Challenging rape culture: Awareness, emotion and action through campus acquaintance rape education

This study builds on the growing body of literature pertaining to the effects of rape prevention education on college students. Interviews and focus groups were used to explore college students' experiences of undergoing intensive semester-long rape prevention training. The findings of the current study suggest that college student participants developed rape consciousness, and that this shift involved cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes that are similar to those involved in the development of feminist identity. The authors conclude that intensive, sustained rape education efforts play a vital role in dismantling rape supportive culture.