Rape Issue In Colleges

Assault in all forms is dangerous to both men and women. Sexual assault on college campuses is fairly common today, and occurs in a number of ways. Young women are most often the main victims of assault on college campuses. This is becoming a serious issue in American society today because either some of these cases go unreported or these young women are too scared to report them or are too embarrassed to report it because the men causing these might be their friends or someone they know. Many young women face this kind of problem, especially when in college. It is mostly at college parties where girls are at risk of having drinks that have been “roofied.” Roofied drinks are drinks that have been spiked with drugs and are most often used by men against women to make them sleepy or cause them to black out. These men are able to take advantage of these vulnerable women. It is difficult to tell if a drink is roofied as the color, taste and odor of the drink remains the same. These actions also put out a bad image of the “good” men and the men that actually care about a women’s safety and wellbeing. As a result, women will naturally form opinions based on experiences they have and will tend to be more cautious.

When it comes to choosing a college, there are many factors in this major life decision: price, location, type of education, and finally, safety. Young women in college campuses across the country, although no campus is immune from these heinous acts, safety is still a main concern. “If you knew your son had a 20% chance of being held up at gunpoint, you’d think twice before dropping your kid off,” says Vice President Joe Biden. “Well, my God, you drop a daughter off, it’s 1 in 5 she could be raped or physically abused? It is just outrageous.” (TIME magazine). Twenty percent of young woman will be sexually assaulted during their college career. Why is sexual assault prevalent on college campuses now more than ever?

On November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone Magazine published an article that attracted over 2.7 million views, “more than any other feature not about a celebrity that the magazine had ever published.” The article, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” catapulted the issue of rape culture on college campuses into a national discussion. Encouraging this discussion and urging universities across the country to increase their efforts to combat this was the goal of Sabrina Rubin Erdely when she set out to find a story that encompassed just that. However, the article was ultimately retracted and removed from the website by Rolling Stone due to fabrications and ethical issues in the story.

“I felt his hands start to move down towards my shorts as if he was trying to unbutton them or pull them off. I was still crying at this point and felt so scared that I couldn't move” (Hummer, 1989). These were the words said by a freshman away at college after she had been sexual assaulted. From the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National network, statistics show that “over 90 percent of all gang rapes on college campuses involve fraternity men” (Hummer, 1989). Most often these woman may be labeled as trash, shameful, or ready for action, aside from a victim, prey, or survivor. Rape myths encourage these deprecating terms for women and cover the reality of a rape culture.

Free-and-easy sex prides itself on being commitment free, no emotional ties attached. Today, this idea of leaving all emotions at the door is the supposedly, sophisticated choice on campus. It is now well understood that traditional dating in college has mostly gone the way of the landline, replaced by “hooking up”- an ambiguous term that can signify anything from making out to oral sex to intercourse - all complete without the emotional entanglement of a real relationship. As times have changed, students begin to view a relationship as “too time consuming” and something that no longer takes priority amongst their busy, high achieving schedules. However, hooking up threatens the sexual, physical, and psychological health of college-age youth. Today’s youth may want to think twice before engaging in the prevalent hook-up culture. Despite the popularity of positive feelings, hookups can include negative outcomes including emotional and psychological injury, and even more concerning consequences such as unintended rape. In order to protect our generation, and more specifically our women, society must acknowledge the detrimental effects of a hook up culture to create a greater understanding surrounding this risky sexual behavior and ensure a more powerful, positive presence for women in our society. The combination of a society seeped in rape culture and an alcohol infused hookup culture creates a compromising sexual environment where women have limited control, opening the

Sexual assault and rape among college campuses has been an ongoing issue across the nation for decades. In the state of Utah, this complex issue will not have a simple solution, but measures can be taken to prevent sexual assault and rape occurring on campuses. Utah Valley University is a campus that is taking considerably impressive measures to combat sexual assault, which will be a basis of this paper. Through university sex education, stricter laws and enforcement, and providing on-campus services to students, cases of sexual assault and rape in the higher level education setting will decrease, and students will be more likely to report these crimes.

Rolling Stone is a magazine that was first known for its coverage of music and politics now mainly focuses on pop culture and entertainment. In the November 2014 issue, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” story was published about an alleged rape on the University of Virginia campus. Rolling Stone released information about the alleged rape of a freshman and how the school mishandled the situation. The Rolling Stone wrote and published a story that was only told from the student’s point of view; the magazine never interviewed anyone else related to the case. “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” story caused much controversy and many ethical issues came from the release of the

‘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.

Throughout the semester, we have learned a lot of different topics. The topic that I think relates to unit 6 is unit 4. Unit 6 is about Bodily Integrity and unit 4 is about Intersectionality. I know that they really do not relate to each other but I think a few readings are somewhat related. I think they are related because they both talk about women's rights and how they are different from men's.

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.

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.

Rape culture is an issue that has gained moment through the feminist movement within the last couple of decades. Rape itself has been around since the beginning of time and its definition has changed over the years. In the United

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

It’s a typical Saturday night at Purdue tonight. The biggest party of the year is happening at the Gama Alpha Fraternity, and you were invited. You don’t know many of the people that will be attending the party; you only know Jack from Psychology class. You say what the heck, start getting ready and off to the party you go. As soon as you walk in the door you’re greeted by Jack, which he offers you a drink, and you take it. But what you didn’t know is that before you arrived at the party he had slipped some medication into it.

In light of the recent Brock Turner case childhood friend Leslie Rasmussen released this statement, “I don’t think its fair to base the fate of the next ten-plus years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank” (Zielinski). This attitude is one shared by many on the subject of rape culture in American universities. This blunt and rather cold attitude prompts many observers to wonder whether a rape culture is present in America. Does our society have a lenient attitude on intoxicated sex? Does the nuanced subject of intoxicated intercourse dismiss responsibility between both parties when the consent is later questioned? There is a problem with rape culture in American universities due to white privilege, drinking culture, and a permissive attitude to intoxicated intercourse.