ABCnews.com
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Hazing: Not Just Fun and Games
By Erica Heilman
Hazing has a long tradition, not only in college fraternities, but in
sororities, the military, athletic teams, and student organizations
at both high school and college levels. Though many people think of
hazing practices as harmless school-time antics, hazing has actually
been associated with more than 50 deaths in college fraternities,
countless injuries, and devastating emotional effects.
Like victims of domestic abuse, people who are treated for
hazing-related injuries are often reluctant to identify the cause of
their injury, and for this reason, there are very few reliable
statistics on the prevalence of hazing practices. There has also been
very little research on the subject in the medical community. "Hazing
is an important public health issue that has been largely ignored,"
says Dr. Michelle Finkel, emergency medicine physician from
Massachusetts General Hospital. Finkel's article, "Traumatic Injuries
Caused by Hazing Practices," was published in the May, 2002 issue of
the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Below, she shares some
insights from her research.
Dr. Finkel, what is hazing?
MICHELLE FINKEL: The working definition I use actually comes from
hazing expert Hank Nuwer, and it is: committing acts against an
individual or forcing an individual into committing an act that
creates a risk of harm in order for the individual to be initiated
into or affiliated with an organization.
How prevalent are hazing practices today?
It's hard to say because, for a variety of reasons, the numbers are
just not out there.
First, people don't report it. Kids don't want to report it because
it's very embarrassing, and they don't want to get their fraternity
or sorority or their group member brothers and sisters in trouble. So
my suspicion is that there's a tremendous number of underreported
hazing incidents.
Also, I just don't think that hazing prevalence has been studied that
much. There was a study done at Alfred University, which involved
college athletes, but it is the only significant study about hazing
that I came across in my research.
What were some compelling numbers or results in the Alfred study population?
There were 325,000 athletes surveyed in the Alfred study, and 80% of
respondents reported that they were subject to, and the quote is,
"questionable or unacceptable activities as part of their initiation
into a collegiate athletics team." That's four in five people, which
is pretty amazing.
One in five said that he was subjected to, quote, "unacceptable and
potentially illegal hazing." When asked to describe the nature of
this "unacceptable and potentially illegal activity," they described
activities such as beatings, kidnapping, and abandonment.
Who gets hazed?
The population tends to be much more male than female, however, the
number of women getting hazed is probably increasing. The population
also tends to be more white than African-American. And then,
obviously, a victim of hazing is going to be somebody who is trying
to join an organization. It will most likely be someone who's in
college, someone who's an athlete, or someone who is in the military.
When does hazing happen?
There are certain times of the year, which correlate with the
beginnings of semesters, when hazing incidents are much more common.
How significant is the role of alcohol in hazing practices?
Alcohol tends to be a very big player in a lot of the different
traumatic hazing injuries. Alcohol itself can cause the injury, for
example people can aspirate, or choke to death from alcohol, and
people can stop breathing from too much alcohol. Additionally,
alcohol can make people do stupid things, which can result in other
traumatic injuries.
What are some of the most common hazing practices that you came
across in your research?
There are many practices that can result in traumatic injury. First,
there is assault, which involves beating up the pledges, and perhaps
abandoning them somewhere. There are also a lot of issues with falls,
where pledges are made to go up on a roof, or some high place,
especially after they've been drinking. There have been several
drownings, where pledges had been forced to swim either in bad
conditions or, again, drunk.
Branding, or burning, is another hazing practice. It is traditionally
associated with African-American fraternities, but is happening more
and more now in other places.
Another common hazing practice involves forcing people to do
excessive exercise -- or any kind of calisthenics -- to the point
that it's dangerous. They can die of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
There are also a number of hazing practices that are less traumatic,
and more psychologically abusive. Things like forcing people to get
up early, forcing somebody to carry all your things, things that are
humiliating but maybe not quite as harmful.
There are also a lot of humiliating sexual acts that pledges are
sometimes forced to do. Some very, very troubling things. All the way
up to sexual assaults and sodomy.
What is particularly tricky about identifying a hazing-related injury
in the emergency room?
It's very hard to identify these folks, in the same way it is
difficult to identify victims of domestic violence. This is a broad
group of people we're talking about. And like victims of domestic
violence, the victims will sometimes hide the reason that they're
there, because they're embarrassed or because they don't want to hurt
their fraternity or whatever organization they're trying to join. So
these are people who are not necessarily going to give you the story.
As a doctor, you're trying to find something out that they may not
want to tell you.
Also, we see a lot of traumatic injuries in the emergency department.
It's often hard to tell if this traumatic injury is specifically
related to hazing, or if it's just another person who's just had an
accidental fall, or something like that.
Are there any clues that can assist doctors in identifying a victim?
The most important thing is having a high awareness of the problem,
and who it affects, so that you can spot it. And then it is a matter
of just asking. If there are a lot of inconsistencies in somebody's
answer -- that's a bad sign that they're trying to hide something.
And what do you do if their answers are inconsistent and you suspect
they've been the victim of hazing?
In most cases, these people are adults. You can't force an adult to
do something they don't want to do. But you can always, before you
leave the room, say to someone, "I just want you to know, we're here
in the emergency department. We're available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. If you feel unsafe in your present situation, you're welcome to
come back." They may not be ready to talk about it just then - but
letting them know that they can always come back is essential.
Are there guidelines that are set up for identifying and dealing with
hazing abuses?
None. There are really none. There's absolutely no protocol for
hospital workers. It's brand-new stuff for the medical community.
When I did research on the subject, I found almost nothing in the
medical literature. It just hasn't been considered a medical issue.
I think that doctors and nurses read about it in the paper, but they
don't really consider that those folks who are being hurt are coming
to the emergency department.
And even if we can't stop it, we have a responsibility to be
available to them, so if they need to come talk to somebody in the
future, they know at least that we are available to them in the
emergency room.
Dr. Michelle Finkel is an attending in the Emergency Department of
the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Copyright 2002 Healthology, Inc.
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