What Types of Hazing Are Prohibited on College Campuses?

There is no category of hazing that is permitted on U.S. college campuses: institutional codes of conduct, national fraternity and sorority policies, and now federal law prohibit hazing in all its forms. The federal definition in the Stop Campus Hazing Act covers any intentional, knowing, or reckless act tied to joining or maintaining membership in a student organization that causes or risks physical or psychological injury — which means physical abuse, forced consumption, sleep deprivation, and degrading or humiliating activities are all prohibited, whether or not anyone gets visibly hurt. If a quiz or training module asks "which type of hazing is prohibited," the intended answer is almost always: all of them.

The kinds of acts the federal definition names

Public Law 118-173 doesn't just define hazing abstractly — it lists categories of conduct that qualify when they're tied to initiation or membership. In plain English, the law's list includes:

• Physical violence — whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, or placing a harmful substance on someone's body.
• Forced physical activities — sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, or extreme calisthenics that create a risk of harm.
• Forced consumption — causing someone to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs, or other substances. Forced or coerced drinking is one of the most common and most dangerous forms in fraternity and sorority settings.
• Sexual brutality and sexualized acts imposed as part of joining.
• Any activity that would violate federal or state criminal law when required as a condition of membership.

The definition also reaches beyond that enumerated list to any membership-related act creating more than a reasonable risk of physical or psychological injury — so purely psychological hazing (degradation, humiliation, forced servitude, personal errands for members) is covered even though it leaves no bruises.

How researchers and Greek organizations classify hazing

Prevention researchers often sort hazing along a spectrum rather than a legal list. The StopHazing Research Lab groups behaviors from subtle forms (new-member-only rules, demeaning names, social isolation) through harassment (verbal abuse, threats, embarrassing attire) to violent forms (forced alcohol consumption, beating, restraint). The point of the spectrum is that the "subtle" end is still hazing — and groups that tolerate it tend to escalate.

On the organizational side, the North American Interfraternity Conference maintains health-and-safety standards for its member fraternities that prohibit hazing in new member education, and national sororities under the National Panhellenic Conference likewise prohibit hazing in their member organizations' policies. In other words, a chapter that hazes isn't just breaking campus rules — it's usually violating its own national organization's standards at the same time, which is why hazing findings so often end in suspended or closed chapters.

Prohibited by whom, exactly?

It helps to keep the layers straight, because each one prohibits hazing separately:

• Campus conduct codes prohibit hazing by recognized student organizations and individual students, enforced through the institutional conduct process.
• National fraternity and sorority policies prohibit it as a condition of the chapter keeping its charter.
• State laws criminalize hazing in most states, with definitions that vary state to state — the StopHazing Research Lab tracks these.
• Federal law now requires colleges to define hazing consistently, collect statistics, and publicly disclose violations. We cover the disclosure side in what the Stop Campus Hazing Act requires colleges to disclose.

Because violations by recognized organizations become part of public campus records, you can see which forms of hazing a specific chapter was found responsible for — here's how to read a Campus Hazing Transparency Report, and how that report differs from Clery crime statistics.