College Hazing Essay

In Greek fraternities, a culture that supports and encourages sexual violence thrives. My paper will focus on the relationship between the fraternity culture and lack of response that creates this life-ruining problem. The topic is important to all college students because of the lifelong consequences to both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence.

The first main sociological question in the "Fraternities and Rape on Campus" study performed by Patricia Yancey Martin and Robert A. Hummer was, "What characteristics do fraternities have that make them prone to objectification of women and more likely to commit gang rape on college campuses and why fraternities encourage the sexual coercion of women.

First, people may say hazing is okay because it strengthens a person mentally. It teaches boys to be men or girls to be women. Donna Phillips, whose son experienced severe hazing at the Citadel in Charleston, SC, said “There’s no need for hazing. It destroys people” (Preventing). It is fine that a person may feel like that because they may have experienced it, but it was not as severe as the people in other cases. Others may kids will be kids, so someone is going to get hurt. But it should not get to that point.

Colleges and universities often do not execute strict punishments when it comes to sexual assault on campus. The police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juries do not always view date rape as a serious offense (Neumann). Until government officials consider rape a significant violation when compared to other major crimes, colleges and universities will not establish sterner punishments for rapists. Colleges and universities also tend to diminish their punishments for the “star” athletes at the school. One study concluded that while athletes constitute 3.3% of the college population, they perpetrate 19% of all sexual assaults on campus (Ajo). Although male athletes commit multiple sexual assault crimes on campus, they are punished leniently. Researchers contend that when sexual assault crimes are committed by athletes, society fails to label the act a crime and does not impose harsh sanctions (Ajo). In fact, many boosters come to the defense of the team they so love (Ajo). In order to discourage college students from committing sexual assault crimes, harsher punishments need to be set in place. If the consequences for students’ actions intensified, the number of sexual assault cases executed on college campuses would decrease. Rape needs to be considered a serious offense in order for victims of sexual assault cases to attain

Hazing in universities across the nation has become an increasingly dangerous ritual that is seemingly becoming more difficult to put an end to due to its development into an "underground" activity. Though a regular activity in the seventies, hazing, a possible dangerous act of initiation to a group, has now become an activity that is banned in thirty-nine states (Wagner 16). However, this ritual has not been stopped or become less severe. In fact it is becoming more dangerous. Since it has been banned, with many colleges imposing their own penalties against those participating in it, many fraternities and sororities have pursued this activity in an underground fashion. Since these groups have gone underground, some victims of these

Sexual assault on college campuses is a subject that comes up commonly in media today, usually due to the fact that these assaults happen on a regular basis. About one in four women and one in seven men are victims of some form of sexual violence during their college experience (Abooali). In most occurances when speaking about sexual assault on campus, people are talking about what the main cause of these cases of sexual assault could be, and if there is any way to prevent it from happening. There are many factors that play into these sexual assaults such as alcohol consumption, peer pressure, society's normalization of these assaults, and party culture.

Conforming into hazing has shown an impact on a former group of pupils in Florida. Hazing is defined as “a species of brutal horseplay practised on” new students attending a class (Oed.com). On November 2011, new band member Robert Champion Jr was hazed to death. Champion was enrolling to become a new band student at the Florida A&M University. The routine of the band initiation involved running “down the center of the bus while being punched, kicked and assaulted by senior” band members (Source D 2). The students who enacted this are now being charged with manslaughter. This situation exemplifies the detrimental effects of conformity. All the “twelve former students” conformed to the ritual of hazing and attempted to haze Champion. This attempt

Sexual assault has been an ongoing issue for a long period of time. In modern day society, rape incidents are more prominent in campus universities, especially in fraternities. It is noted that in frat houses, pressuring someone to engage in sexual activities is a part of the norm. Patricia Martin and Robert Hummer conducted an analysis regarding the sociological correlation between fraternities and rape on campus. The research analyzed the group and organizational practices and conditions, and how it correlated to the abusive social context of women founded in fraternities. It primarily focused on the relation between hyper-masculinity and fraternity men who have wealthy backgrounds. Hyper-masculinity being the exaggeration of the stereotypical man, where one is expected to be strong, wealthy, unemotional, dominant, athletic, competitive, winning, have sexual prowess, and willing to drink alcohol (Martin and Hummer, 460). This standard can affect young men and pressure them into becoming this model of the ideal man. Because the fraternities being researched were mainly ones with high reputation and wealth, the experiment centered on privileged men and the subliminal expectations that come with it. For example, a fraternity’s reputation and status are dependent on a member’s possession of the standard of what a man is supposed to be like (Martin and Hummer, 461). These individuals are unconsciously pressured by society to go against their own believes, in order to protect

Many college groups, especially Greek-letter organizations and athletic teams, have come under fire for engaging in hazing practices that violate school policies and local laws (“Hazing”). Hazing comes in many forms and can result in physical and psychological harm. Most practices of hazing are categorized by two common types: subtle and violent. Subtle hazing is often a kind of hazing that is taken for granted or accepted as “meaningless” but is just the opposite. Subtle forms include verbal abuse, sleep deprivation, social isolation, and harassment, which can all have an exceedingly strong pull of one’s emotional and general stability as an individual in a college setting. Violent hazing such as forced alcohol and drug consumption, beating, branding, and sexual assault are instances that can easily result in injury and death (“Hazing”). A study was also conducted in 2015 that showed that seventy-one percent of those who are hazed suffer from negative consequences that may include but are not limited to loss of sense of control and empowerment, decline in grades and course work, and illness or hospitalization with additional effects on family and friends. (“Hazing and Its

