Introduction
Statement of the problem
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.
Women tend to be the overwhelming victims of sexual assault and rape while men tend to be the perpetrators. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), one in five women and one in seventy-one men will be raped at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of victims are women who have been victimized by men. There are two major forms of sexual assault, which includes non-consensual forced physical sexual behavior such as rape or sexual assault. The second type of assault is the Psychological form of abuse, such as sexual harassment, stalking, human trafficking, and indecent exposure and the targets of exhibitionism, especially children.
Definition of Terms
The following terms are provided with definition to increase the reader’s understanding of this study.
Sexual assault is best defined by the United States Department of
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?
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
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
Despite federal laws issued to combat sexual violence, each year 4,000 college women report to school officials that they've been sexually assaulted. What happens after they file those reports has stirred debate on campuses across the country, leaving parents and students fearful that colleges may not be the ivory towers of security and integrity that appear on their recruitment pamphlets.
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.
A lawsuit was filed this year in January against Northern Kentucky University in which a female student is suing the university for mishandling her sexual assault that occurred on campus in 2013. The female, who identifies as Jane Doe in the lawsuit in order to hide her identity, claims that NKU did not do enough to make her feel safe on campus because she feels the university neglected her and did not do anything to stop her attacker from having everyday contact with her. The university feels as if they did as much as they possibly could to help the female student and that they are not at fault for what has happened (Pilcher par. 4-7). Although there has not been a ruling on the case yet, NKU is at fault for the events that have transpired and should be ashamed of what they have allowed to occur.
Approximately 20 to 25 percent of women are sexually assaulted within the duration of their college careers; this rate is also three times higher than
In America, sexual assault is increasing on campuses. Colleges and Universities are insanely lenient with the policies of sexual assault and misconduct. Undergraduates get the worse since they are new and don’t expect it to happen to them. Date rape drugs are being used more often than any other type of assault. Over half of victims don’t report the assault, because they don’t believe it’s critical enough. Others never get justice for the crimes the rapist commits. “A relatively small percentage of students believe it is very or extremely likely they will experience sexual assault or misconduct. A larger percentage of students believe that sexual assault
My research question is “How safe are the students from sexual assault on UIUC campus?” At first, I used basic key terms in a google search like “Sexual assault”, “UIUC”, and “campus safety.” One of the first articles I cam up with was by The Daily Illini, the student newspaper.
This essay explores the ongoing issue of sexual assault and sexual violence on college campuses across the United States. Education on the topic of sexuality and sexual assault throughout secondary and post secondary education is vital to the awareness of, and battle against sexual assault. Issues in sex-education, included lack of depth into healthy sexuality, and abstinence only sex education. Women are not reporting their cases to the authorities or universities because of issues with privacy, shame and guilt. Universities are not providing reliable support to victims, which creates wide spread apprehension to report cases of sexual assault. Pop culture and media promote a skewed image of sexualized women, creating a cultural expectation for women to please and be subservient, promoting sexual violence against women across the country.
Sexual assault among college students is a tragic incident that keeps reoccurring. There are three predictors I believe heavily contributes to sexual assault among college students. The first predictor is that an individual is in a college environment that promotes heavy drinking and sexual activity while drinking. I believe this contributes to the chances of someone getting sexual assaulted because college students in this environment might think it’s the norm and feel that it is ok because their campus pairs sexual activity with drinking. The consumption of alcohol lowers someone’s inhibition to make plausible decisions. Similarly, if a person is younger age and lower year in school that is one predictor for sexual assault to occur. Younger age and underclassmen risk being taken advance of on college campuses. They can be easily lied or fooled to by upperclassmen, especially in a relationship. Upperclassmen might convince the
On January 22, 2014, President Barack Obama signed the Presidential Memorandum, forming the ‘White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.’ This task force was established to help decrease sexual assaults in college campuses and create awareness of this little talked about topic. Many college students don’t believe sexual assault is an issue until it happens to them or someone they’re close with. Sexual assault affects the victims by making them feel helpless and causing serious negative effects on their emotional health. Many of these incidents don’t get reported due to students feeling unsafe or feeling like it isn’t that big of a deal. Even those that are reported, sometimes aren’t taken seriously by the school’s administrators. College should be a fun learning experience, where safety shouldn’t be a concern.
In the U.S., there is a growing concern over the safety of women on college campuses. 27% of female college seniors reported having experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact since entering college. Further, according to the research, at least 50% of college students’ sexual assaults are associated with alcohol use. Is this a new problem, or is this something that has always been a problem, but, until now, has been under-reported? Several issues complicate the story, including what constitutes sexual assault, whether students see it's a problem to begin with, and what campuses are doing (or not doing) about it.
The topic of sexual assault has always been a tough subject to discuss because it is a heinous crime that can and has happened to men, women, young and old. It is a topic that is disturbing and heart wrenching, especially when involving children. In the past few years, our media outlets have captured the images and stories on sexual assault, focusing mainly on College Institutions and how sexual assault cases have been handled within those institutions. Sexual assault is a very important topic to discuss, since this can happen to anyone you know, man or woman, adult or child, or yourself. This paper will touch on the different types of sexual assault, stigma of sexual assault, treatment of sexual assault, and understanding the perpetrator. There will be a brief discussion of the current social issue of college campus sexual assault. Sexual assault is such a wide topic with many areas to discuss, but this paper will outline the basic understanding of sexual assault and what can be done to overcome this stigma of sexual assault and how we can help the victims/survivors.
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).