The Intersection of Hazing and Campus Sexual Assault

When you hear the word hazing, what comes to mind?

For many people, it’s the image of upperclassmen on a sports team or members of a fraternity pressuring new recruits to drink excessive amounts of alcohol. While alcohol-related hazing is common, hazing extends beyond coercive drinking. Hazing can take many forms, some of which are less recognized—but just as harmful.

Hazing can be defined as “any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them, regardless of a person’s willingness to participate.”1

In campus student organizations, established members often hold significant social influence over new members. That imbalance of power between established and new members can create situations where individuals feel pressured or believe their only choice is to participate in harmful or degrading activities to gain acceptance.

Because of the common misconception that hazing only involves alcohol or physical abuse, it’s important to recognize that sexual abuse and sexual assault can also be forms of hazing. In fact, hazing and campus sexual violence share many of the same dynamics including power, control, and the absence of meaningful consent.2

Sexual hazing can take many forms. It may involve forcing new members to perform or simulate sexual acts, groping or other unwanted sexual touching, or exposing them to sexual acts without their consent. At least 10% of male college students reported sexual hazing behaviors perpetrated against them.3 These behaviors are not simply “initiation rituals;” they are forms of sexual violence that can have lasting emotional and psychological impacts.

Like other forms of hazing, sexual hazing is designed to humiliate, intimidate, and reinforce power over newer members. When hazing behaviors are dismissed as “tradition,” “rites of passage,” or “just part of initiation,” it can make it harder for those who were targeted to recognize that sexual assault was perpetrated against them. Minimizing these types of behaviors perpetuates harm and discourages survivors from seeking support or reporting the violence perpetrated against them.

Recognizing the overlap between hazing and sexual violence is an important step toward creating safer campus communities. No tradition, team, or organization should require someone to sacrifice their dignity, safety, or bodily autonomy in order to belong.

1. StopHazing. (2020, December). Hazing: The Issue, StopHazing Consulting. https://www.stophazing.org/issue

2. StopHazing. (2020, December). Intersections of Hazing. StopHazing Consulting. https://www.stophazing.org/issue/intersections

3. Allan, E. J., & Madden, M. (2012). The nature and extent of college student hazing. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 24(1). DOI 10.1515/IJAMH.2012.012

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