What is The Red Zone?

The first months of college before students return home for Thanksgiving break are meant to be an inspiring, formative experience for young people around the country. However, amongst all of the excitement, are also more sexual assaults happening around campus. 

This period, known as “The Red Zone,” is when 50% of all college sexual assaults occur.¹ The timing of the Red Zone is not by chance, and there are several factors at play making this a period of increased violence.

Why Does The Red Zone Happen?

Introduction to Party Culture

Party culture in this context refers to the environment surrounding many college campuses that promotes partying, usually involving alcohol and/or drugs. This culture is synonymous with binge drinking and hooking up simultaneously. 

There are often more parties during the beginning of the school year as students reunite and celebrate the return to campus. However, parties can be high-risk environments when it comes to sexual assault. One study found that approximately half of all college women who were sexually assaulted while incapacitated were at a party with the perpetrator prior to the assault.²

For many college students, freshman year may be the first time they are attending parties and using substances. Students may not know their limits when it comes to substance use or not understand the culture surrounding partying, both of which can serve as risk factors for sexual violence. 

Party environments also increase the chances of sexual violence due to the loud and chaotic environment, hook-ups being treated like a conquest, and power-imbalances between upper and lower classmen and fraternities and sororities.

Lack of Social Support

When navigating this new environment, college students lack the social support they previously had from their family, friends, and high school peers. To establish a social support system, students feel pressure to impress one another, which can lead them to engage in higher risk behaviors. 

Additionally, lacking close social relationships while navigating new environments, such as parties, can also put people at higher risk. New friends may not look after one another as closely or feel as comfortable intervening.³  Perpetrators may take advantage of the fact that many people are without developed social networks on campus and target those who are separated from people they know.

Greek Rush and Pledging

“Rush” refers to the period during the first semester when students interested in joining a sorority or fraternity explore their options and find the right fit, typically by spending time with prospective sororities or fraternities at social events. The events that take place during rush can often take the form of parties where alcohol is present. Alcohol and drugs can be used to incapacitate and sexually assault someone, and this is very common on college campuses.⁴ Or, perpetrators may target individuals who are incapacitated by substances. 

“Pledging” refers to when members of the prospective sorority/fraternity “bid” or invite someone to become a member, and by accepting the invite, they become a “pledge” before they are fully initiated as a member. In some chapters, pledges may be hazed, or pressured into performing humiliating/harmful acts to “prove themselves.” Hazing can intersect with sexual violence in various ways, such as acts of sexualized violence directed towards the pledge, encouraging pledges to commit sexual assault, and/or encouraging the over-consumption of substances.

Pledges feel pressure to impress sorority or fraternity members to earn their spot as an official member. This creates a power-imbalance that is coercive, regardless of whether or not sorority or fraternity members are intentionally coercing them. Many schools have moved rush into the second semester to try and lower these risks.

Lack of Education

Receiving comprehensive sex education has been found to prevent sexual assault in college.⁵ However, less than a quarter of college men received any kind of prevention training in K-12.⁶ Students need to be trained during K-12 in order to reduce the red zone. One third of those that do receive training in college are not capable of implementing what they were taught.⁶ 

More often than not, these educational programs tie in bystander intervention training, however, most do not go into depth and can leave students even more confused on how to safely and effectively intervene. To make matters worse, college officials and residential assistants often focus on warning students about the dangers of alcohol abuse and partying too much. There is a heavy emphasis on taking personal safety measures or avoiding risk. This rhetoric creates an environment rooted in toxic rape culture, as it assigns unfair liability on a survivor to prevent sexual assault. 

Be Part of The Change

While this all may seem daunting, especially for freshmen at universities, learning about what the Red Zone is can be an empowering way to keep oneself and new friends informed. Students deserve to feel safe during this exciting new chapter, and having honest conversations regarding consent, peer support, sex, and campus resources can help cultivate a positive culture of consent. 

Check out PAVE’s annual Shatter The Red Zone Summit to learn more about campus sexual violence and how to be part of the change.

1. Kimble, M., Neacsiu, A. D., Flack, W. F., & Horner, J. (2008). Risk of Unwanted Sex for College Women: Evidence for a Red Zone. Journal of American College Health, 57(3), 331–338. https://doi.org/10.3200/jach.57.3.331-338
2. Gilbert, L., Sarvet, A. L., Wall, M., Walsh, K., Reardon, L., Wilson, P., Santelli, J., Khan, S., Thompson, M., Hirsch, J. S., & Mellins, C. A. (2019). Situational Contexts and Risk Factors Associated with Incapacitated and Nonincapacitated Sexual Assaults Among College Women. Journal of Women’s Health, 28(2), 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2018.7191
3. Garcia, S. M., Weaver, K., Moskowitz, G. B., & Darley, J. M. (2002). Crowded minds: The implicit bystander effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(4), 843–853. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.4.843 
4. Cantor, D., Fisher, B., Chibnall, S., & Harps, S. (2020). AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct . https://www.aau.edu/sites/default/files/AAU-Files/Key-Issues/Campus-Safety/Revised%20Aggregate%20report%20%20and%20appendices%201-7_(01-16-2020_FINAL).pdf
5. Santelli, J. S., Grilo, S. A., Choo, T. H., Diaz, G., Walsh, K., Wall, M., Hirsch, J. S., Wilson, P. A., Gilbert, L., Khan, S., & Mellins, C. A. (2018). Does sex education before college protect students from sexual assault in college?. PloS one, 13(11), e0205951. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205951
6. Zenteno, S., & Hilty, E. (2024). Engaging Men Part 2: Measuring Attitudes and Behaviors. In ItsOnUs.org. https://itsonus.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Engaging-Men-Part-2-full-report.pdf