A Brief Note On Rape On College Campuses

Sexual assault is defined by the department of justice as: any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. Women aged 18-24, in college, are three times greater at risk than the average woman any age. (RAINN). The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has 246 ongoing investigations into how 195 colleges and universities handled sexual assault under Title IX. (Huffington Post). Many ask, Why on college campuses? Why have these statistics been rising? For a rapist or an assaulter, college is

‘Sexual Violence is more than just a crime against individuals. It threatens our families; it threatens our communities. Ultimately, it threatens the entire country’ (qtd. in Burleigh pg. 2). In the article, “Confronting Campus Rape” written by Nina Burleigh; a writer, journalist, and professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, describes what students are doing to force universities to take a stronger stand against campus sexual assault. Moreover Burleigh describes what the government is doing to make a difference on the issue. This includes laws that have created consequences for the assaulter and laws that protect the victim. According to Burleigh, a young woman called Laura Dunn was sexually assaulted on campus. Dunn was a student of UW. On April 4th, 2014, Dunn lost her virginity to two UW athletes. That night, Dunn was attending a party at the university. Dunn was enjoying the party and lost count of her alcohol intake. Dunn remembers being led out by two older teammates, who she knew. Dunn was very intoxicated, enough to stumble on her way back to what she thought would be another campus party, as one of the athletes helped her walk. The athletes led Dunn to one of their apartments where she found herself on a bed with both of them on top of her. Dunn was so intoxicated that she couldn’t help but to drift in and out of conscious leaving her unable to stop the two men. Dunn began to feel sick and was led to the bathroom by one of the athletes, where he penetrated her from behind while she was throwing up. That was a date Dunn would never forget. Dunn like many other women at the UW have been sexually abused by other students. Although Dun’s incident is shocking, it is not uncommon for women to be sexually assaulted on campus. A woman at the  university of Wisconsin is more prone to being sexually assaulted than any other woman in the country because of alcohol intoxication; this is a problem that must be resolved.

Though it seems that making sure that the accused is not falsely incriminated is not the only thing that colleges have on their minds. Back in 2004, 91% of colleges recounted that they had a zero reported rape incidences. This means with about 11,000 campuses most said they had no rapes reported that year (Amy Becker). Something needs to be said about our system and the stigma of hiding instead of improving. The best way to improve the situation that is happening in America school systems, is to talk about what everyone will not talk about. There needs to be more communication, not just with who to blame for sexual assault but rape culture affects beyond the victim and the perpetrator.

Sexual assault has been a huge issue for many years on college campuses and universities nation wide. As society has evolved, thoughts on sexual assault have also evolved, becoming more focused on the details of victim treatment than ever before. The topic of sexual assault is debatable and sparks many opinions on weather sexual assault on college campuses is becoming more frequent, or if there is just heightened awareness. Sexual assault can happen to anybody no matter the gender, race, religion, or age. Recently there have been many studies conducted on sexual violence on college campuses and universities producing ample amounts of statistics. One may argue that sexual assault rates are the same, but there are simply more studies and attention on sexual assault in the past 20 years. Gender roles have played a huge part in sexual assault on college campuses. Women and men have different expectations when it comes to roles in the relationship, men are often expected to make the first move. One may ask what causes a perpetrator to sexually harass somebody and think it is acceptable. There are various reasons as to why perpetrators do what they do, and may vary from person to person. Although sexual violence is a large problem for many colleges and universities, there is a surprising shortage of federal laws/rules and regulations regarding sexual assault. Colleges are able to develop their own personal policies and procedures for how they will prevent and deal with sexual

The problem: Sexual assault has become one of the forefront issues of our day. There has been an increasing rate of sexual assaults in our society and specifically on college campuses.

Currently, a surplus of major issues is disturbing the United States of America. One controversy that I am particularly passionate about handling is rape culture at college, especially in fraternities. A study conducted in 2014 found that 11.7% of students attending the 27 colleges surveyed had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact by force, threats of force, or incapacitation. Females surveyed reported a significantly higher percentage of these assaults compared to men.

In my opinion, not enough is being done on campus to help students who are victims of rape. My first reason for why campus rape culture is real is victim blaming. Victim-blaming is when an outsider places the accountability of the rape directly on the victim rather than the rapist. Victim blaming is a serious issue and will need arduous effort to be stopped since it is so interwoven into American society. I feel that it is important to end victim-blaming in order to protect the victim from mental illness. Victims should be comforted and sympathized with rather than schooled at. It is important for people to realize the victim never asks to be raped. Another way campus rape culture is real is because of the way schools handle rape cases. Schools need to do more to support the victim rather than care about their reputation. Students trust schools to take care of them when in a time of needs and this does not exclude rape. When the school quiets a case they are saying that they care more about people who graduated or people who are applying, rather than the students attending the school in present time that they do not care. The most important people in the school should be the present students. It is also the counselor's job to provide information to the victim or help the victim adjust after rape not to give an opinion on who initiated the rape. Finally, society as a whole needs to

Rape culture is recognized as blaming the victim for sexual assault and promotes sexual violence to be acceptable. Society portrays rape culture in different situations, one of which can be depicted as shameful and unjust in the college setting. In the college environment, it is not uncommon for a case of sexual assault to be kept on a low profile in order to not damage the school’s reputation. The outcome of women reporting sexual assault is low in a college setting due to rape culture and even those who do get an unfair outcome that promotes rape culture in college authority. The unfair outcomes of rape culture through society’s perception, with unjust law enforcement, and can affect women in many ways that can change their lives.

