Hazing Prevention & Intervention

Whether mental, physical, social or emotional, hazing is harmful and is incongruent with the purpose of fraternity/sorority. Research shows that often individuals may not recognize what they are experiencing as “hazing”, rather they will chalk it up as a rite of passage or “earning” their place in an organization. With 11,482 undergraduate students at 53 colleges and universities in different regions of the U.S. and interviews with more than 3,000 students and staff at 18 of those campuses, results from the National Study on Student Hazing revealed that 90% of the students who report experiencing hazing behaviors do not believe they have been “hazed”¹. The frequency with which serious injuries and deaths result from hazing activities has increased tremendously in the last ten years. From 1990-2002, more hazing related deaths occurred than all previous college and university deaths of that nature on record².  Hazing can affect individuals differently depending on their background and up-bringing. In fact, in some instances, the more long-term effects of hazing are often unseen and referred to as the “hidden harm” of hazing. When subjected to hazing experiences, new members react differently based upon the experiences that they bring into this new environment. The following are examples of how hazing can negatively impact those involved:

• Mental hazing can affect people in many different ways including: anger, confusion, betrayal, fear, resentment, embarrassment, humiliation, hopelessness, helplessness, anxiety and depression are all normal reactions to being hazed. Some individuals, both hazers and those who have been hazed, have become suicidal.
• Physical hazing can result in exhaustion, headaches, hangovers, illnesses, injuries, and scars and can also lead to death.
• Long-term psychological effects can result from unknown factors associated with the hazing experiences that individuals have from their past; i.e., victim of sexual assault/abuse, former military service in a combat zone, physical abuse from within their family, alcoholism, etc.