Brock Turner's Argument Essay

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

“One in five women are sexually assaulted while in college” (Not Alone, 2014). In our class of twenty women that means that possibly five women have been sexually assaulted. Out of the five women that I stated could have been sexually assaulted they may have known the perpetrator and often will not report what has happened. According to the spring count of students completed by West Chester University, 9,211 of those students were females (“Headcount Enrollment”, 2014). If I go by the statistic mentioned earlier that one in five women is assaulted that would mean that 1,842 women have been sexually assaulted while enrolled at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Out of 1,842 possible assaults only four were reported last year. Two of which the victims knew prior to the assault. Rankin and Associates consulting conducted a Climate Assessment on West Chester University in September of 2010, a section of the results focused on sexual assault on students. According to the report seven people who reported a sexual assault to the university described their reactions to the universities response. Two students shared the way they felt the response was inappropriate or poor. One described that they felt the suspension for one semester was not an appropriate response to an admitted rape, that public safety lost the victims statement, judicial affairs painted the victim offender as innocent, and that the registrar protected the offender putting the victim in harm’s way and everyone

Summary: The article “Rhode Island Schools Report 18% Increase in Sexual Assaults” Arditi explains to us of the unfortunate rise in sexual assault at universities in the Rhode Island area. She gives us statistical evidence of reports by journals and newspapers. These statistics showed an increase of 65 sexual assaults by 11 schools near Providence and a 40 percent increase for 29 New England schools (Arditi). These sexual assaults are due to many conditions of the college, such as, its size, location, culture, and how well it deals with reports of the abuse. Colleges have a rising problem of victims failing to report crimes that were committed upon them. Along with problems with reports, sharing information between law enforcement and college student affairs was an increasing issue. Universities and colleges were not required to share data until a White House task force recommended that these institutions sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

Despite federal laws issued to combat sexual violence, each year 4,000 college women report to school officials that they've been sexually assaulted. What happens after they file those reports has stirred debate on campuses across the country, leaving parents and students fearful that colleges may not be the ivory towers of security and integrity that appear on their recruitment pamphlets.

‘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

When such prevalent policies like the Clery Act and Title IX exist on college campuses and for college campuses, many people would believe that those policies are enough in regards to sexual assault and rape on campuses. However, there are far more policy recommendations that could be put in place. Females and males alike, through education, can become aware of what Title IX and the Clery Act are. Awareness about current policies can lead to more people reaching out and coming forward about any incidents they have faced during their time in college. Many colleges do happen to send students and give students access to these policies but they are often ignored. Know the policies implemented and know who is the coordinator of these policies. Far too often, people like to believe that sexual assault and rape incidents rarely occur but that is not the case. Title IX and the Clery Act policies are there for a reason.

Twenty one year old Brock Turner left Santa Clara County’s main jail after serving just three months of his six month sentence for a range of charges including assault with intent to commit rape. The All-American swimmer was convicted of assaulting a woman who was unconscious and intoxicated outside a fraternity house at Stanford University. Under normal sentencing guidelines, he likely would have received at least two years. But a judge sentenced him to only six months in County Jail, where inmates are regularly released after serving only half their sentence. The deemed punishment provoked outrage from critics at the time including Stanford law professor Michelle Dauber-

Abstract: Sexual Violence is more prevalent at college campuses compared to other crimes. According to RAINN, the nations largest anti- sexual violence organization, “11.2% of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation (among all graduate and undergraduate students)” (“Campus sexual violence,” n.d.). Most recently, the case of Brock Allen Turner has made headlines nation wide. Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer was charged of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

Sexual assault and rape are serious social and public health issues in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. In particular sexual assault on college campus are prevalent at an alarming rate and leaves serious effects on the victims. This essay will focus on statistics and the prevalence and effects amongst college students, through examining a number of reasons why women fail to report sexual assault and rape. This essay will also cover sexual assault prevention and things that can be done to mitigate the risk of becoming a victim to such matter.

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

Men on college campuses all across the country are being accused of rape and other sexual offenses every day, guilty or innocent, it’s still rape. According to College Student Affairs Journal “victims/survivors of sexual aggression are often silent about their attack for several reasons; accepting responsibility and blame for the incident; not understanding a rape occurred, and instead framing it as rougher than normal sex; and shame”(Patitu 45). Bringing the first issue to surface, about how most rapes in college campuses unknown. The worse factor is if these victims were to tell about their experiences most universities will threaten these victims and they are left to deal with the issue alone. Most campuses around the country are turning their heads the other direction to rape victims in order to save their schools reputations. This doesn 't only affect the victims but also the future of the school and the power these girls may have in their hands after their stories are leaked to the press. Some of their stories will be listed in this paper, as I found them in my research neglect. In this paper I plan to explain how women are being ignored on many campuses and the effects for the both victim, then to precede how innocent men are being attacked and what they lose.

The majority of Universities in America will always support those who are victim to sexual assault on campus, and correctly discipline those perpetrators who take part in actions of sexual assault. This statement is false. In almost all cases of sexual assault, universities often put forth more effort in silencing victims and supporting those who carry out ruthless acts of rape and assault. Deans and presidents of universities try to place blame on victims of assault, asking questions such as, what were YOU wearing, how much had YOU had to drink, and what would YOU have done differently? Never do they ask about the perpetrator because that would draw attention to the fact that there is an issue in their campus. They simply try to convince victims that they should just forget about it and try better next time. Across 5 universities over a 4 year period, out of nearly 900 reports of sexual assaulters on campuses, only 7 students were expelled from their university. Rather, they were asked to do things such as write a paper about what they did wrong, or create a poster about how to not be a rapist. Perpetrators were fined only up to an amount of seventy-fife dollars and occasionally also had to do community service at no other place than that which gives support to victims of rape.

College-age adults are known to be high risk for sexual violence and most studies show that one in three women have experiences some type of sexual assault whether it was through physical force or harassment. These statics are known by most women on college campuses to ensure that women know and understand that this could happen to them. The issue is more than ensuring that women are aware of how protect themselves and know how to avoid these situations because it shouldn’t even be happening. When women are taught that they should know how to defend themselves we are saying that this type of behavior is normal and inevitable. We should shift from this dynamic and start teaching both men and women that this behavior is completely unacceptable and that sexually assaulting or harassing someone is NOT normal. This paper will mostly focus on incidents of rape and sexual assault on college campuses and what the outcome and reactions of these incidents were.