The recent filing of a civil lawsuit brought against Cornell University and seven Chi Phi fraternity members has brought international attention to the issue of sexual violence on post-secondary campuses. The lawsuit alleges that seven men drugged and assaulted a woman, who was a Cornell student at the time, in October 2024, and that the university protected them.

In Canada, much like the United States, sexual violence on post-secondary campuses is all too common and rarely occurs in private.

In the Cornell case, a group of fraternity members were part of a SnapChat group that received real-time information related to the alleged assault. According to the lawsuit, a message in a group chat was was sent suggesting a woman was available for sex. News reporting has detailed some of the messages shared.

When men become aware of or witness unwanted sexualized behaviours, how common is it to intervene?

Statistics Canada reports that 92 per cent of men attending Canadian post-secondary institutions did not engage in any actions to stop unwanted sexual behaviours they had witnessed.

The issue of people failing to take action when an emergency occurs and other people are present is a well-documented phenomena called the bystander effect.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, the more people that witness the event, the more likely the bystander effect will occur (meaning no one will intervene).

Given this common effect, a lot of research since the 1960s has focused on how to promote bystander intervention when people witness an act of violence. This work has led to five common steps that individuals must move through to intervene:

Interpret the event as an emergency where help is needed;

Interpret the event as an emergency where help is needed;

Assume responsibility........

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