A Rape On Campus : A Brutal Assault And Struggle For Justice

On November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone Magazine published an article that attracted over 2.7 million views, “more than any other feature not about a celebrity that the magazine had ever published.” The article, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” catapulted the issue of rape culture on college campuses into a national discussion. Encouraging this discussion and urging universities across the country to increase their efforts to combat this was the goal of Sabrina Rubin Erdely when she set out to find a story that encompassed just that. However, the article was ultimately retracted and removed from the website by Rolling Stone due to fabrications and ethical issues in the story.

The other portion of rape culture that is especially dominant in fraternities and athletes is the role of secrecy. These social groups are so tightly knit that they learn from each other and support each other no matter what. The loyalty of peer support from the members comes hand in hand with brotherhood and a team. They have a group secrecy that forbids revealing the unexpected behavior of others in order to protect members within the group, as well as the group’s reputation. As Hummer (1989) notes, “brotherhood norms require sticking together regardless of right or wrong”. This secrecy allows fraternity brothers and athletes to justify and endorse rape, because they have the support from their closest friends. These “members are admonished to avoid getting the fraternity in trouble” (Hummer, 1989), shows how this “brotherhood” built in a fraternity does everything in their power to be safeguarded from negative criticism. Not only will these men keep each other’s secrets, but they also commend and encourage these actions. Said by a fraternity pledge whom had previously dropped from the fraternity, “Those guys are sick. They like seeing you suffer” (Hummer,1989), shows how these men in fraternities treat these woman, and even their own

Free-and-easy sex prides itself on being commitment free, no emotional ties attached. Today, this idea of leaving all emotions at the door is the supposedly, sophisticated choice on campus. It is now well understood that traditional dating in college has mostly gone the way of the landline, replaced by “hooking up”- an ambiguous term that can signify anything from making out to oral sex to intercourse - all complete without the emotional entanglement of a real relationship. As times have changed, students begin to view a relationship as “too time consuming” and something that no longer takes priority amongst their busy, high achieving schedules. However, hooking up threatens the sexual, physical, and psychological health of college-age youth. Today’s youth may want to think twice before engaging in the prevalent hook-up culture. Despite the popularity of positive feelings, hookups can include negative outcomes including emotional and psychological injury, and even more concerning consequences such as unintended rape. In order to protect our generation, and more specifically our women, society must acknowledge the detrimental effects of a hook up culture to create a greater understanding surrounding this risky sexual behavior and ensure a more powerful, positive presence for women in our society. The combination of a society seeped in rape culture and an alcohol infused hookup culture creates a compromising sexual environment where women have limited control, opening the

Sexual assault and rape among college campuses has been an ongoing issue across the nation for decades. In the state of Utah, this complex issue will not have a simple solution, but measures can be taken to prevent sexual assault and rape occurring on campuses. Utah Valley University is a campus that is taking considerably impressive measures to combat sexual assault, which will be a basis of this paper. Through university sex education, stricter laws and enforcement, and providing on-campus services to students, cases of sexual assault and rape in the higher level education setting will decrease, and students will be more likely to report these crimes.

Rolling Stone is a magazine that was first known for its coverage of music and politics now mainly focuses on pop culture and entertainment. In the November 2014 issue, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” story was published about an alleged rape on the University of Virginia campus. Rolling Stone released information about the alleged rape of a freshman and how the school mishandled the situation. The Rolling Stone wrote and published a story that was only told from the student’s point of view; the magazine never interviewed anyone else related to the case. “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” story caused much controversy and many ethical issues came from the release of the

A stressed college student, Margot, is walking back to her dorm late at night when suddenly she feels a tap on her shoulder. When she turns around, she sees a seemingly kind face of a peer. He offers to walk her to her dorm and asks to come inside. The next day she is still in shock from the night before, she never said no when he came onto her, but she never said yes either. She doesn’t want to cry rape in fear of what people might think. This is the harsh reality for college students all across the United States today. Nobody wants to believe that their child or friend could be guilty of such a harsh, but common crime. The truth is, these crimes happen on a daily basis. Sexual assault has been an issue on college campuses since the early

Sexual assault is defined as any vaginal, oral, or anal penetration that is forced upon another, regardless of sex and sexual orientation, using any object or body part. The issue of sexual assault in America is primarily encouraged by rape culture. Women Against Violence Against Women is an organization that defines rape culture as a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. The acceptance of rape culture, rape myths, and the disregard for sexual consent also allow for the perpetuation of sexual assault against women on college campuses. Recent examples of sexual assault on college campuses show how prominent this issue has become and how hostile campuses have become for female students. Some examples include the University of Southern California’s “Gullet Report,” Miami University of Ohio’s “Top Ten Ways to Get Away with Rape,” and a sexual assault on the campus of Kansas University. Sexual assault is perpetuated by the acceptance of rape myths and rape culture, lack of effective sexual education, and the disregard for consent. The solution to this issue lies with defeating rape culture, increasing awareness and funding for campus sexual assault crisis centers, and enacting more prevention programs on campus.

