https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

article=2342&context=etd

Reports of hazing at higher education institutions have increased

tremendously, while incidents are becoming more demeaning, more
violent, and much more sexual (Finkel, 2002; Flanagan, 2014; Lenskyj,
2004; Lipkins, 2006; McGlone, 2009; Robinson, Johnson, & Holman,
2004). In spite of the implementation of hazing legislation in 44
states (Crow & McGlone, 2018; Hightower, 2013; Somers, 2007), the
number of deaths as a result of hazing, pledging, and initiation
accidents is alarming and epidemic (Hollmann, 2002; Holmes, 2013).
These deaths are connected to liability concerns in higher education
(MacLachlan, 2000; McGlone, 2009; Meriwether, 2015; Owen, Burke, &
Vichesky, 2008; Parks, Jones, Ray, Hughey, & Cox, 2013). Several
high-profile incidents show hazing is a widespread problem on
campuses across the country (Drout & Corsoro, 2003; Hall, 2009;
Hollmann, 2002; McGlone, 2009; Parks, 2017a; Stoker, 2005) and in
West Virginia (Ganim, 2015; Palmer, 2015).

Many people recognize hazing when it results in physical harm

(Maxwell, 2018). Hazing that occurs on college and university
campuses has numerous negative consequences, including psychological
and physical harm and, in extreme cases, even death (Allan & Madden,
2006; Campo, Poulos, & Sipple, 2005; Chamberlin, 2014; Drout &
Corsoro, 2003; Finkel, 2002; Hollmann, 2002; Lee-Olukoya, 2010; Owen
et al., 2008; Van Raatle, Cornelius, Linder, & Brewer, 2007). Hoover
and Pollard (1999) defined hazing as “any activity expected of
someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates,
degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person’s
willingness to participate”

Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia was under federal
investigation following a complaint from a former baseball player
asserting the college did not act on his report of sexual hazing.
Attorneys for the victim claim the baseball coach was made aware of
the 2 incident, and no disciplinary action followed. Charleston, West
Virginia attorney, Lee Javins, further suggested, “There’s evidence
of an epidemic within the baseball team that a number of
upperclassmen engaged in sexual violence toward a number of freshmen
under the general heading of hazing—like a welcome to the team”
(Mays, 2014, p. A1). A former Davis and Elkins baseball player who
“admitted to various hazing acts and being the ringleader” (Palmer,
2015, para. 3) pleaded no contest to hazing, a misdemeanor in West
Virginia, and was sentenced to 2 years of supervised probation.