Sexual Assault At USC Summary

Over several decades, Greek life has been an integral part of colleges and universities throughout the United States. There is a high demand of “fitting in” in today’s society and a question that students, parents, and teachers alike often ask themselves is, “Does Greek life provide a more safe or harmful environment?” With strong evidence, it is absolutely absurd to believe that fraternities and sororities do more good than they do harm. Various statistics provide factual evidence as to why Greek life is a toxic and dangerous environment for many young adults. Between the rape culture, hazing, and delinquency linked to the students associated with Greek life, it is time that it comes to an end for good so that students may have a more safe and enjoyable college experience. Fraternities and Sororities should be banned off of college and university campuses due to the danger and drama associated with them.

Between family legacies, traditions, and an abundance of college themed movies, books, and television shows, it would be difficult to find a prospective college student who is not familiar with the idea of “Greek life.” For the purpose of this essay, “Greek life” refers to the system employed by many colleges and universities to establish and maintain fraternities and sororities (primarily dominated by caucasian and economically advantages students). It is important to note the existence of fraternities and organizations outside of this stereotypical “Greek” realm, such as coeducational honor and service based fraternities, though even these are not fully exempt from detrimental practices. Fraternities and sororities are often looked down upon with a negative light for a number of reasons, some of which include dangerous hazing habits and unsavory social scenes. While there certainly are undeniable benefits and negatives within these systems, the biggest effect they have is on gender. “Greek life” in college is unhealthy due to its impact on post-college gender expectations by promoting party culture, encouraging misogyny through ingrained tradition, and indoctrinating women into subservience at an impressionable age.

The differences between interactions of social events are derived from people feeling secure and protected verses feeling threatened and helpless. Campus settings are interrupted as high-risk environments for rape culture and are seen to promote sexual aggression from the dominant groups. When looking at systemic factors in the problem we can see how fraternities create guideline that follow in the traditions of perpetuating rape culture. Men who participated in fraternity living arrangements are encouraged to interact and bond with like-minded members. Often these brothers are not encouraged to develop or share experiences with others outside of the fraternity. This level of involvement embraces the dominant cultural beliefs or values to be see as a way of life. Without being able to experience healthy and diverse situation these people are

Recently while reading Rolling Stone and looking for an article for this paper, and came across an article called “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” In summary, a freshman at the University of Virginia was at a frat party and her date was a member of that certain frat. She chose against drinking which is uncommon in most rape cases that occur on campuses. He later asks her to join him upstairs, and being an innocent naïve girl she decided to follow him. As soon as she entered the dark room and he did not turn on the lights she knew that something was wrong. Soon after she heard many different voices in the room and after seven different frat boys did horrid things to her she understood that this was something that some of these boys were doing this as an initiation into that frat. Of course, her friends who were so-called ‘loyal’ to their college urged her to keep quiet for fear that “she may never be allowed in a frat again” or “put a bad light on the university.” Furthermore, the UVA is under a federal investigation to try to determine if there have been other cases of rape that may have been ‘swept under the rug.’ In this essay I want to investigate the psychology of rape and the rapist, why it happens largely in college campuses and specifically fraternities, and also to understand the “rape culture.”

First, we must acknowledge sexual assault scandals in the past that have been ignored or hidden. This is particularly the case with Greek life, or at schools with

The chapter “ Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why are some fraternities more dangerous places for women?” by A. Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade helps to shed light on why some fraternities are associated with high number of sexual assaults on women. I was surprised to learn that “frat brothers rape 300% more and 1 in 5 women are raped on campus” (Valenti, 2014) and despite these horrendous statistics fraternities are still around. So why aren’t there more stringent actions set into motion to stop sexual assaults on women on campus or better yet ban fraternities. A lot has to do with how society as a whole sets double standards with regard to gender sexuality. Men who sleep around are viewed as “studs” or a “player” and women who sleep

Recent survey by Fisher, Cullen, and Turner (2000) revealed that for every 1,000 women attending institutions of higher education, there might be 35 incidents of rape in a given academic year. For a campus with a population of 10,000 women, the number of rapes could exceed 350. Each of these six articles referenced either, The Sexual Victimization of College Women by Fisher, Cullen, and Turner or Fraternities and Rape on Campus by Martin and Hummer. All of these articles relate to current project of sexual assault on university campuses in the United States. Three of the articles relied on questionnaires or surveys and the other three relied on interviews. Each article gave information related to the three variables in current project: Greek

