Honors Theses

Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BA

Department

Political Science and Criminal Justice

Faculty Mentor

Scott Liebertz

Advisor(s)

Katherine Meeker, Corina Schulze

Abstract

Sexual abuse, in all of its many forms, has been a controversial topic for centuries. This project looks at a specific subset of sexual abuse: high school student-teacher assaults. Victims of sexual abuse often face barriers to justice. This project addresses several demographic barriers. Research has shown that people of color and members of the queer community are typically reluctant to report due to police and societal perceptions of these groups. Teenagers face additional challenges, such as not know how their peers, parents, school, or community will react. Additionally, their abuser is an authority figure, meaning that these victims could have unhealthy relationships with authority figures for the rest of their lives. These assaults could also be the closest thing teenage victims experience to a first romantic relationship, thus increasing the potential of the victim to experience future unhealthy romantic relationships. Older teenage victims, on the other hand, might be viewed as adults by the public due to their budding adulthood. This project aims to see how the race, gender, and perceived sexuality of the abuser and victim influence public perception of these assaults. This survey will feature a series of vignettes that feature a sixteen- year- old student and a male teacher. The age of the teacher will be unknown, and the race and sexuality will vary. The students, male and female, will be the same race as their abuser. All survey respondents were students at the University of South Alabama. These findings demonstrate that Black female students were less likely to be perceived as victims, and that sexuality did not seem to have any influence.

Comments

© 2025 India Campbell ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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