Sexual Citizens

A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus

By: Jennifer S. Hirsch, Shamus Khan

Narrated by: Laura Jennings

The fear of campus sexual assault has become an inextricable part of the college experience. Research has shown that by the time they graduate, as many as one in three women and almost one in six men will have been sexually assaulted. But why is sexual assault such a common feature of college life? And what can be done to prevent it? Drawing on the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) at Columbia University, the most comprehensive study of sexual assault on a campus to date, Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan present an entirely new framework that emphasizes sexual assault’s social roots - transcending current debates about consent, predators in a “hunting ground”, and the dangers of hooking up.

Sexual Citizens is based on years of research interviewing and observing college life - with students of different races, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Hirsch and Khan’s landmark study reveals the social ecosystem that makes sexual assault so predictable, explaining how physical spaces, alcohol, peer groups, and cultural norms influence young people’s experiences and interpretations of both sex and sexual assault. Through the powerful concepts of “sexual projects”, “sexual citizenship”, and “sexual geographies”, the authors offer a new and widely-accessible language for understanding the forces that shape young people’s sexual relationships. Empathetic, insightful, and far-ranging, Sexual Citizens transforms our understanding of sexual assault and offers a roadmap for how to address it.

©2020 Hirsch and Khan, LLC (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Impressive thoughtful analysis, must read for parents, young adults & researchers

This book offers an Impressive thoughtful analysis, and is a must read for parents, young adults & researchers. Illustrates how important the social environment is to understand for public health problems and their solutions. Brilliant sociological analysis.

Must read for legislators/parents

Any anyone who cares about health and safety of people. We can do better folks!

Interesting but also useless.

The book makes some very good points, however, the evidence to back up those points is weak.

4 star ouch

Is the process of gaining good approaches to sexual citizenship learned while reading of harm experienced during sexual stories? If you want to talk about how to become good sexual citizens, why not make moral arguments that fortify the person?

Fundamental questions must be asked and answered: When do we learn what good sexual citizenship is? Who is not raped? If race, class, and gender are social constructs, how do we use the awareness of dynamic experiences to find strength to grow on? What is the nature of experience with social power? What challenges cultivate good social power?