NCJ Number
201582
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 9 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2003 Pages: 955-988
Date Published
August 2003
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This article describes a social marketing strategy designed to convince college women to seek the services of a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) should they be raped.
Abstract
Studies have shown that despite the physical and emotional damage of sexual assault, most victims do not receive post-assault medical care. One approach designed to increase the medical care that survivors of sexual assault receive is to treat the victims as consumers and target them with marketing strategies intended to increase victims' use of SANE services. SANEs are the fastest growing group of medical professionals with specialized training in evaluating sexual assault victims and collecting forensic evidence. The Centers for Disease Control endorse social marketing as a public health strategy to improve healthy behavior. Audience segmentation is a critical feature of social marketing. It involves identifying groups of individuals within the target population that share perspectives and social contexts. The purpose of segmentation is to identify common concerns and obstacles that must be addressed in order to invoke a desired behavior and to select appropriate communication venues. Audience segmentation is usually achieved by the analysis of data collected from possible targets in focus groups and through other qualitative methods. The current study identified several attributes of the college student population as necessarily central to message development. Posters were developed to advertise SANE services. The posters were hung on the inside doors of dormitory toilet stalls, a location often used by residence-life staff to present information about dormitory activities. Two poster campaigns were conducted, and students in introductory sociology and interdisciplinary senior level capstone courses completed anonymous surveys 2 weeks after each advertising campaign. The surveys indicated that advertising through posters is a viable way to communicate information about health care services to the college population. After the second campaign, the majority of students reported seeing SANE posters in stalls and on bulletin boards. Students exposed to more sources of information about available sexual assault services generally were more knowledgeable about SANE services; however, gender mediated this relationship. Policy recommendations are offered. 9 tables, 7 notes, and 58 references