Fraternities are made up off all men often within environments that encourage masculine boasting. Within her work Sanday further explains, “In Fraternity Gang Rape I suggest that rape-prone attitudes and behavior on American campuses are adopted by insecure young men who bond through homophobia and “getting sex”. The homoeroticism of their bonding leads them to display their masculinity through heterosexist displays of sexual performance” (Sanday 3). Women then become a type of target almost for these men to boast about and while the men may not be intentionally forcing themselves, they are to get a story out of and because it is accepted they see nothing wrong with the situation. Sanday actually got the opportunity to interview real fraternity brothers in her research the year of 1990. In one of the interviews on the topic of taking advantage of women on drugs or drunk, one of the fraternity brothers stated, “She was drugged, she drugged herself. Yeah, she was responsible for her condition, and that just leaves her wide open…or so to speak” (Sanday 3). In another observation of fraternity brothers, Sanday recollects an overheard conversation of the young men speaking with a bartender about making the drinks especially strong in hopes of getting the women drunk quickly to “loosen up their inhibition” (Sanday 4). These are both prime examples of what Sanday describes as a rape prone environment. There are also other coersions envolved within this type of environment that pressure women into sexual acts, According to Scot B. Boeringer, “55.7% of the males in his study at a large southeastern university obtained sex by verbal harassment” (Sanday 5). Verbal harassment to obtain sex means that threats are made to end the relationship, false claims of love and lying to achieve sexual gratification. (Sanday 5). Sanday shares that another quarter of the men in Boeringers

Men taking advantage of women is considered a social norm. Also, When fraternity members admitted to doing things that by law are considered rape they did not believe that they were rapist. They insist that if a girl is intoxicated then they are still able to consent to sex. Granted not all Greeks are this way. Many fraternity members treat women respectfully and contribute greatly to bettering the college experience. The problem is too many offenders do exist and they have ruined the once credible reputation of fraternities everywhere.

Dating violence and sexual assault among college students is a well known phenomenon. These definitions over arch the perpetration of physical, emotional or threat abuse and a continuum of unwanted to sexual contact. One of the biggest risk factors associated with both is the consumption of alcohol. I think to decrease rates of sexual assault and dating violence on campus’s would be to get rid of the Greek system completely. Such institutions are rooted in tradition of male patriarchy and the continuum of a gender socialization process of what makes a young relationship “normal”. Males in fraternities and females in sororities are both more susceptible to hold stereotypical gender attitudes and experience sexual assault. This would be a hard plan to implement because the Greek system is such a huge tradition at college but I think a significant step like this could in fact help protect college students from dating violence and sexual assault.

When one first thinks of Greek life or a sorority the only thing that comes to mind is the social aspect. Most people don’t think of sororities as social institutions that envelop their own culture, with mannerisms, languages and customs that are unique to each individual organization. However, these institutions promote a common set of values that enable members to become connected in a way that has a more profound meaning than just social interaction. Greek organizations are good examples of how institutions can affect and be affected by social status and roles within the collegiate community. They are also a prime example of how race, class and gender can affect a social setting in both positive and negative manners.

“No means yes, and yes means anal” (KingKrade). A horrifically impactful statement constructed by a group of fraternity boys from Texas Tech University. Rephrasing back to the phrase “no means yes”; insinuating that according to this group of men, consent to sex isn’t a necessity. This not so uncommon theme currently circulates through our current young fraternity society. The problem being that fraternities are associated with terms like rape and sexual assault, yet no extreme measures have been taken against them. Universities need to take more action in protecting their female students. In order to stop the problem of rape in fraternities, university administration must have stricter consequences for fraternities accused

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.

Recent news headlines have raised many questions and debates regarding the current role of the media, a political force referred to as the fourth estate by Edmund Burke and whose oldest and main purpose was to ‘guard the rights of citizens through publicly reporting on affairs of state’ (Gasher 66). While the news media had always been entrusted with exposing corruption and increasing transparency among those in power, recent trends have started to shift this watchdog role to something more of a lapdog role where profit supersedes the duty to serve the public. Despite this shift, it will be argued in this essay that the watchdog role of the media is still very much relevant, using the Stanford Sexual Assault case as the basis of the argument. The outcome and effects of the media in

Mr Fox, 54, from south-west London, had denied eight indecent assaults and two sexual assaults between 1988 and 2014, against women and girls as young as 14.