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No More: Title IX and Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Decent Essays

The faces flash by on the computer screen. The women on the screen are differents shapes, sizes, ages, and colors. However, there is one thing that all the women have in common: they have all been sexually assaulted on a college campus. More than one in five women were sexually assaulted on college campuses (Mott, Par. 1). It has been proven that programs in schools can help prevent these statistics from growing. However, more needs to be done to prevent sexual assault on educational facilities because the current programs are not fulfilling their purpose.
Sexual assault is defined as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.” (“Sexual Assault”, 2nd heading). An average of 237,868 …show more content…

Firstly, how is law enforcement supposed to prosecute victims if the crimes are never reported? Secondly, the women who don’t report these crimes are only hurting themselves in the long run. There needs to be a campaign to ensure that these crimes are being reported, perhaps by offering a reward to the women who speak up.
Another solution is to put more serious punishments for culprits into action. This is a tactic used commonly by law enforcement officers, using the philosophy that if the punishment is more valuable than the “reward”, people will hopefully be less likely to attempt sexual harassment crimes. It is also a lot more “fair” if the punishment is more severe. The victim will be affected for their whole life because of the harassment, it only makes sense that the punishment should also be life affecting.
Frustratingly, these days, some people still treat sexual assault as an “okay” thing, making comments such as “she was asking for it” and that she was “equally responsible” for the situation. This is exactly the sort of mindset that is contributing to the startling statistics today.
In order for this problem to be solved, the American public needs to understand the serious effects of sexual harassment. One of these serious effects is a heightened risk of suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide. About 33% of rape victims have suicidal thoughts. (“Rape”, line 19) About 13% of rape victims will attempt suicide. (“Rape”, line 20) Adding these

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