For students heading back to campus, the “red zone” represents a period of increased vulnerability to sexual violence. Early in the academic year, students are navigating new relationships, unfamiliar environments, parties, alcohol and substance use, social pressures, and the transition away from home.
For law enforcement, understanding the red zone matters because campus sexual violence does not happen in a vacuum. Neither should the response.
The traditional approach to campus safety often focuses on prevention rooted in sexual violence stereotypes; protecting students from stranger danger, poorly lit parking lots, unlocked doors, or unknown people entering residence halls. Those things matter. But sexual violence on campus is much more likely to involve people the victim knows: classmates, friends, dating partners, roommates, teammates, acquaintances, or someone they met at a party.
That changes what effective prevention and response look like.
The Red Zone Is About Risk, Not Blame
While the term “red zone” is generally used to describe the period early in the academic year when college students, particularly first-year students, may experience elevated risk for sexual assault, law enforcement professionals need to be conscious of how they talk about this concept.
The red zone should never become a shorthand for victim behavior.
It is not about telling students where they should or should not go, how they should dress, whether they should drink, or whom they should trust. Those messages place the burden of preventing sexual violence on potential victims rather than on people who choose to cause harm.
Instead, the red zone should prompt a different question:
What can we do differently when we know there may be increased vulnerability?
For law enforcement, that means proactive relationships with campus partners, better understanding of sexual violence dynamics, clear reporting pathways, and a response that honors how trauma can affect what a survivor says, remembers, or does after experiencing sexual violence.
Campus Sexual Violence Doesn’t Always Look “Textbook”
One of the biggest challenges in sexual assault investigations is that survivors don’t always behave the way people expect.
A survivor may:
- Delay reporting.
- Continue communicating with the person who assaulted them.
- Return to the same social environment where the assault occurred.
- Have difficulty remembering the sequence of events.
- Remember some details vividly while struggling with others.
- Minimize what happened.
- Laugh, appear calm, or seem emotionally detached.
- Say they don’t know whether what happened “counts.”
- Blame themselves.
- Change their mind about participating in an investigation.
- Remain in contact with the person who harmed them.
None of these behaviors should indicate to an investigator that sexual violence did not occur.
Trauma can affect memory, emotion, decision-making, and perceptions of safety. Fear of social consequences can also be an enormous pressure on campus. The accused may be a friend, teammate, fraternity member, roommate, dating partner, or someone within the survivor’s larger social network.
For an investigator, the question should never be, “Why didn’t they act differently?”
It should be:
“What information can help us understand what happened?”
“And how can we access that information in a way that does not retraumatize the victim?”
That distinction can fundamentally change an investigation.
Law Enforcement is a Vital Part of Campus Safety
Campus safety isn’t just about what happens before an act of sexual violence.
It is also about what happens after someone reports one.
A survivor’s first interaction with law enforcement can influence whether they feel safe continuing with the process. It can affect whether they disclose additional information, whether they remain engaged with investigators, and whether they trust the system enough to seek help again.
That places a huge responsibility on law enforcement. That responsibility is to conduct a fair, thorough, unbiased investigation while recognizing the effects trauma can have on survivors.
Understand the Campus Ecosystem
Law enforcement responding to campus sexual violence should understand that the investigation rarely exists in isolation.
A survivor may simultaneously be interacting with:
- Campus police or municipal police
- Title IX personnel
- Campus victim advocates
- Health services
- Sexual assault forensic examiners
- Residence life
- Counseling services
- Prosecutors
- Friends, roommates, or family
- Academic personnel
- Athletic departments
- Fraternities or sororities
- Community-based victim service organizations
Each system may have different responsibilities, confidentiality requirements, timelines, and processes.
That can be incredibly overwhelming for a survivor.
Law enforcement can help by explaining at each step what will happen next, who will be involved, what information may be requested, and what choices the survivor has (including the choice to work with a victim advocate to navigate the system).
The goal for law enforcement isn’t to control the process. It’s to make the process understandable for the survivor and empower them to be the decision-maker.
Prevention Should Include Law Enforcement
Law enforcement is often brought into conversations about sexual violence after something has already happened. They are the “Response” in “Prevention and Response.”
But police agencies can play an important role in prevention as well.
That can include building relationships with campus communities before the first call comes in, participating in orientation and prevention programming, working with student organizations, training officers on sexual violence and trauma, and establishing clear protocols for responding to reports.
Police can also leverage data for prevention: Where are calls occurring? When? Are there particular locations, events, or circumstances associated with repeated reports? Are there barriers preventing students from reporting? Are certain populations experiencing additional barriers to accessing services?
The answers can help agencies move from reactive policing to proactive campus safety.
Build Trust Before You Need It
One of the most effective things law enforcement can do during the red zone is simple:
Show up and listen.
Be visible and compassionate. Build relationships. Meet campus advocates. Understand the resources available. Talk with students. Know where forensic exams occur. Understand how campus and community reporting pathways intersect.
When students already know who they can call and what kind of response they can expect, they don’t have to figure everything out in the middle of a crisis.
The Red Zone Is a Call to Action
The red zone should not be viewed as a seasonal warning that students need to “be more careful.”
It should be viewed as a reminder to institutions, including law enforcement, that risk is predictable, prevention is possible, and trauma-informed response matters.
For law enforcement, understanding sexual violence means moving beyond stereotypes about what an assault looks like and who a “real victim” is.
It means understanding trauma.
It means recognizing the reality that perpetrators of sexual violence are often known to the victim.
It means knowing that alcohol and substance use negate consent, without treating intoxication as a character judgment.
It means conducting investigations that are victim-centered without becoming offender-blind.
And it means recognizing that every interaction with a survivor is an opportunity to either strengthen or weaken their trust in the system.
The red zone doesn’t have to be a season when we simply warn students to watch out.
It can be a season when law enforcement, campuses, advocates, and communities step up and make sure that when someone needs help, the response they receive is worthy of their trust.
Want to continue the conversation? Contact me at kristin@endsexualviolencect.org