Film Review : The Hunting Ground

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.

“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

Parents are looking for safe places where their children will be able to acquire a vigorous education; therefore, safety is one of the main concerns when it comes to selecting colleges. This places institutions in a situation where they will do anything to keep a good reputation. There is a consumer protection law called The Clery Act passed in 1990, which requires institutions to report crimes that happen on campus (Bulletin), but statistics like “ninety-one percent of college campuses disclosed zero reported incidences of rape in 2014” (Becker) clearly show how colleges are trying to hide the truth regardless of the policy. This is a moral hazard that creates an incentive for colleges to not accurately report cases. It’s been established that most of cases are not reported, which it is something “good” for institutions because they are less affected. But what if all cases were to be reported to the police instead? Institutions will definitely make sure to prevent any sexual assault in the first place. Consequently, there is a loss of trust in the institutions because victims believe that nothing will be done just like in the Turner case. Are institutions willing to sacrifice their reputation by making public every sexual assault case? We know that the answer for this is no. They value more the money that enters the institution more than the safety of the students who bring the

In the article “Athletic club weekend turns into a nightmare for college freshman” by Carol smith and Lee Van Der Voo, Emily Lorenzen shares her story of being a rape victim. Emily shares her account because she wants to help to prevent rape from happening to anyone else. After interviewing Emily the authors shared a statement expressing that “Emily lorenzen believes that if people hear her story, they will be more comfortable confronting the issue of sexual assault on campus. She wants more conversation, so that men get a clearer definition of rape, face stiffer penalties if they ignore it and administrators learn to reach out to women like her and show compassion. She especially wants bystanders to step up and protect people who are vulnerable.” Rape victims need support to not feel guilty or ashamed, and that is exactly what Emily and her father desire. On this topic, Shipman an influential contributor of the Spokane sexual assault

It is a documentary about rape on college campuses. It starts off with a happy beginning of people being accepted into their dream university. It stated that more than 16% of college women are sexually assaulted while attending college. The rapes occurred during parties and in the beginning the two women had their head bashed against the wall. This made them unable to properly respond to the sexual assault and/or rape. The victims were being blamed for their own victimization. 88% percent of women sexually assaulted do not report. Protect the institution from harm is their first priority. If it goes to police it goes to public record and they do not want that. 45% reported zero rape reports.the campuses are afraid of false reporting, but account only of 2-8% meaning the 92-98% are real

They may feel anxious about running into their perpetrators. Afraid of walking across the dark school alone. Embarrassed that people may find out what happened. Campuses need different types of counseling services specifically for victims of sexual crimes. Individual or group counseling, peer counseling, rape crisis centers, and other forms of assistance need to be readily available and advertised so that victims can get the help that they need. Counselors need to help victims realize that the event or events that took place was not their fault and help them recover not only physically but also emotionally and psychologically. These individuals need to be available because a rape or sexual assault can happen at any time of any day. While this can cost campuses a lot of money and resources, they have a moral obligation to at least offer minimal counseling and other resources for their students. However, many victims do not report the incident and will not seek counseling. Students are more likely to tell their friends what has occurred (Daigle et al., 2008). As a result, campuses need to use this angle to educate students about how to help a person that has experienced something as traumatic as being

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.”

I am writing to you today out of concern for many students, specifically female Penn Staters. Sexual assault is something that is frequently occurs at every university, especially this one. “At Penn State’s campus alone, since the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, almost 30 sexual assaults have been reported to local and off-campus police departments” (Thomas par. 2). Penn State University has a rich history that dates all the way back to 1855, but that history has since been marred by the night life here in State College. Sexual assault is an extremely hot topic right now, especially after the new release of the featured film of 2015, “The Hunting Ground” directed by Kirby Dick. This film opened the eyes of the public to sexual assaults on college campuses and how frequent they really are. Dr. Barron, the number of sexual assaults at Penn State needs to decrease drastically and in order to do that we need to educate the students as much as possible, increase the number of on campus police officers, enhance the punishment for sexual assault crimes, and work closely with the town police as well.

After hearing stories of universities not helping sexual assault victims win their case and rather brushes these issues to the side, I would hope that the University of South Carolina would be on the victim’s side in this situation. It is amazing that the people fighting for victims of sexual assault on college campuses is not lawyers, but 18 to 21 years of students. Even university faculty feels like they cannot help these victims as it will hurt their tenure. The Hunting Ground shows that dealing with sexual assault is difficult, but life is just as difficult after because it feels like people are not there to help but just accuse the victim and let the offender get away with the crime. Some feel that so little help is available to support them that they take their own life similar to Lizzy in the film.

Much of the documentary, It Happened Here, was a perfect representation of male privilege. When girls come forward after being sexually assaulted by fellow male students their claims are often not taken seriously and the blame goes back on the victims. Many times the victims are asked what they were wearing, if they were under the influence, and worst of all if they were sure that the incident was actually rape. One police officer actually had the audacity to tell one girl to stop spreading her legs, as if she asked to be sexually assaulted. Clearly the school views these girls as unimportant compared to the male student body.

The Hunting Ground was a very emotional video that highlights a very important issue in our country that most people are not aware of. When it comes to sexual violence, college campuses are more focused on protecting the attacker rather than the victim. What shocked me the most in this film was that most of the faculty members the victims went to seek help from were females, yet the victims were still blamed for their rape. One administrator from UNC at Chapel Hill told a victim “rape is like a football game” meaning that if you look back to that day, what would you have done differently to prevent the rape. Victims who report rapes to university faculties are often questioned about the clothes they wore that day, how much alcohol they had to drink if they said no to the perpetrator, how many times did they said no, etc. Ryan Clifford, a male victim at the University of California, Davis rather than being helped, he was suggested by a faculty member to drop out of school until the situation “blows over.”

Before watching this film I was not aware of the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses. I always thought people could get help on campus and if they could not get the help they needed on campus they could send them somewhere off campus. This really surprised me, I thought sexual assault wasn't very common and if it did happen to someone the school would do more about it so it wouldn't happen again. I never thought the school would blame the person who got assaulted or not do anything about the situation.

Every 21 hours there is a rape on an American college campus. Each year students enroll in college to follow their dreams. These individuals have different visions for their lives and they have goals to perceive. They begin school eager to learn and to enhance their lives into adulthood. Many of them try to also enjoy the college years and many just work hard to reach their goals. However, the choice they make sometimes still leads them to a possibility that can harm them for the rest of their lives. Sexual assault happens too many of these students and it does not matter what the situation or location the scar is still mark. Sexual assault is one of the main dilemmas happening today in college campuses that needs to be solve.

Since 1968, there have been at least 25 films made that portray the events of the Vietnam War. Historians have to ask themselves when watching these films, "Did the fictional character represent historical figures accurately? Is this how a soldier would react in this situation?" The point of view of the director of the film can change with simple alterations in camera angles. For example, a view from the ground of a battle seen can show how the innocent people had the war in their own backyards. The view from a helicopter can show Viet Cong firing rounds at American troops and the troops can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. The audience feels empathy and sympathy for the person from whose point of view the

The surviors in the film channeled their experiences into healing by speaking up and making an effort for change.By putting a name and face to this problem were able to see how real and how often people are rape and/or sexual assualt on college campuses. After watching the film, I do believe unversities can support the students by taking these reports seriously and not comparing their experiences to a football game. The number of reported cases versus the explsoptions for each school was shocking. It seems like their protecting the prepartutors more than they are the victims. The faculty needs to investigate the reportings and come done harder on these issues, so that more students won't become victims in the future. There needs to be a support