The American Society of Criminology’s Division on Women and Crime (DWC) recently announced a paper submitted by Julia Smith (ʼ21), titled “Sexual Assault Prevention Education Effectiveness,” the winner of its national undergraduate paper competition. The honor includes a $250 prize, part of the DWC’s annual effort to spotlight leading graduate and undergraduate research related to feminist scholarship and gender issues.
“Through my research, I hope to encourage discourse between administration, faculty, staff, and the student body in order to implement effective sexual assault prevention programming,” Smith said.
Smith said she was inspired to take on the research because society treats sexual assault and consent as “taboo topics.”
“Our sexual education system is severely insufficient and, by doing this project, I decided to face those issues head on,” she said.
“As a department, we are so incredibly proud of Julia's hard work and her well-deserved win from the DWC,” said Katie Farina, PhD, Associate Professor of Criminology. “This topic is extremely important to discuss as we know about 20-25% of all college-aged women and 6-8% of college-aged men report being the victim of sexual assault.”
Smith said she dreams of one day serving on the United States Supreme Court, protecting victims of sexual violence and supporting policies that promote social equality. After graduation, she plans to attend law school to study international human rights law.
Cabrini was also represented in the 2017 DWC undergraduate paper competition, as Maggie Javitt (ʼ18), earned top paper accolades with her research, “Gendered Perceptions of Rape Victims: The Relationship between Rape Myths, Victim Blaming, and Gender.”