Journalist are so focused on getting a “hot” story that they forget one of the most important principles of journalism, which is the notion of objectivity. Objectivity is described, as “an objective journalist is one who is detached, neutral, impartial, and unbiased” (Knowlton 45). When Rolling Stone had Steve Coll and his crew investigate the story that was one of the first problems found in the story of the UVA campus rape. Sabrina Rubin Erdely was in search of a “college rape case that would show “what it’s like to be on campus now” (Coronel). When Erdely found a story she just went with it, she did not research enough to make sure the story was credible. From the beginning of the whole process of the story she already started off unbiased and not neutral to the true facts of the story.

Did you know that a woman in college have the same chances of getting sexually assaulted as getting the flu? Did you know that one out of every six women has been assaulted or is the victim of an attempted assault? Sexual assault is a very real problem in todays society. I chose this subject because I have been personally affected by it.

Carol Logan Patitu’s article focuses on incidents of date rape and how they are increasing, especially on college campuses. As with any issue of this magnitude, there are bound to be differing attitudes toward the rape victims. The author portrays her writing from both sides. One side being sympathetic to the rape victims and the opposing side, giving no sympathy but believing they are crying out for attention. By providing charts and examples along with real life situations, Patitu is able to keep the relationship between the reader and the test subjects relevant. But I will be focusing on the first part, where Patitu talks about the sympathy that is given. In the contradicting piece, I chose Robin Wilson’s article about the national campaign against rape cultures on college campuses. This campaign brought attention to sexual violence, and to victims (typically women) who have long described being ignored. But others think the movement has gone too far, labeling some innocent students as rapists, which is where Wilson revolves her article around. The opening statement of this paper is ‘College men accused of rape say the scales are tipped against them’. It explains how women target men and people tend to take the side of the women over the men, even if the man is innocent. Wilson as tells how she feels the movement against rape has gone too far and people need to step back, because, men in college are losing their chances at a triumphant future.

Education has for some time been perceived as the colossal equalizer in America. The Chancellor at Pine-Level Community College, has elected George Hubert Lee the Dean of Education to address the recent situation regarding the on-campus assaults. We believe at Pine-Level Community College in giving all understudies an instructive situation free from aggressive behavior, this is critical for the continued growth of the college. The lewd behavior of understudies to commit the act of physical bodily harm, including viciousness, intrudes with understudies' entitlement to get an education free from violent behaviors. Dean Lee has been selected to address this matter due to his education in Health Awareness and training in Safety Awareness, which came from his service to our county. When Dean Lee was an Officer in the Army, he was the elected as the Victim Advocates (VA), that was established by The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO).

A young woman carried a 50-pound mattress onto the stage at a graduation ceremony in Columbia University. Known as the “Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)”, Emma Sulkowicz started carrying the mattress everywhere she went on campus in an attempt to expel a classmate who was found not responsible for sexually assaulting her (LATimes). She became an instant media sensation, as new reporters grasped the opportunity to cover this unique case and praised for her bravery. After receiving the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority Foundation awards, Sulkowicz became one of the most admired feminist icons at that time (NationalReview). However, along with the positive responses is the skepticism. When evidence of her unmatched accusations were published by Reason’s Cathy Young, critics such as the Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE) described her as an attention seeker whose project is “a personal vendetta”. As journalists continue to update the new findings, the public gradually become divided into the accused or the accuser side. Eventually it became a debate between Sulkowicz’s scarring from the rape and the accused unfair harassment. Instead of emphasizing on the emotional aspects of campus sexual assault, the media should frame rape as a violent act and portray it as a criminal issue.

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

Researchers have been documenting the disturbing rates of sexual assault in post-secondary environments for nearly 30 years. It has become a growing concern within university and college settings. According to the Ontario Women’s Directoire, sexual violence is “any violence, physical or psychological, carried out through sexual means or targeting sexuality”, and includes harassment, abuse, assault and rape (2013, p.3). In spite of the fact that all genders experience sexual violence, findings conclude that women are most likely to be victims, while men are most often the perpetrators (Ontario Women’s Directoire, 2013). Rape culture is embedded in our society, and unfortunately this influences university culture. Rape culture has lead to sexual

EMERSON COLLEGE: “WE HAVE NO LEGAL DUTY TO PROTECT STUDENTS FROM RAPE.” However, guess what? Nearly one in five college women were victims of rape or attempted rape during their first year, with the most falling prey during their first three months on campus, according to a new study reported by the Journal of Adolescent Health. The results confirm other research that has found about 20 percent of women are victimized by sexual assault in college.