Mary P. Koss (born Mary Lyndon Pease) is an American Regents' Professor at the University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health in Tucson, Arizona. Her best known works have been in the areas of gender-based violence and restorative justice.
In 1987, Koss, along with her colleagues, Christine Gidycz and Nadine Wisniewski, published the first national study on rape. The study included the first presentation of the "one in four" statistic that created awareness of the extent of rape among college students, the development of a method for measuring rape, and coining terms such as "date rape" and "acquaintance rape".
Biography
Koss was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Koss's maternal grandparents (William and Marian Lyndon Bade) raised her and her four siblings for a period of time, while their mother rehabilitated from polio. Upon graduating high school at age 17, Koss attended the University of Michigan, where she met her husband, Paul G. Koss. After receiving her A.B. in Psychology with high distinction, she continued her education at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities along with her husband. While he completed his medical degree, she pursued a PhD in Clinical Psychology. After receiving her doctorate, she completed her clinical psychology residency at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center, where she worked with Vietnam War veterans in the area of rehabilitation psychology.
Career
Koss joined the faculty of St. Olaf College as an assistant professor in August 1973. She then transferred to a research university, Kent State in 1976. During her time there, Mary Harvey, of Victims of Violence Center and National Institute of Mental Health, recruited her to lead a study on rape prevalence in collaboration with the Ms. Foundation for Research and Education. The project was federally funded through a competitive grants award process. Koss' work resulted in the 1987 publication, "The Scope of Rape: Incidence and Prevalence of Sexual Aggression and Victimization in a National Sample of Higher Education Students." This was the first national, large-scale survey on rape of its kind. As a result of this and other works, Koss has been credited with coining the terms "date rape", "hidden rape", "unacknowledged rape", "acquaintance rape", and "campus rape". She also published "The Hidden Rape Victim: Personality, Attitudinal and Situational Characteristics." In that paper, she defined the hidden rape victim as, "one who has never reported her experience to a rape crisis center or to police." Koss defined the unacknowledged rape victims as women who have experienced the behaviors that define rape (oral, anal, or vaginal penetration against consent through force, bodily harm, or when incapacitated and unable to consent) but do not realize that their experience constitutes rape or chose not to view it that way. This is now a well-accepted finding reaffirmed by other investigators in national surveys repeated in the early 2000s and most recently reported in 2012. Koss has served as an invited speaker and guest lecturer around the world. In 1991, she testified as an expert witness at the U.S. Senate hearings that led to the first passage of Violence Against Women Act.
Koss was offered a faculty position in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona in 1987 and later transferred to the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Koss has been at the University of Arizona for 27 years, earning tenure in 1988 and designation Regents' Professor in November 2006.
In her academic career, Koss has published close to 300 works on violence against women, including 145 peer-reviewed scientific articles as well as books, book chapters, and briefs. In addition to the Ms. Study, Koss has led 10 other federally funded research projects.
Restorative justice programs
At the University of Arizona, Koss pioneered an innovative and revolutionized restorative justice program, RESTORE. RESTORE is a voluntary conferencing program for adult misdemeanor and felony sexual assault perpetrators who are referred by a prosecutor. "The RESTORE Program for Restorative Justice for Sex Crimes: Vision, Process and Outcomes" is published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. "The paper is the first peer-reviewed quantitative evaluation of RJ conferencing for adult sexual assault." Koss and her colleagues from The University of Michigan and Carleton College also collaborated on the article titled, "Campus Sexual Misconduct: Restorative Justice Approaches to Enhance Compliance with Title IX Guidance." This article is published in Trauma, Violence and Abuse: A Review Journal.
Honors and awards
Koss has received over 20 awards and over 70 recognitions throughout her career. Along with her honors and awards, she has been a distinguished member of professional organizations such as the American Psychological Association.
Stephen Schafer Award, National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA)
Distinguished Service Award for the book, No Safe Haven, Male Violence Against Women at Home, at Work, and in the Community
Heritage Award recognizing a substantial and outstanding body of work, American Psychological Association, Division 35 (Psychology of Women)
Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy, American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association Committee on Women in Psychology Leadership Award (Senior Career)
Presidential Citation, American Psychological Association
Visionary Award from End Violence Against Women International
Books
Koss, Mary P.; Kazdin, Alan E.; White, Jacquelyn W. (2011). Violence against women and children: volume 1: mapping the terrain. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 9781433809125.
Koss, Mary P.; Kazdin, Alan E.; White, Jacquelyn W. (2011). Violence against women and children: volume 2: navigating solutions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 9781433809149.
Chapters in books
Koss, Mary P.; Cook, Sarah L. (1993), "Facing the facts: date and acquaintance rape are significant problems for women", in Gelles, Richard J.; Loseke, Donileen R., Current controversies on family violence, Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, pp. 104–119, ISBN 9780803946743.
