Student Hazing Rituals: Preventing Hazing on College Campuses

Student hazing rituals are a serious threat to campus safety. Since 2000, there have been more than 50 deaths related to college hazing, largely from alcohol poisoning.

Below, we’ll talk about the definition of hazing, examples, statistics, and how governments, universities, and organizations across the country are dealing with hazing prevention.

What Is Hazing in a Frat or Other Student Organization?

Finding a clear definition of hazing can be difficult, but pinning it down is crucial to enforcing any college hazing ban. Given this, schools and other organizations often target the most malicious and dangerous hazing rituals with their definitions.

HazingPrevention.org has a good general catchall, though. They define hazing as "harassment, abuse, or humiliation to initiate a person into a group."

Hazing can happen in high school and adult organizations, but college hazing is often particularly life-threatening. You're on your own for the first time, you have easy access to alcohol, and there’s rarely an “adultier adult” to oversee activities and apply good judgment. It’s a recipe for things to go too far.

What Is a Hazing Ritual?

A hazing ritual is when a certain kind of hazing becomes a tradition for the group, carried on year after year. Student hazing rituals often get more extreme over time as each senior class (or whoever's in charge) tries to one-up the last event.

You often see hazing rituals in fraternities and sororities because they're long-lived organizations based heavily on history and tradition. Additionally, since they're typically not built around a common interest, there needs to be a catalyst for group cohesion. Hazing activities can feel like the key to bonding and building group identity.

On top of that, fraternity and sorority hazing may be used as a way to exclude unwanted pledges. Greek membership being somewhat arbitrary, acceptance into a group isn't (usually) based on anything objective, and these days, most institutions have non-discrimination rules that make outright rejection of a recruit tricky for Greek organizations. As a result, many use student hazing rituals to pressure “undesirable” pledges into self-selecting out.

What Are Some Examples of Hazing?

College hazing can range from “harmless” pranks to harassment and abuse. Hazing prevention advocates often separate behaviors into three categories.

The most benign type of hazing is often called subtle hazing. Common examples include making new members do chores and favors, using honorifics for older members, enforcing togetherness, and requiring recruits to perform pointless, difficult, or embarrassing tasks.

So-called harassment hazing is often similar to subtle hazing but taken to an extreme that causes undue stress and psychological harm. Chores and favors turn into personal servitude, embarrassing activities veer to true humiliation, and assigned tasks become illegal, risky, and disruptive to normal life. Belittling, demeaning, or intimidating new recruits is common. Physical discomfort and emotional distress are often the goals of harassment hazing.

The most dangerous type of hazing is when things turn violent. Hazing rituals in this category often amount to physical abuse or psychological torture. Violent hazing examples can start with pushing and shoving, escalate to paddling or flogging, and may even include cutting, branding, or sexual violation. More psychologically violent hazing rituals include kidnapping, isolation, forced confinement, sleep deprivation, and forced exposure to negative stimuli like loud music or disgusting food.

College hazing rituals at all levels of severity often involve drinking (and binge drinking) alcohol. Alcohol consumption is novel to young people, and it loosens inhibitions. This can give the illusion of group bonding, but it also makes other unpleasant hazing rituals easier to participate in. Alcohol can also cause student hazing rituals to escalate by impairing the judgment of the students in charge.

Why Are College Hazing Rituals Dangerous?

There are many reasons why student hazing is risky for participants’ health and safety.

First, college hazing rituals are typically based on a power and respect differential between new and existing members. One-upmanship leads to the pushing of limits, but the power differential makes it difficult for anyone to speak up against dangerous activities.

Second, the heavy involvement of alcohol increases the risks of hazing. In fact, 82% of hazing deaths involve alcohol. Sometimes the death is directly from alcohol poisoning. In other cases, impaired coordination or judgment contributes to an accidental or violent death.

Finally, the exclusionary function of hazing can cause extreme behavior. In an effort to scare undesirable potential members away, senior members will escalate demands further and further until the new person quits. This can easily bring things beyond safe boundaries.

For all of these reasons, some people argue that even subtle and harmless college hazing can establish a dangerous dynamic of obedience for senior members and disrespect toward new members that can easily slide into toxic hazing activities.

Hazing Statistics

There are no state or federal agencies tracking hazing statistics in the U.S. Most data is pulled from academic surveys and similar research.

One of the challenges in gathering information about hazing is that students tend to deny that hazing is taking place.

How Common Is College Hazing?

A 2008 survey of 53 campuses found that 55% of students involved in clubs, teams, and organizations had experienced hazing – 47% of students, overall.

Yet only 5% of college students admit to being hazed.

Sometimes it’s a matter of keeping a code of silence – 46% of students believe an important part of initiation is not divulging details. In other cases, there’s a lack of confidence in reporting. 36% of students say “there’s no one to tell” and 27% feel like “adults won’t handle it right.”

Often, it’s a refusal to identify hazing rituals by that name. When researcher Dr. Susan Lipkins conducted a survey on fraternity and sorority hazing attitudes, respondents rejected the hazing label in favor of "initiation." But when she asked Greek members to identify the significant elements of an initiation rite, they included:

• Tolerating psychological stress (57%)
• Humiliation (31%)
• Extreme alcohol consumption (29%)
• Tolerating physical pain (29%)
• The use of paddles (25%)

A study of female NCAA athletes by Dr. Colleen McGlone found that:

• 50% of women in Division I reported hazing
• 40% said coaches knew about hazing (and 22% said a coach was involved)
• Over 20% reported alcohol-related hazing
• Over 20% admitted to "mental hazing"
• 10% were physically hazed
• 6-9% admitted to experiencing hazing with a sexual aspect, like harassment, assault, or simulated sex

How Dangerous Is Student Hazing in College?

There has been at least one college hazing death every year since 1969.

But unlike many deadly trends that have been brought under control in the 21st century, deaths related to college hazing seem to be going up. Between 1838 and 1969, there were an average of 0.4 documented hazing deaths per year; between 1969 and 2006, there were an average of 1.5 per year; between 2007 and 2017, there were an average of 3.6 deaths per year.

Hazing Prevention Programs

In recent years, more organizations have been making serious hazing prevention efforts in the name of campus safety.

In fact, as of 2023, there are anti-hazing laws in 44 states and the District of Columbia. It’s typically treated as a misdemeanor, but in 10 states, hazing becomes a felony when it results in death or serious injury, including California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Many states have a “consent clause” specifying that the implied or express consent of the victim is not a valid defense.

Most states without anti-hazing laws are sparsely populated with few universities. Hawaii is the most populous.

Aside from legal measures, universities often have hazing prevention programs in the name of campus safety. Often, these initiatives are handled through their Office of Greek Life and athletics organizations.

Even Greek organizations are getting on the anti-hazing bandwagon. Non-hazing fraternities and sororities are organizations that create anti-hazing policies. Typically, they list unacceptable activities and behaviors tied to internal sanctions. Some frats have gotten rid of "pledging" altogether because they argue that putting members through an initiation period before they can earn full membership inevitably leads to hazing.

Alcohol Prevention as Hazing Prevention

Since alcohol consumption is heavily linked to hazing – and especially to hazing deaths – one important but often overlooked aspect of a hazing prevention program is responsible alcohol training for college students.

As a successful provider of alcohol responsibility training for alcohol servers and sellers, TIPS (Training for Intervention ProcedureS) also has a university course that gives students the information, skills, and strategies they need to understand safe alcohol consumption and prevent alcohol-related problems, on and off campus.

Enroll today!