The Red Zone Explained: Confronting Sexual Violence on College Campuses
As students return to campus this fall, many are filled with excitement, new opportunities, and increased independence. But what’s often left out of welcome week speeches and dorm orientations is the reality that the start of the semester also marks the beginning of The Red Zone—a period from the first day of classes through Thanksgiving break when more than 50% of all college sexual assaults take place (Inside Higher Ed, 2019).
This surge in assaults isn’t a coincidence. It coincides with an intense social season: students are reconnecting, new students are navigating campus for the first time, Greek life kicks off recruitment, and parties are frequent. The combination of unfamiliar environments, party and hookup culture, and lack of sexual violence education makes new students, especially women, particularly vulnerable.
What Makes the Red Zone So Dangerous?
Most students enter college with little to no education on consent or sexual violence. Many are also experiencing alcohol and party culture for the first time, often in environments where binge drinking and casual sex are normalized and encouraged. In fact, alcohol is a factor in 75% of campus sexual assaults and is the most commonly used substance to facilitate assault (NSVRC 2022). Aggressors use it both as a weapon to make others vulnerable and as a camouflage to excuse their behavior.
Despite how pervasive this issue is, most assaults are perpetrated by a small percentage of students—often enabled by a broader campus culture that normalizes risky behavior and discourages accountability.
Hookup Culture, Party Culture, and Rape Culture
While many students seek connection and exploration through social gatherings, these same spaces can put them at risk. Hookup and party culture can blur the lines between consent and coercion. Add in heavy drinking, unfamiliar environments, and pressure to conform to group expectations, and it creates the conditions for sexual violence to occur, and go unreported.
Too often, universities conflate alcohol use with assault, a harmful narrative that contributes to low reporting rates. In fact, only 20% of female student survivors ages 18–24 report their assault to law enforcement (Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Rape and Sexual Victimization Among College-Aged Females, 2014).
Fraternity and athletic group culture, in particular, can reinforce dangerous norms around hypermasculinity, secrecy, and loyalty. Group dynamics often protect aggressors and silence survivors. Reporting becomes even harder when the aggressor is part of a tight-knit or powerful group, and when victims fear retaliation or disbelief.
This is rape culture: a society where sexual violence is normalized, excused, and trivialized. It’s embedded in language, media, jokes, and the systems that protect perpetrators more than survivors.
What Can We Do?
We have a powerful opportunity to shift the culture, prevent violence, and support survivors. Here’s how:
- Bystander intervention: Everyone can play a role in prevention. We can create environments that are intolerant of violence, interrupt harmful behavior in the moment, and support survivors after harm occurs.
- Call it out: Language matters. Challenge objectifying jokes, sexist, homophobic, and racist comments, or toxic party norms. Speaking up may feel uncomfortable, but silence sends the message that harm is acceptable.
- Empower peers: College men especially can make a difference by holding each other accountable. If equipped with the right knowledge and skills, college men are often in the best position to identify a peer’s sexually violent behavior and stop it. Whether the person is their roommate, fraternity brother, teammate, or a stranger at a bar, young men can – and should – have the skills to step in. If one person is stopped, multiple assaults may be prevented.
- Center voices of the global majority: Sexual violence disproportionately affects people of color, LGBTQIA+ students, people with disabilities, and those living below the poverty line or experiencing homelessness. Their stories should guide prevention and response efforts.
- Model healthy relationships: Talk about boundaries, emotional safety, and mutual respect. Normalize asking for and giving consent, every time.
- Support survivors: Believe them. Avoid questioning their actions, survivors need compassion, not skepticism.
For Students Heading Back to Campus
Whether you’re a first-year student or a returning senior, there are steps you can take to protect yourself and support your community. While the responsibility for preventing violence should never fall on those at risk, meaningful change takes time. In the meantime, there are practical ways we can reduce harm and look out for one another.
- Reflect on your boundaries, and remember: it’s okay to change your mind.
- Ask your partner what they want. Verbal communication about consent is never wrong.
- Trust your gut—if something feels off, it probably is.
- Be proactive: look out for friends, intervene when it’s safe, and don’t hesitate to get help.
If you’re a survivor returning to school:
- Identify your support network, people you trust and spaces where you feel safe.
- Know where to access support for your physical and mental health.
- Seek out academic accommodations if needed, you deserve success and support.
- Most importantly: be gentle with yourself. Healing is not linear, and you are not alone.