Each year National Hazing Prevention Week NHPW is officially designated for the last full week of September each year.

What-Hazing is a process, based on a tradition that is used by groups to discipline and to maintain the hierarchy (i.e., a pecking order).

Where-Hazing occurs in middle school and high schools, as well as in colleges, the military and on the job. It occurs all over the United States and throughout the world.

Who-All kinds of people are hazed, and all kinds of people haze others. Hazing is not a function of race. Hazing is not a function of socioeconomic class. Hazing occurs among people of all educational levels.

When-Hazing occurs throughout the year, though there is often an increase at the beginning of the fall and spring semester and at the beginning of all athletic seasons.   (taken from insidehazing.com)

On August 27, 2018, the North-American Interfraternity Conference by “a near-unanimous vote” adopted the rule prohibiting hard alcohol from fraternity chapters and events unless served by licensed third-party vendors. The North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) policy effectively means that most of the nation’s fraternities cannot dole out strong booze unless it is served by a licensed third-party vendor. The member fraternities have until Sept. 1, 2019, to implement the rule across their more than 6,100 chapters on 800 campuses. The rule adoption follows growing outrage over alcohol-related hazing deaths last year of fraternity pledges at Louisiana State University and Penn State University. (from abcnews.go.com)

“At their core, fraternities are about brotherhood, personal development and providing a community of support,” Judson Horras, CEO and president of the NIC, said  “Alcohol abuse and its serious consequences endanger this very purpose. This action shows fraternities’ clear commitment and leadership to further their focus on the safety of members.”

HazingPrevention.Org recently argued in a friend-of-court brief that a “vast body of social scientific research” shows there’s essentially no such thing as informed consent for hazing. The organization filed the brief in a Florida Supreme Court case heard earlier this year on the 2011 hazing death of Florida A&M student Robert Champion, who died from injuries sustained during a hazing ritual in the school’s marching band. In 2012, more than a dozen people were charged in Champion’s death, after a ritual in which band members were beaten by fellow members.

Many groups have hazing rituals and the need to belong to groups starts at a young age! “Youth feel a strong need to belong and not be rejected and will subject themselves to things they know are wrong,” Emily Pualwan, executive director of the U.S. non-profit organization HazingPrevention.Org, told Newsweek.

Hazing is hazardous to mental and physical health. Parents can model behaviors/strategies to resist peer pressure so their children will make healthy choices.