Koss, Mary P.; Cook, Sarah L. (2005), "More data have accumulated supporting date and acquaintance rape as significant problems for women", in Gelles, Richard J.; Loseke, Donileen R.; Cavanaugh, Mary M., Current controversies on family violence (2nd ed.), Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, pp. 97–116, ISBN 9780761921066.
Journal articles
Koss, Mary P. (June 1985). "The hidden rape victim: personality, attitudinal, and situational characteristics". Psychology of Women Quarterly. Sage. 9 (2): 193–212. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1985.tb00872.x.
Koss, Mary P.; Gidycz, Christine A.; Wisniewski, Nadine (April 1987). "The scope of rape: incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of higher education students". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. American Psychological Association via PsycNET. 55 (2): 162–170. PMID 3494755. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.55.2.162. Pdf.
Koss, Mary P.; Dinero, Thomas E.; Seibel, Cynthia A.; Cox, Susan L. (March 1988). "Stranger and acquaintance rape: are there differences in the victim's experience?". Psychology of Women Quarterly. Sage. 12 (1): 1–24. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1988.tb00924.x.
Koss, Mary P.; Gidycz, Christine A. (Fall 1991). "Predictors of long-term sexual assault trauma among a national sample of victimized college women". Violence & Victims. Springer. 6 (3): 175–190. PMID 1818616.
Koss, Mary P.; Heslet, Lynette (September 1992). "Somatic consequences of violence against women". Archives of Family Medicine. American Medical Association. 1 (1): 53–59. PMID 1341588. doi:10.1001/archfami.1.1.53. Pdf.
Koss, Mary P. (June 1993). "Detecting the scope of rape: a review of prevalence research methods". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Sage. 8 (2): 198–222. doi:10.1177/088626093008002004.
Koss, Mary P. (October 1993). "Rape: scope, impact, interventions, and public policy responses". American Psychologist. American Psychological Association via PsycNET. 48 (10): 1062–1069. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.48.10.1062.
Koss, Mary P.; Rozee, Patricia D. (December 2001). "Rape: a century of resistance". Psychology of Women Quarterly. Sage. 25 (4): 295–311. doi:10.1111/1471-6402.00030.
Koss, Mary P.; Hopkins, C. Quince (May 2005). "Incorporating feminist theory and insights into a restorative justice response to sex offenses". Violence Against Women. Sage. 11 (5): 693–723. doi:10.1177/1077801205274570.
Koss, Mary P.; West, Carolyn M.; Abbey, Antonia; Campbell, Rebecca; Cook, Sarah; Norris, Jeanette; Testa, Maria; Ullman, Sarah; White, Jacquelyn (December 2007). "Revising the SES: a collaborative process to improve assessment of sexual aggression and victimization". Psychology of Women Quarterly. Sage. 31 (4): 357–370. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2007.00385.x. Pdf.
Koss, Mary P.; Cook, Sarah L.; Gidycz, Christine A.; Murphy, Megan (February 2011). "Emerging issues in the measurement of rape victimization". Violence Against Women. Sage. 17 (2): 201–218. doi:10.1177/1077801210397741.
Koss, Mary P.; Malamuth, Neil M.; Hald, Gert Martin (April 2012). "Pornography, individual differences in risk and men's acceptance of violence against women in a representative sample". Sex Roles. Springer. 66 (7-8): 427–439. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-0082-6.
Koss, Mary P.; Thompson, Martie P.; Swartout, Kevin M. (July 2013). "Trajectories and predictors of sexually aggressive behaviors during emerging adulthood". Psychology of Violence. American Psychological Association via PsycNET. 3 (3): 247–259. PMC 3727658 . PMID 23914305. doi:10.1037/a0030624. Pdf.
Koss, Mary P. (June 2014). "The RESTORE program of restorative justice for sex crimes vision, process, and outcomes". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Sage. 29 (9): 1623–1660. doi:10.1177/0886260513511537.
Koss, Mary P.; Wilgus, Jay K.; Williamsen, Kaaren M. (July 2014). "Campus sexual misconduct: restorative justice approaches to enhance compliance with Title IX guidance". Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. Sage. 15 (3): 242–257. PMID 24776460. doi:10.1177/1524838014521500. Pdf.
Koss, Mary P.; Swartout, Kevin M.; White, Jacquelyn W.; Thompson, Martie P.; Abbey, Antonia; Bellis, Alexandra L. (July 2015). "Trajectory analysis of the campus serial rapist assumption". JAMA Pediatrics. American Medical Association. 169: 1148–54. PMID 26168230. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0707.
