Scientific Articles

Coker, A. L., Bush, H. M., Fisher, B. S., Swan, S. C., Williams, C. M., Clear, E. R., & DeGue, S. (2016). Multi-college bystander intervention evaluation for violence prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 50(3), 295–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2015.08.034

Holland, K. J., Hutchison, E. Q., Ahrens, C. E., & Torres, M. G. (2021). Reporting is not supporting. Why mandatory supporting, not mandatory reporting, must guide university sexual misconduct policies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences United States of America, 118(52), e2116515118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2116515118

Serradell, O., & Puigvert, L. (2025). Overcoming Sexual Harassment at University: The Case of the Training Intervention in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Behavioral Sciences, 15(5), 596. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15050596

Explanation of the Post

There is no scientific evidence to support this claim; it is misleading.

Firstly, there are still few analyses on the social impact of training carried out in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
Secondly, training on gender-based violence (GBV) is not always based on scientific evidence, which is a key element for achieving social impact. An example of this is the importance of including Bystander Intervention in all training programs, as it is the most effective mechanism to date for combating violence (Coker et al., 2016; Kuskoff & Parsell, 2024; Ríos-González & Ramis-Salas, 2023; Yule & Grych, 2020). Another example is the importance of including the debate on the harmful effects of mandatory reporting policies without consent, as well as the need to embrace a principle of mandatory supporting in order to help—not harm—survivors (Holland et al., 2021).
Thirdly, the effectiveness of training programs depends on the scientific knowledge of the trainers and, especially, on whether they have a coherent background as upstanders and a strong commitment to defending GBV victims (Serradell & Puigvert, 2025).

Other sources

Yule, K., & Grych, J. (2020). College students’ perceptions of barriers to bystander intervention. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35(15–16), 2971–2992. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517706764

Kuskoff, E., & Parsell, C. (2024). Bystander intervention in intimate partner violence: A scoping review of experiences and outcomes. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 25(3), 1799–1813. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231195886

Rios-Gonzalez, O., Ramis-Salas, M. (2023). Reducing Bullying in Schools: Features of the Zero Violence Brave Club. In: Martin, C.R., Preedy, V.R., Patel, V.B. (eds) Handbook of Anger, Aggression, and Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi-org.eux.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31547-3_117