Sexual assault and rape are on-going issues plaguing college campuses all across the nation. In part, I believe this is due to a lack of education on what sexual assault actually is. All too often, victims are leaving these situations feeling confused about something that they will forever deem "a weird night". It often isn't until much later that they realize what happened to them was a violation of their body and of their rights. While ECU requires students to take a health class during their course of study, during my time in that class, issues of rape and sexual assault were hardly addressed. When the topic did arise, we were taught preventative measures on how to avoid situations where we may be assaulted. The problem with this method is that you can teach students how to avoid it, but they're not being taught what rape actually is. One of the most terrifying aspects of this is that rapists may not even realize that their behavior has caused someone else harm, because they're just that uninformed. A major perpetuating factor in misinformation regarding sexual assault and rape culture is the media. Confusion about what constitutes rape leads many students to question whether or not they were a "real victim". Rape isn't always a violent crime committed by a stranger down some dark alley. It can …show more content…
An article run by the school's newspaper, The East Carolinian, exposed the university for inappropriately handling student's cases. One victim revealed that during a group support session, the students were asked what they had been wearing when they were assaulted. It is this kind of approach that makes victims feel as though it is their fault and makes it less likely that students will feel like they can go to the university for
Sexual assault is defined by the department of justice as: any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. Women aged 18-24, in college, are three times greater at risk than the average woman any age. (RAINN). The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has 246 ongoing investigations into how 195 colleges and universities handled sexual assault under Title IX. (Huffington Post). Many ask, Why on college campuses? Why have these statistics been rising? For a rapist or an assaulter, college is
Problems arise when colleges do not supply their students with adequate support, and allowing repeat offenders to remain in the college. The college can prevent possible obstacles by creating an environment to encourage reporting and discourage sexual assault. Also, the elimination of repeat offenders will prevent future sexual assault on campus. Interactive workshops and early education provide essential knowledge about sexual assault and general safety to students entering college. A single prevention effort will not end sexual assault, but through collaboration with education and preventative actions could lead to a safer environment for college
Recently, a rape crime has happened at Santa Rosa Junior College in California. A female student reported that she was raped on August 20, 2015, by a masked man. Schools, colleges, should not be a place to experience sexual assaults; it is a place for learning and to be able to feel safe while learning. However, according to the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey, victims of sexual assault usually do not report the case of sexual assault; About 67 percent of sexual assaults in 2014 were not reported to law enforcement(Johnson). In most of the cases, schools respect the victim’s wishes to not report sexual assaults to the police and discourage them from telling by giving them downsides of the criminal justice system. In
“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
Every 98 seconds sexual assault occurs. More than 570 people in the United States alone face sexual assault in the duration of 24 hours. A large percent of these victims are students. Rape and sexual assault is escalating rapidly throughout the country within highschool and college students meanwhile schools are not addressing these issues. Many factors contribute to the rise of sexual assault such as; illegal drinking, greek-life, lack of police related officials, and campuses are not supporting them. Although students don’t speak up about sexual assault because they are afraid of getting in trouble, these incidents are occurring more and more. Schools need to address the issue of sexual assault on campuses because it is the victims and their
Freshmen and sophomores have a greater risk for on campus rape and sexual assault during the first semester of college (Wyatt, T., Oswald S. 2014). One way to make incoming students aware of their risks they have while attending a university is by providing sex education in higher education setting. This curriculum should include consent education, which discusses having permission to perform sexual acts, as well as recognizing how and when to report a crime. It may be argued that this is something that should have been covered in high school, but a refresher course on sexual education could be beneficial. College students are adults, and adults should be given information to keep themselves and others safe while attending the university. This information could be given at incoming freshmen orientation, first year
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.
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
The problem: Sexual assault has become one of the forefront issues of our day. There has been an increasing rate of sexual assaults in our society and specifically on college campuses.
Currently, the majority of students do not receive any sexual assault awareness education until they reach college. While the education programs at that level are generally informative and assistive in lowering the number of sexual assaults on campus, they completely ignore the population of students who experience sexual assault before they are 18. Students younger than 18, in most cases, know about sexual assault, but do not know tools to combat this problem. Thus, they may suffer both before and during college. In addition, adding sexual assault awareness education in K-12 curriculum would allow students to be better prepared and comfortable on
Only 5 of those school reported that they teach the student about sexual assaults. The solution the author provided for this problem was to incorporate sexual assault in sex ed. Class. Furthermore, include a class called “Yes means Yes” for all college undergraduates.
Many male toddlers aren’t taught that raping a person is not only immoral but also that they have to respect a woman’s choice. Researchers and sociologists believe that when men and women are more aware and educated of rape, there would be less instances of sexual assault in colleges and universities. There are many instances of rape going unreported simply due to young women who are involved do not perceive the incident as rape until they realize it later. Students perception revealed that many young people do not have accurate images of what sexual assault is. As of recently, Time Magazine posts that California’s new law requires colleges to give consent before sex. This bill was introduced by Senator Kevin de Leon during the early summer of 2015. This bill also gives additional protection to students and sexual assault victims, including on-campus advocates for victims, and also educational programs for incoming college freshman. There are many ways to bring awareness of sexual assault and rape culture. One way is to teach children the language of consent. Other ways to raise awareness is to allow teachers to exercise the education of consent. A rape victim once said “Not enough people understand what rape is, and, until they do … , not enough will be done to stop
, 1 in 5 women, and 1 in 16 men will face sexual assault during their time at a college? And from rainn.org women in school are 3x more likely to face it than women out of school( ). Hopefully that’s as frightening to you as it is to me. It is important that one day these statistics are lowered to 0. Today, I want to give everyone more insight on how sexual assault can be stopped by letting you know about the problems we face being in college when it comes to sexual assault and the laws and reasons that make it difficult for victims to report. After stating the problems, I will present you with solutions and the benefits your actions will have.
This literature review provides a brief overview of six scholarly articles and other facts about sexual assault .This review will first define sexual assault as it is defined in these articles. It will analyze the strengths and limitations of the definition used and will discuss the occurrence of sexual assault in the general population.This review will also illustrate the protective factors, barriers to recovery , impact of development and the specific sexual assault population that are absent in these articles. Sexual assault is a societal issue that impacts men and women at every age in their life, it’s much more highly reported among college aged women. The majority of women who are victims of rape are