Whether it is walking home alone at night, or going to a party and having some fun on the weekends, sexual offenders will attack because their primary motivators are power, control, and anger. Sexual assault is an ongoing crime on campus at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It can happen to anyone, male or female, and that is why it needs immediate attention and a plan for resolution.
Sexual assault is sexual activity of any kind that does not involve the other person’s consent. Sexual assault includes rape, forced sodomy, forced oral sex, and any form of unwanted sexual touching. Most common types of sexual assault are mostly affiliated with the drugs of roofies or GHB being slipped into a drink. This often appears to happen at college parties. According to research, “the typical scenario of sexual assault on college campus includes the woman’s drinking at a party and playing drinking games, a situation where she has been given a drink in which the alcohol has been disguised as punch” (Bohmer, Parrot 20). Popular culture depicts college as a place for free booze and sexual conquests, as sensationalized by popular movies like “Project X” and “22nd Jump Street.” Consequently, the public medium portray partying and binge-drinking as the typical college and teenage social norm. Oftentimes, college is the first opportunity for young individuals to live away from home. For many, college is a time of sexual freedom, exploration, and experimentation. According to Julie E. Samuels from
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.
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
Way too often are sexual assaults happening on colleges campuses. Because of these sexual assaults, females students have a hard time being safe on campus, or even staying on campuses. Statistics state, “1 in 4 college women will be the victim of sexual assault during her academic career… Every 21 hours there is a rape on an American college campus… College women are most vulnerable to rape during the first few weeks of their freshman and sophomore years”(Sexual Violence on College Campuses). Everyone says that your college days are the best days. Well they are, until a sexual assault or a murder has occurred on your campus. Now students are afraid to walk on their campus and feel safe and secure. They are afraid to enjoy their college experiences, thus not making their college experience the best years of their life. Do you think that Campus Security is doing enough to help prevent these crimes from happening? Do you think that the college crimes are only happening to certain students? Is college really as safe for students as it is made out to be? To understand the dangers of college campuses, it is important to analyze the statistics of college crimes, the people committing these crimes, the data from high profile cases, and the steps to make campuses safer. I feel like if the students on campus know that they have a safe environment then they will enjoy life more, maybe even become more
“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
Summary: The article “Rhode Island Schools Report 18% Increase in Sexual Assaults” Arditi explains to us of the unfortunate rise in sexual assault at universities in the Rhode Island area. She gives us statistical evidence of reports by journals and newspapers. These statistics showed an increase of 65 sexual assaults by 11 schools near Providence and a 40 percent increase for 29 New England schools (Arditi). These sexual assaults are due to many conditions of the college, such as, its size, location, culture, and how well it deals with reports of the abuse. Colleges have a rising problem of victims failing to report crimes that were committed upon them. Along with problems with reports, sharing information between law enforcement and college student affairs was an increasing issue. Universities and colleges were not required to share data until a White House task force recommended that these institutions sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
While there is no documented first case of sexual assault at Boston University, it is clear that it was becoming a national problem by the 1970’s. As early as 1957 Eugene Kanin produced a study prompted by male aggression on university campus’s. In the study Kanin analyzed cases of one hundred and sixty two girls that felt they had been sexually abused on campus. Scholarly literature presented sexual assault on college campus’s by 1957 (Kamentz). In the 1960’s the violent crime rate skyrocketed across America. Women were the main recipients of the misconduct. It is likely that out of the thousands of students and women that attended BU at this time there were incidences of sexual assault. This became apparent nationally in 1972 when the government was called upon to change the law enforcement community (Sacco).
described as any sexual act that is unwanted by somebody else. These acts incompass penetration with genitals and/or objects without consent, rape, unwanted sexual acts such as oral sex and touching of somebody’s body without their permission and is all about “power and control” (Sexual Assault). It is important to note the misconception regarding rape. Rape falls under the category of sexual assault not every case is rape (Sexual Assault). Sexual assault on college campuses is a reoccurring problem and it seems as if colleges aren't doing much about it. These abusive incidents happen on a day to day basis and it is not getting the attention and awareness that
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.
In Daniel Luzer’s article “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” he suggesting that alcohol is not the reason for the continuous sexual assaults at the college level, published on November 18, 2013 by Pacific Standard. In this article Daniel along with other sources suggest that all of the sexual assaults in college, although may involve alcohol, should not be blamed on alcohol, but on the society we have become. They suggest how college students mingle today is different than how they did years ago, and college students are not assaulting females because they are drunk, but because they have not been taught that it is wrong to do so. Different studies have shown that alcohol in colleges has not
A majority of sexual assaults involving college students involve drugs or alcohol. Advocates say this is one reason the prevalence rate of assaults continues to be high, and also partly why so few are ever
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.
Rape has always been a sensitive subject, but there is a certain kind of rape that is affecting college campuses at an alarming rate. Date rape is rape committed by someone with whom the victim has gone on a date with. Date rape has been a coined term for a while, but the increasing number of reported date rapes on college campuses involving college students has increased through the years. The definition of date rape has stirred up quite a buzz. A leading cause of date rape is considered voluntary or involuntary consent to people. Universities across the nation struggle with how to handle the alarming statistics of college date rape. Many universities have instituted surveys and educational courses for their students to be aware of date rape.
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
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.
Sexual assault and rape have always been a part of society since the beginning of human kind. It would only make sense for it to be a part of the college campuses unfortunately. As a typical female college student is between the ages of 18-24, statistics taken from 1995-2013 prove that women around these ages have the highest percentage of rape (Sinozich and Langton 2014). Within 1995-2013, males ages 18-24 reporting sexual assault or rape were far less than the women, although that does not mean it did not happen just that is was lesser of the two (Sinozich and Langton, 2014). Roughly, 18% of male college students reported having a history with sexual victimization or unwanted sexual contact within the past year (Turchik and Edwards, 2012). These students were classified either as college, university, trade school, vocational school students, or nonstudents meaning anyone else in that age range that is not in any form of school (Sinozich and Langton, 2014). Rape and sexual assault occurs quite often even if the victim is not in school. However, when people are closely placed within a location, like college campuses the chances of assault heighten as there are more opportunities for the perpetrators.