How can we train women to protect themselves

During this class period, we talked about how to empower young girls to protect themselves. In one article, it talked about a self-defense class in which the students were taught to confront violence and sexual assault altogether, by being taught physical means of protection. In the article, it said that 18/100 persons were raped each year. There are indeed more cultures, in which rape is far more relevant. However, this training group showed that among the young women in the study, the number of rapes per 100 people each year had dropped. This dropped by a third. This happened to be in Kenya. The class, took place two hours a week, for six weeks. Is this what may be required in order to change the rape statistics of the world? If you want to change culture altogether, than you have to reach everyone in your own culture. This kind of class administered to both boys and girls would certainly cause a large change in rape statistics. 

We reviewed another article, that explained that the education programs are brief, and show no changes in behavior, or numbers of sexual violence behaviors and occurrences. It reminded us, that the "Green Dot" program at WSU may not be doing it's job. We then heard of the nine effective strategies, in order for a program to be successful. They were as follows: Effectiveness, appropriately timed, utilized varied teaching methods, had sufficient doses, administered by a well-trained staff, provides opportunities for positive relationships, sociocultural relevant, theory driven, and included an outcome evaluation.