The biggest challenge facing college students today is sexual assault. Many students, especially females, are faced with the risks of being sexually assaulted on campus, during day to day interactions. Unfortunately, many of these sexual assaults go unreported because of the fear of the victim, due to the fact that the assault happened within a relationship, or the perpetrator has threatened the victim. Also, many of the victims go without reporting the incident due to their lack of knowledge on which party is to blame. In addition to this, many victims may feel as if their case will not be important to the campus, due to the lack of care from some colleges towards their students, depicted on the news, or on social media. Because of this, victims

You are right, sexual assault has become very common on college campuses, and that situation continue to persist not only become they victims of rape are ashamed of themselves and fear to talk about the issue, but also because rapists identity are not most of the time reveal in order for them to be punish by the law. In addition, people victims of rape should receive a supportive environment in order for them not only to talk about the issue, and receive advice and appropriate care, but also in order for their rapists to be punish. Maybe an open communication with victims of rape will reduce the among of rape in college campuses, and bring people to a more reasonable attitude and behavior.

Further support is supplied by Fisher et al. (2000) who reviewed the 1997 National Institute of Justice study on rape and reported that between one-fifth and one-quarter of women within college campus report rape cases within each year. It was further stated that, “Women within college campuses, and the social values and believed associated to campus rape are at greater risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women in the general population or in a comparable age group” (Fisher et. Al pg. 3). Based on other findings in a study conducted by Martin et al. (2009) 20–25% of female undergraduates experience rape in their college life. However, though rape among male students occurs at a lower rate, the students also report rape cases.

The lack of awareness of sexual assault is caused by fear of colleges and rape victims, because rape on college campuses is not taken seriously by colleges or the justice system. In an article written by Tyler Kingkade, he explains colleges fear a drop in applications when they report a rape, “Dartmouth revealed in February 2014 that it had seen a 14 percent drop in applications, which many people attributed to protests over harassment, sexual assault and hazing on campus, Ivy League competitor Harvard University saw a 2.1 percent drop in applicants over the same period” (Kingkade). Colleges have noticed if they do not report rape, hazing or protests over either issue will not affect their application rates. As these universities are trying to protect their reputation, they take making more money more important than students

In modern day society, rape is considered one of the most heinous and dark crimes one can commit. With almost 66% of high school students that graduate high school end up enrolling at universities and colleges (Norris, 2014), one would assume that these institutions of higher education would be upheld with the highest sense of security and peace of mind to an incoming student and their parents/guardians. The sad truth is that it is not. Most of these well established and branded institutions will give off the impression that they are determined to create the safest environment for students, but it is almost always a front. While in college, one in five women and one in sixteen men are victims of sexual assault (Krebs et al. 2007). Furthermore, 90% of college students who are sexually assaulted while in college do not report it (Fisher et al. 2000). As frightening as these statistics might seem, the numbers can only be higher due to the fact that many victims will not acknowledge the assault or repress the memory of it to help cope with the pain. Because the current college campus environment is obviously not a safe place for students, stronger measures need to be taken to prevent these sexual assaults from happening, refrain from victim blaming and finally make sure predators receive the punishment they deserve in these dire situations.

In the beginning of The Hunting Grounds, young adults everywhere are excited to begin their first-year college. They are reading their emails to see if they have been accepted into their dream school. Excited to start a new chapter of their life where you are making your own choices and learning. Rape is not a topic you bring up to these adults that are entering their first year of college. Over 16 percent of women are sexually assaulted on college campuses. Over 88 percent of these women do not report it.

Ever since a young girl lost her life in her dorm room after from being raped by another student that she didn’t even know,is really when the government starts to take action on sexual assault happening on college campuses, such as the Clery Act and Title IX. The Clery act requires that colleges and universities to publish all campus safety information and demands certain basic requirements for handling cases of sexual violence, and emergency scenes. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that restricts discrimination on the basis of sex in any education activity that accepts federal funding. There are two articles written by Eliza Gray called Fraternity Row and Taking Assault Seriously, they both talk about the problem of rape and how colleges and universities are solving that problem. In Fraternity Row, she argues against the fact that the fraternities are the big problem of this issue. Sexual assaults usually