A Brief Note On The Common Violent Crime On American College Campuses Today

It’s a statistic that has circled around the nation for years, one that imprints fear into the minds of young adults and rage into those that demand justice: 1 in 5 female college students will experience sexual assault in the duration of their college career (Clark), with only 20% of those rapes being reported to the police (Hefling). As a topic that is so highlighted in American society, there is a strict demand for an organized, thorough investigation that will result in justice served. Controversy regarding whether the colleges themselves or the criminal justice system should adjudicate the punishment for these vile crimes has arisen; some believe that as an actual crime, these assaults should be taken in a legal stance in order to serve justice at its fullest extent. Others believe that determining punishment through the court system is too nerve-wracking for the victims and that by allowing colleges to do so is the only way they can avoid feeling “skepticism” by the police, juries, or courts (Know Your IX). However, when juxtaposing the capabilities of the colleges and the court system when it comes to the adjudication process, it is evident that the courts are more competent in determining punishments for campus sexual assaults.

Despite having hundreds of sexual assault cases each year, most colleges take little action to resolve these cases. In fact, only 20% of female sexual assault survivors report cases, the rest believing that it was too personal to share, or that if they did, the police wouldn’t listen to them. If they did report, often times it was to the local police rather than the campus police in fear that they would be shamed or turned away by the universities.

The alarming increase in sexual assault among male and female students is a source of concern. Despite improvements in the general statistics on rape cases, the college setting remains to be the hot bed of sexual assault, especially among the female counterparts (Allen, 2007). A victim, regardless being a male or a female, never feel safe in their life as something precious was taken from them once. Statistics show that 17.6% of women are likely to be victims of rape in their entire lifetime while only 0.3% of males are estimated to be the victims of sexual assault. According to the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS), the most critical ages men and females are likely to be engaged in sexual abuse is when they are children or adolescents (Gonzales, Schofield & Schmitt, 2006).

‘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.

When congress passed the gender-equality law known as Title IX (1972) more than 40 years ago, no one expected it to make colleges responsible for handling sexual assault. Title IX was a “stealth law” aimed at helping women get through the doors of higher education and is now being interpreted to require colleges to investigate and resolve students reports of rape, determining whether their classmates are responsible for assault and, if so, what the punishment should be. (Wilson, Paragraph 1-2) The term Sexual Assault was defined by the district as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. With that definition, the term on campus was

According to Nancy Chi Cantalupo, writer in the University Chicago Law Journal, “twenty to twenty-five percent of college women are victims of attempted or completed nonconsensual sex” (Burying Our Heads 207). In October 2014, an eighteen-year-old freshman at Old Dominion University was sexually assaulted. She reported her case to the ODU Police Department where she was treated as a suspect rather than a victim (Jane). The university police department denied this young woman of many things such as a medical examination right away, food, drinks and even did not allow her to use the bathroom (Jane). These factors caused her to suffer multiple injuries mentally, emotionally, and physically (Jane). Many cases of on campus sexual assault has come

Before discussing the sexual assault crisis on college campuses, it is important to disprove some misconceptions. When someone reports a sexual assault, society tends to immediately deny the assault happened, claiming false accusation, but, according to Stanford’s “Men Against Abuse Now” report, only two percent of allegations are false, a

Boucek, Brooke W. “Riding the He-Said-She-Said Dichotomy: The Deep Entanglement of Sexual Violence on College Campuses.” American Journal of Trial Advocacy, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 103-129.

One in five women will be a victim of completed or attempted sexual assault while in college. (Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2007)

In the past couple of years, violence in colleges have been on the rise. Many crimes happen that the media don’t inform the public about because they don't want college to seem as dangerous as it really is. Guns made for people for a means of defense can be used to save lives and can also be used to end them. Colleges will lose a lot of money when students find out just how dangerous the campus can be and they should want students to feel safe. Pepper spray is not always able to take out a shooter or anyone that is armed for a long period of time. Just holding a gun makes a person feel safe whether it has ammo in it or not. Even though guns on campus can bring harm to others when a psychopath can use his or her gun right for killing rather

Most people think that rape or sexual assault only happens to college women when they are under the influence of substance; however, most of the time that is not the case. Thousands of young college women, especially freshmen, are being raped each year. Statistics show that “Women ages 16-24 experience rape at rates four times higher than the assault rate of all women. College women are more at risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women the same age but not in college,”(Sexual Assault and Rape on U.S. College Campuses). This is

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

In summary, national-level studies of college students’ victimization patterns show that college students, compared to people of similar ages who are not students, have lower overall levels of victimization, particularly violent victimization. These studies show that theft, and not violence (despite media obsession with shootings and other violent acts on campus), is by far the most frequent type of victimization. The surveys also show that a significant percentage of college women are victims of various forms of sexual assaults and that many victims never report the incident to proper authorities. Victimization surveys also show that students’ lifestyles—their routine activities— contribute to their on-campus victimization, particularly when

Rape and other sexual assault charges on college and university campuses have become an alarming and prevalent matter. More and more young woman are coming forward and reporting their incidents to authorities. Yet, only a portion of these incidents get justice, allowing the offender to get off scot-free. Little of these incidents are even investigated properly, and fewer end in convictions of the offender. Most incidents of sexual assault are acts conducted by men. With alcohol or drugs these men are able to get woman into having sex with them. Even if these women aren’t in a state of mind to make these decisions. But not all woman are senseless in the case of sexual assaults. Even more are conscious and aware of the actions taken place, going

It is the first week of her freshman year of college and she can not wait to go to her first party. After the party is over, she wishes she had never gone, never had any alcohol while they were there and had never been so friendly to that guy she had just met. Hoping to find relief and help from her college, all she’ll really get is questions like “What were you wearing?” and “How much did you have to drink”. With the statistic of every one in four women get sexually assaulted during their time at college, or “Between 8% and 11% of women experienced rape in each semester during their first year in college, which is hypothesized to be a time of increased vulnerability to sexual violence” (McCauley and Casler, 2015), why aren’t schools doing more to help prevent sexual assaults, provide emotional support, or getting the assaulter expelled or in jail? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates that at least 95% of campus rapes in the U.S. go unreported. (Best College, 2017) With this statistic, it shows that women and men are scared to report their rapes because they are afraid the university won’t do anything about it. There are also things that happen and people do see it as rape because they were both intoxicated or other people ignore it because “it’s human nature to think it won’t happen to you, or it isn’t you. Campus rape is someone else’s problem and someone else’s fault.” (Jarvis, 2016) So, because in that situation it’s not happening to them, it doesn’t