Hazing rates 'incredibly high' at universities – Study

New students in major Australian universities are subjected to violent hazing rituals, a report said last week, as its authors called for the practice to be criminalised to protect victims against injury or death, reports AFP.

The Red Zone report by activist group End Rape on Campus focused on orientation week before the start of classes and covered 12 Australian universities. The report's authors recommended the criminalisation of hazing rituals "requiring an individual to undergo any act which is likely to cause bodily danger or physical punishment to any student or other person".

"The rates of hazing and sexual assaults at colleges in Australia are incredibly high," the study's co-author Anna Hush told AFP, adding that some of the rituals dated back decades. "It's a self-perpetuating culture in that the same people that experience hazing or harassment will go on to perpetrate that when they are older students," Hush said.
Full report on The Straits Times site