Exploratory Research

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).

Do you know anyone who has experienced rape or suspect, someone, to have gotten raped? Rape and sexual assault are solemn problems in our communities, either it is at school, at your job, or even at the comfort of your own home. Sexual violence is one the most under-reported crimes, which prevents supporters from assisting victims in need. “Socialization, miscommunication, and changing times are the main causes of rape.” (Source 3) The socialization aspects can vary from social neglect to peer pressure. 9 out of 10 rape allegations were made by women. “In America, 1 out of 6 women have been a victim of an attempted or successful rape in their lifetime.” (Source 1) From this static, 14.8% were completed rapes and 2.8% were attempted rapes. 60% of sexual assaults took place in the victim’s home, friend’s house, or neighbor’s. Rape and sexual assault should be taken seriously because it can occur in men, women, rich, or poor.

Every part of our research statement has been defined now, and the purpose of defining each aspect ourselves was to not be over or under inclusive. The reason we have narrowed down the definition of sexual assault to just forced intercourse is because among a crime that is not often reported, rape is the aspect that females will most commonly report to authorities. We chose seventeen as our minimum age because it is the legal age of consent in Texas, and any female older than seventeen is also at risk of being raped on a campus. It may seem over inclusive to add every age over seventeen, but all sexual assault crimes, regardless of age, are reported in the Clery Act. Just studying females is important because they are the most likely population to be victims of sexual assault. Finally, public campuses are the only Universities we are using because data is more readily available and representative of actual crime rates.

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.

Recently while reading Rolling Stone and looking for an article for this paper, and came across an article called “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” In summary, a freshman at the University of Virginia was at a frat party and her date was a member of that certain frat. She chose against drinking which is uncommon in most rape cases that occur on campuses. He later asks her to join him upstairs, and being an innocent naïve girl she decided to follow him. As soon as she entered the dark room and he did not turn on the lights she knew that something was wrong. Soon after she heard many different voices in the room and after seven different frat boys did horrid things to her she understood that this was something that some of these boys were doing this as an initiation into that frat. Of course, her friends who were so-called ‘loyal’ to their college urged her to keep quiet for fear that “she may never be allowed in a frat again” or “put a bad light on the university.” Furthermore, the UVA is under a federal investigation to try to determine if there have been other cases of rape that may have been ‘swept under the rug.’ In this essay I want to investigate the psychology of rape and the rapist, why it happens largely in college campuses and specifically fraternities, and also to understand the “rape culture.”

College campuses undergo serious health problems yearly, and sexual assault is a big one. In the U.S there is an estimated 20% to 25% of undergraduate females who go through some form of rape. There is a study that has shown that at the University of New Hampshire that 8.2% of college males also report sexual assault within the last 6 months (Exner 1). Sexual assault has been shown to occur most commonly between acquaintances, friends, spouses, and family members. Sexual assaults are often from someone who is intimately connected to the victim. Date rape is used to show that rape occurs between individuals who are dating. Women often lie about sexual assault. Men usually say that the women’s choices of clothing, manners of walking, and spaces of occupancy are reasons for their assault. The fact that men say that shows how sexist our country is. Just because a woman walks, talks, or dresses a certain way does not mean that they want to get raped or sexually assaulted. There are also many males who say that they experience females who sexually assault them. Females can and do rape males. Nevertheless, the vast majority of rapes are male perpetrated. This difficulty proceed from the extremely low numbers of sexually violent acts that are reported to police. Many victims do not report crimes of sexual assault because of embarrassment, self-blame, and fear. On university and college campuses, victims of sexual assault are less likely to report their experience if they were under the influence of alcohol during the assault, they have limited understanding of the university's policies and procedures surrounding sexual assault, and they have limited knowledge of other sexual assaults on their campus. A lot of the victims of sexual assault suffer greatly from PTSD after they’ve been attacked. Most of

