Gender Violence in University Students and Communities in the American Continent: A Review

Abstract

Objective. To analyze the literature published between 2012 and 2022 on gender violence in students and university communities in the Americas, its risk factors, manifestations and existence of committees or protocols that address this issue. Material and method. Bibliographic review in databases: PubMed, Scielo, Google Scholar and EBSCO. Using the terms DeCS: «gender violence», «university», «students» and «teachers», in English and Spanish; with the Boolean operator «AND». The filters were: original articles, reviews, articles published between 2012-2022 and articles in English and Spanish. Results. 13 articles were selected, from: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States. The risk factors for suffering gender violence are social, economic, family, cultural, religious, and personal. The predominant types of gender violence are physical, sexual, and psychological. Internal committees and protocols in universities are scarce and the existing ones are inefficient. Conclusions. The main risk factors in university students are upbringing, gender roles and the economic factor. It is necessary to investigate gender violence, mainly psychological violence, which is the most recurrent. The committees and protocols are precarious, without standards that provide proper protection to the victims, not fulfilling the need for support and/or condemnation of these situations. There is an urgent need to implement prevention and denunciation programs as well as to train the entire university communities on gender violence.