Bureau of justice, the most recent and methodologically rigorous studies show that sexual assault still occurs at rates similar to those identified more than twenty years ago when Koss, Giducz, and wisiewski found that approximately 27.5 percent of collage women reported experiences that met the legal criteria for rap. On the presentation they describe the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses as well as the systems and procedures in place to address it. It will focus on the role power has in this issue, including the powerful men on campus such as athletes and fraternity members as well as the administrators in power who determine the punishments and actions taken against the perpetrators. Female students are most at risk of acquaintance rape in the first few weeks of collage. Most women’s do not report a rape because of confusion, guilt, or fear sometimes feel betrayed, they may be ashamed to tell parents or collage counselors. The effects of sexual assault can be feeling of humiliation, helplessness, anger, self-doubt, self-hate, and a student may become depressed and withdrawn, lack concentration, sleep badly and do poorly in

Fraternities are made up off all men often within environments that encourage masculine boasting. Within her work Sanday further explains, “In Fraternity Gang Rape I suggest that rape-prone attitudes and behavior on American campuses are adopted by insecure young men who bond through homophobia and “getting sex”. The homoeroticism of their bonding leads them to display their masculinity through heterosexist displays of sexual performance” (Sanday 3). Women then become a type of target almost for these men to boast about and while the men may not be intentionally forcing themselves, they are to get a story out of and because it is accepted they see nothing wrong with the situation. Sanday actually got the opportunity to interview real fraternity brothers in her research the year of 1990. In one of the interviews on the topic of taking advantage of women on drugs or drunk, one of the fraternity brothers stated, “She was drugged, she drugged herself. Yeah, she was responsible for her condition, and that just leaves her wide open…or so to speak” (Sanday 3). In another observation of fraternity brothers, Sanday recollects an overheard conversation of the young men speaking with a bartender about making the drinks especially strong in hopes of getting the women drunk quickly to “loosen up their inhibition” (Sanday 4). These are both prime examples of what Sanday describes as a rape prone environment. There are also other coersions envolved within this type of environment that pressure women into sexual acts, According to Scot B. Boeringer, “55.7% of the males in his study at a large southeastern university obtained sex by verbal harassment” (Sanday 5). Verbal harassment to obtain sex means that threats are made to end the relationship, false claims of love and lying to achieve sexual gratification. (Sanday 5). Sanday shares that another quarter of the men in Boeringers

In claiming that another resultant of hazing prepares pledges for impending emotional, mental, and physical pain that will appear during their adulthood, they persuade others to view hazing as they do. When pledges complete their hazing it brings forth unity amongst the brothers and sisters. Not only do they see hazing as a means of bringing people together, but also for “weed[ing] out people who don’t want to take the process seriously” (“Arguments For and Against”). No social group wants to have a member who does not commit his or herself to the fraternity or sorority. So higher-status members feel the task of deciding who takes fraternity and sorority matters seriously bears on their shoulder alone. Pro-hazing individuals believe hazing sets up a positive system of the deciding factor of who stays and goes. Overall they believe that hazing benefits either the new pledge or the fraternity and sorority system as a whole.

Since 2005, there have been more than 60 hazing related deaths and over 20,000 hazing related injuries (College). Hazing is a ritual in which harassment, abuse, forceful consumption of alcohol and drugs, and torture are used to initiate a person into a group (“Learners Dictionary”). Hazing is a standard expectation especially when joining a college fraternity or sorority. One’s initiation usually subjects him/her to physical abuse; even though, that physical abuse is a felony in most states. Although some blame the pledgees for voluntarily putting themselves at risk for detrimental harm, schools’ administrations need to issue stricter consequences such as suspension and potential expulsion for hazing in order to stop abuse and save lives.

Hazing is something in today’s society that is seen as a terrible way to treat another person. When presented in a different light, hazing might not be as bad as it seems. A recent study shows that, “1.5 million high school students are hazed each year; 47% of students came to college already having experienced hazing” (“Center”). With these statistics, there is no wonder many people have a view on this situation. Hazing is certainly a problem in modern America, but despite the issues with it, there are positive takeaways. Colleges and other organizations are most known to encounter hazing, in fact, “55% of college students involved in clubs, teams and organizations experience hazing” (“Center”). These organizations most likely have separate groups within them, which create their own rules of operation. Hazing is added in with the mix when these rules are created, to bring the team or group closer together. Hazing makes a sort of common identity between each of the team members. In addition to the bond that is made between members, hazing also weeds out the ones who don’t intend on committing to the group (Marchell). When the new members are faced with a difficult task they have the choice to complete it or leave. When faced with this decision, the people who are committed are the only ones to fit in with the group. Also, with new members attempting to be admitted into these groups frequently, most of them have an egotistical mindset. When the new members are hazed, the

Hazing can take place anywhere whether it be high school, college, sports, or fraternities. Other terms used for hazing are “hell week”, “help week”, and “initiation”. When one is trying to determine whether or not the situation is considered hazing there are many signs he/she could look for. Some examples include the following questions: is alcohol involved?, are there any risk of emotional or physical abuse?, and is there a risk of injury? (University of North Carolina Wilmington). If the answer to any of these is yes, then it would be considered some form of hazing. A study taking place at Alfred University shows that 1.5 million high school students have experienced some form of hazing. Forty-eight percent of students who belong to groups have reported to experiencing hazing behavior. These incidents can range anywhere between alcohol abuse to forcing one to commit a crime. Victims of hazing may hide the truth, whether they be embarrassed or they risk the chance of getting in a lot of trouble. While you may not notice it at first there are always signs to look for when searching for hazing activity. Some signs include excessive fatigue, wearing odd clothing, isolating themselves, skipping or missing class, and feeling depressed. Many parents are not aware of their child experiencing hazing activity. Although, now many of victims have decided to speak out about there encounters.