We have seen rape-law reform takes place in the United States over the last decade.The evolution of awareness of rape changed federal legislation which was enacted in 1994 and known as the Violence against Women Act (VAWA). This act was reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. Many attempts have been made by researchers to measure rape, and the findings vary across the board. There are a lot of rape statics that are very unreliable and misleading. Rape is determined and counted by the data source that is used. The FBI’s UCR Program reported 88,097 in 2009, and these were completed or attempted rapes. The best measure of rape is the National Violence against Women (NVAW) Survey. 18% of

Many young college students, girls especially, are targeted by other students or even faculty. Jamie Stiehm, a columnist for newspapers such as the huffington post, and websites like the New York Times online, believes that, “For now, college-age women remain as vulnerable in an atmosphere more highly charged with rape in the cultural conversation as ever before.” This holds true in many schools and situations around the country because of society’s view towards sexual assault and rape. People make it seem like less of a problem than it really is. In many colleges around the nation, undergraduates and younger students in general are not fully equipped with the knowledge or resources available to them for rape prevention. In that type of environment, one that makes new students unprepared, makes their shyness, their fear of the attacker, and their silence a weapon for the attacker to use (Stiehm). Armed with these types of weapons, it makes the “rape culture” very real for students, especially young women who have been intoxicated or overpowered. These factors create a plethora of dangerous situations students could find themselves

Rape is defined by the NCVS as, “forced sexual intercourse including both psychological coercion as well as physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, anal, or oral penetration by the offender(s)… Includes attempted rapes… verbal threats of rape.” Fisher’s article focuses on the fact that many assaults occur on a campus because they hold “large concentrations of young women” which results in a “greater risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women in the general population or in a comparable age group.” The study conducted by Fisher et al. found that there are four main factors that

My exploratory essay provided my proposal writing with the research that I will need in order to write final argument. The research that I did for the exploratory essay helped with writing the hypothesis for the proposal, which will then serve as the thesis in the final argument. My proposal brings to light the different reasons that child labor is prevalent in businesses throughout the world. It focuses on uncovering the reasons that child labor is considered to be a significant problem. It also focuses on if child labor should even be considered a problem. Adequate resources are demonstrated through the scholarly articles that I provided in my literature review. The audience that my proposal is written for is my peers, professor, child labor

The acceptance of rape myths and sexual scripts are also major contributors to the thriving rape culture. Rape myths are the false but commonly-held beliefs about rape, and they are closely related to sexual scripts, the culturally established prototypes for how sexual encounters should proceed. Both of these elements support the act of rape and promote the victim blaming and normalization that rape culture entails. Key rape myths include: 1. Husbands can’t rape their wives, 2. Men must engage in sex once sexually aroused 3.Women ask to be raped 4. Rapist are different from most other men 5. Women enjoy rape 6. Women lie about being raped. These incorrect principles can be traced to the patriarchal system that accepts and fosters rape as an

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how undergraduate college women in the United States perceive rape and sexual assault as a potential threat of engaging in random hook-ups or casual sex.

The online questionnaire asked 380 undergraduate respondents about their adherence to rape myths and acceptance of interpersonal violence, and then used this to ask questions to determine if their responses influenced their rape likelihood. The results of this survey found that, for men, there is a significant relationship between rape myths and rape likelihood. Those who responded affirmatively about their rape likelihood also accepted some or all of the rape myths listed in the questionnaire. The study goes on to mention in the conclusion that the acceptance of rape myths leads to moral disengagement and a higher likelihood to engage in sexual violence. However, the article didn't decipher where the sexual violence would be likely to occur. For this survey to be more insightful about on campus sexual assault, it needs to be replicated across the nation, and the questions need to be reconfigured to focus on assault at

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.

Grussendorf describes rape as being “A electroshock to the human’s mind and body”. (1) When people hear the words domestic violence, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse, they often tend to lose sight of what they really means. Today rape comes in different forms. Rapists don’t only use their penis, but they also use their fingers, dildos, knives, broomsticks, and guns (Grussendorf 2). In some cases the victims are murdered. Rape should be black and white; therefore, no means no. This is where consent comes in. Rapists don’t respect a woman’s consent. If everyone had a solid understanding of consent, then the rape rates would drop.