Evaluation of a Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence Primary Prevention Program Implemented in Drinking Establishments

Overview

The goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of Safe Night Out, a community-level primary violence prevention program offered in drinking establishments in the Sacramento region of California. The main questions this project aims to answer are: 1) Does the Safe Night Out program reduce incidents of sexual violence and intimate partner violence among patrons? 2) Does the Safe Night Out program increase incidents of safety checks of patrons by staff participants? To address these questions, we will enroll 150 staff participants and 500 patron participants from 25 drinking establishments that have implemented the Safe Night Out program (\~3 staff participants and 10 patron participants per drinking establishment) and 25 drinking establishments that have not implemented the Safe Night Out program (\~3 staff participants and 10 patron participants per drinking establishment). Participants will complete a baseline and three 6-month follow-up assessments, until 18 month-follow-up.

The overarching goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of Safe Night Out (SNO), a community-level primary prevention program offered in drinking establishments in the Sacramento region of California. Developed and implemented in 2019 by WEAVE, Inc., Sacramento County's primary domestic violence (DV) provider, SNO aims to train nightlife staff on how to recognize warning signs of sexual violence (SV) and intimate partner violence (IPV), and how to respond through active bystander skills to keep patrons safe. SNO has been tailored for drinking establishments in neighborhoods with high rates of SV and IPV. SNO, a single session education and bystander skills training, is to our knowledge, the only program implemented in drinking establishments in these neighborhoods. Guided by Social Cognitive Theory, Social Norms Theory, and the Bystander Education Model, and in collaboration with our Research Advisory Board, our community-academic team will conduct a quasi-experimental mixed methods evaluation study using a comparative time-interrupted series design. This study is a nonrandomized, quasi-experimental evaluation of an existing community-based violence prevention program. The research team will not prospectively assign individuals or establishments to intervention conditions; rather, outcomes are evaluated in relation to the naturalistic rollout of the Safe Night Out program implemented by a community partner. The aim of the study is to determine the effectiveness of SNO on increasing bystander intervention and reducing SV and IPV at the individual-level (e.g., patrons, staff) and population-level (e.g., census block). Individual-level primary outcomes among patrons include past 6-month SV and past 6-month IPV victimization and perpetration; secondary outcomes among staff include past 6-month increase in bystander intervention and safety checks in drinking establishments. We will also determine the effectiveness of SNO on 2-year average rates of rape, domestic violence assault and domestic violence police calls. We will enroll 25 drinking establishments in the queue at WEAVE to receive SNO training and identify 25 drinking establishments who will not receive the SNO training during the study period. This will allow for comparison between the two groups based on individual-level and staff-level outcomes, before (3 months prior) and after SNO program training (6, 12, and 18-month follow-up) using quantitative survey data (n=500 patrons, 10 per establishment and n=150 staff, 3 per establishment).