulnerability, as measured by self report and behavioral coding, compared to participants in same-race interactions. This project may reveal that developing organic interracial connections is more difficult than developing same-race connections. This would indicate a need to modify current social and psychotherapeutic structures to facilitate the creation of effective and meaningful interracial relationships.

 Scholars in many disciplines have used the concepts of charisma and charismatic authority to describe leaders of prominent terrorist groups. These researchers do not give the breadth and depth these topics require when attributing them to casual relationships between leaders and followers. As a field, the study of terrorism is lacking in substantial work on the subject. This leads to an absence of deep conceptual understanding and incorrect or ill-defined usage. I will address the gap created by these missing definitive parameters to build a clearer understanding of the concepts. Through systematic comparison of the social tools employed by the leadership of Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram I will explore the characteristics of charismatic authority. I will analyze comparative parameters of group leaders, local demographics, institutional structures, and major national or regional events that precede violence. This goal will be achieved through historical document analysis using primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include documented speeches and interviews, documents released by the groups, and personal documents of leaders. Secondary sources include news stories, scholarly articles, and other academic literature. The purpose of this research is to set the stage for those with access to their followers to adequately explore the potential causal relationship between charismatic leadership and the actions of their followers.