1. Presented by Jackson Katz, PhD
Penn State: Did It Have To Happen? Violence, Silence and the Power of Conformity
Jewish Women International’s National Alliance to End Domestic Abuse
December 15, 2011
Presented by
Jackson Katz, PhD

2. Penn State as a landmark case/spur to action
Breaking silence about male victims
Age and gender of victims
Supporting survivors
Lessons learned: Syracuse University

3. Penn State as the mother of all teachable moments for the bystander approach
Incidents of sexual abuse witnessed by people in a position to intervene and did not
Pressures on people (men) in various peer cultures to remain silent
The failure of institutional leaders to act, resulting in disastrous consequences
All of this taking place in one of the bastions of male power and privilege -- the Penn State University football program, presided over for 46 years by one of the iconic patriarchs in American sports culture.

4. Bystander approach Bystander approach vs. “bystander effect”
Brief history
MVP created in 1993
Perpetrators, victims, and bystanders
Men and women as bystanders: differences and similarities
The role of sports culture in the development of the bystander approach

5. Laying bare the dynamics of male peer culture
“I’d have done something”
The power of enforced conformity
Social norms theory
A price to pay for breaking (bystander) silence
The definition of manhood

6. The price to pay with peers:
Resentment
Tensions in interpersonal relationships
Violent reprisals
Questioning manhood, heterosexuality
“Loyalty”
“Code of silence”: teams, gangs, police, military, fraternities

7. The price to pay in hierarchical relationships
Examples:
1st year student-athlete challenges team captain
Student-athlete whose coach is abusive to his wife
Low-level employee confronts his/her boss
Enlisted military member reporting a superior officer

8. Educating for social justice
Move beyond narrow (but necessary) focus on ethics and legalities of reporting
Education beyond Power Point: dialogue
Dynamics of teams and other cohesive groups
Focus on gender and power

9. Bystander training as leadership training
What is leadership “off the field”?
Required training on college campuses for:
Student-athletes (and other student leaders)
Coaches
Athletic administrators
Non-athletic administrators
Everyone else

10. Questions/Discussion