Prevention Strategies

Sexual violence (SV) is a serious problem that can have lasting, harmful effects on victims and their family, friends, and communities. CDC’s goal is to stop SV from happening in the first place. The solutions are just as complex as the problem.

In order to prevent SV, we must understand and address risk and protective factors at the individual, relational, community, and societal levels.

CDC developed a resource, STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence pdf icon[2.85MB, 48Pages,508] to help communities take advantage of the best available evidence to prevent sexual violence. This resource is available in English and Spanish pdf icon[17MB, 48 Pages, 508] and can impact individual behaviors and the relationship, family, school, community, and societal factors that influence the risk and protective factors for violence. Many of the strategies focus on reducing the likelihood that a person will engage in sexual violence. The strategies and their corresponding approaches are listed in the table below.

STOP SV
STOP SV
Strategy		Approach
S	Promote Social Norms that Protect Against Violence	Bystander Approaches Mobilizing men and boys as allies
T	Teach Skills to Prevent Sexual Violence	Social-emotional learning Teaching healthy, safe dating and intimate relationship skills to adolescents Promoting healthy sexuality Empowerment-based training
O	Provide Opportunities to Empower and Support Girls and Women	Strengthening economic supports for women and families Strengthening leadership and opportunities for girls
P	Create Protective Environments	Improving safety and monitoring in schools Establishing and consistently applying workplace policies Addressing community-level risks through environmental approaches
SV	Support Victims/Survivors to Lessen Harms	Victim-centered services Treatment for victims of SV Treatment for at-risk children and families to prevent problem behavior including sex offending

Example Programs

Below are some examples of programs described in the STOP SV technical package.

Safe Datesexternal icon
Program designed to prevent the initiation of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in adolescent dating relationships
Shifting Boundariesexternal icon
Program designed to reduce dating violence and sexual harassment among adolescents
Green Dot external icon
Bystander-based prevention program designed to reduce sexual and other forms of interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization
Second Step: Student Success Through Prevention (SS: SSTP)external icon
School-based program aimed at reducing bullying, peer victimization, and other problem behaviors
Coaching Boys Into Menexternal icon
Dating violence prevention program that uses the relationships between high school athletes and their coaches to change social norms and behaviors.
Bringing in the Bystanderexternal icon
Bringing in the Bystander is a bystander education and training program designed for male and female college students.

See Sexual Violence Resources for more publications, data sources, and other resources about preventing sexual violence.

Page last reviewed: February 5, 2022

Content source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention