Sexual Assault Among College Students

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

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).

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.

Krebs, C. P., Lindquist, C., Warner, T., Fisher, B., and Martin, S.. The campus sexual assault (CSA) study: Final report. 2007

Sexual assault is a commonly ignored, but frequent issue on many college campuses. The victims can suffer when the physical and verbal threats are made and, often exacerbated using drugs and alcohol. However, sexual assault does not always have to come in such a personal form. Acts such as stalking the individual while they are in a private and personal setting

The main topic covered by this document is the fact that there are countless solutions to the increasing number of sexual assault crimes that colleges can and should use. Since many schools in the past have been hiding and disregarding reports of sexual assault, they do not have what they need to help victims. “To better address sexual assault at our nation’s schools, we need to both strengthen our enforcement efforts and increase coordination among responsible federal agencies” (The First Report of the White House). Considering this, schools will be provided with links and information about how they can enact their own bystander intervention programs on campus as part of a prevention program. Prevention programs are when men are empowered to step in when someone’s in trouble and teaching them how they can be part of the solution. Colleges need to have all of the parts of a plan in place, so they can act on the crime efficiently. Emergency services should also be available at all hours of the day, since sexual assault can happen at any time. Schools will also have trauma-informed training programs for school officials and campus law enforcement. This is due to the fact that trauma can leave the memories of victims fragmented, and insensitive and judgmental questions can cause victims to become more distressed. Some questions aren’t allowed to

Most people think that rape or sexual assault only happens to college women when they are under the influence of substance; however, most of the time that is not the case. Thousands of young college women, especially freshmen, are being raped each year. Statistics show that “Women ages 16-24 experience rape at rates four times higher than the assault rate of all women. College women are more at risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women the same age but not in college,”(Sexual Assault and Rape on U.S. College Campuses). This is

For years, women have been sexualized publicly on television and other forms of media. With twisted TV shows such as Law and Order and CSI glorifying the stone-cold reality of sexual assaults and rapes that occur daily on college campuses. Television gives away a blissful ending with every sexual assault or rape, but it is far from the truth. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 80% of rape and sexual assaults of female students goes unreported to the police. (Langston) This does not mean it was never documented, the reports were made to the campus police, then should be passed on to the Special Victims Unit, but almost always the report is put aside, forgotten about, then eventually lost. Two solutions of trying to help this overwhelming statistic are to constantly educate female students about the harsh reality of sexual

The endless news stories regarding sexual assaults on college campuses reinforce that there is a lack of safety among students and support towards the victims. One reason that sexual assault rates remain high is because many schools are in denial that there is an issue. The molestations are unwanted and forced upon by an individual or group. The most common form of sexual assault is rape. The attacks can occur at any time of the day, but a majority of sexual assaults take place at parties, where alcohol and drugs are involved. Predators may take advantage of a person through date rape drugs or peer pressure that can lead to alcohol blackouts. Statistics say that every 2 minutes an American is being sexually assaulted. This issue has been around for decades and laws have been implemented. Unfortunately, there are an average of 288,820 victims each year

Students in campus and colleges are all entitled to protection by the institution and the law. However, despite the two organizations handling the welfare of the student, students have a risk to sexual assault. Reports released concerning the matter state that one out of five college students has suffered sexual assault during their college life. The report further explains that 95% of rape cases in United States campuses are not reported to the authorities. It is vital to understand what sexual assault means before identifying the problems and finally coming up with possible solutions. The Act of sexual assault tends to violate the victim's sexual integrity.

Many of these guidelines are current responses to publicity and lawsuits against colleges, in which each college wanted to, make clear the college’s position is disapproving of the college sexual assault (Boering, 2006). While most colleges offer campus sexual assault programs for girls, including education to promote the awareness of rape, acquaintance rape, and other sex offenses, forcible or non-forcible, but these same colleges do not obligate sexual assault prevention education for men (Boering, 2006). Furthermore, most guidelines target stranger assaults when most of the research has revealed that acquaintance assaults are the most common form of sexual assaults on college campuses (Boering, 2006). Blue lights with hotlines directly to the campus police do unquestionably nothing to help with the safety of women on college campuses, it is always easier to change the physical atmosphere than it is to reply to the attitudes and beliefs that perpetuate and legitimate sexual assault on the college campus (Boering,

Sexual Assault is an ongoing crime that is common among college campuses. As a woman in college, it is frightening to go to school, where there is a possibility of becoming one of the five women who are victimized everyday in the United States. There is a constant fear for women who attend a college that have a history of reports on sexual assault.

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

College is where young women and men beginning one of the most biggest and exciting adventures. The students typically move out and begin to experience adulthood for the first time and often the first time one can begin to make their own decisions. This also a very stressful times for students as they must deal with the stress of their school work, internships, living on their own, and in some cases deal with the effects of sexual assault. Sexual assault on college campuses has been a problem for many years; however, in the past several years, this issue has come to light. In this paper I will discuss sexual assaults being reported and how the universities deal with the reported sexual assault, the statistics colleges report for

College-age adults are known to be high risk for sexual violence and most studies show that one in three women have experiences some type of sexual assault whether it was through physical force or harassment. These statics are known by most women on college campuses to ensure that women know and understand that this could happen to them. The issue is more than ensuring that women are aware of how protect themselves and know how to avoid these situations because it shouldn’t even be happening. When women are taught that they should know how to defend themselves we are saying that this type of behavior is normal and inevitable. We should shift from this dynamic and start teaching both men and women that this behavior is completely unacceptable and that sexually assaulting or harassing someone is NOT normal. This paper will mostly focus on incidents of rape and sexual assault on college campuses and what the outcome and reactions of these incidents were.