Sexual Assault Is All Around Society

Sexual Assault on college campuses is a national epidemic. Most colleges aren’t doing anything about it. Brown University finally stood up and is in the process of doing something. They are setting an example for what other schools should be doing, especially being an ivy league. Education is a powerful tool and it should be used to educate students on what consent is and how to be an appropriate bystander. Sexual assault on college campuses is a problem that will take a long time to solve, but the ending must start

Sexual assaults affect the society on a large scale and make us feel frustrated and impact our performance at different levels. Sexual assault is a serious issue that lowers the confidence of students and creates a tension in the society. For instance, if anyone of us doesn’t feel safe somewhere, how he/she is supposed to be comfortable at that place and perform better in work. Same is the situation in colleges where there is a risk for students so; they feel frustrated and are not able to pay attention in case they are being victim of harassment. The harassing, hazing, and sexual assault type of activities set a precedent for other evil minded people and encourage them ultimately making the environment more unsafe for us. The students lose

“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

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

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

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 on college campuses is a growing epidemic. Twenty five percent of college women are affected by sexual assault (A. Amar, T. Strout, S. Simpson, M. Cardiello, & S. Beckford, 2014, p. 93). Sexual assault is the non- consensual sexual touching of a person, in which a person is forced to engage in a sexual act against their will. Taking advantage of a person sexually is morally wrong, and causes victims of sexual assault significant emotional and physical damage. Sexual assault is a big issue because it is destroying the lives of college students. No one, that is, attending college, and has their whole life in front of them should ever have to experience trauma from such an act and have their whole future compromised because of it. But the problem is that the majority of the victims of sexual assault don’t report it. So what solutions are there to prevent sexual assault? Sexual assault on college campuses can be managed by enforcing a strict no alcohol policy on college campuses, so that it can not be used as a weapon by rapists. Sexual assault can also be thwarted through sexual assault prevention workshops to educate students and staff about the issue, and through the college administration, reporting sexual assault to local authorities, so that the legal consequences of sexual assault can be implemented. Out of the three preventative measures, having the administration report sexual assault to local authorities is more effective, because the crimes are

One in five women are raped or experience attempted rape throughout their college career. However, most women are too scared or embarrassed to report what happened to them. Those who do report it, the colleges give the offenders a slap on the hand to keep the reputation of the college clean. My question is why hasn’t there been anything done to help protect the women of college campuses and punish the men who commit these horrible crimes? There have been so many cases in colleges all over the country where woman were sexually assaulted, but they don’t say anything to anyone. Even when they do tell the authorities, the colleges don’t punish the offenders the way they should. Why would anyone want to hide what they did under the rug? Colleges want to make sure that the reputation of their institution remains perfect and they give the rapist a minimal charge so attention is not sought on the college. Being sexually assaulted isn’t something you get over with time. It follows you throughout your life, and will not only ruin your college experience, but haunt you forever. A serious plan of action needs to be set in place to protect all women on college campuses.

An average person may say that sexual assault on college campuses are hidden because of peer pressure and how their peers might judge them. Many victims believe that speaking out will jeopardize their reputation and friendships. Victims of sexual assault on college campuses say there is no need to report the incident to campus police, because they feel as if the police will make it seem that the reason they were sexually assaulted was their fault. Just because a person doesn’t give you an answer or says “No”, doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want to them. If they don’t give you permission or approve, then it’s consider sexual assault. Sexual assault

The Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states that higher education institutions must respond once a sexual violence case is brought to their attention; however, it does not state how higher education institutions should go about the reporting and treatment of students who are victims, or perpetrators, of sexual violence. It should be noted that student victims of sexual violence tend to disengaged with their universities by skipping social functions, missing or dropping out of classes, failing classes, and in extreme cases, withdrawing from their university (Kaukinen, 2014).

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.

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.

College campuses do not know how to handle sexual assault scandals. Colleges are mostly focused on keeping their image clean. According to Gail Sullivan, the Department of Education has a list of 55 institutions under investigation for sexual assault and not handling it like they are suppose to. College should be a safe environment for students to get an education. We mentioned in class that colleges should have a defense course, so women could learn how to protect themselves, and be informed on what is happening in campus. Gail mentions that there is a bill that requires verbal or written contract in order to receive a clear consent for sex. Meanwhile, I believe that is helpful but not as likely if the victim is intoxicated. A written contract is good, but a perpetrator would not even acknowledge it. Sexual assault is considered when some one is raped while unconscious or through force. As long as the girl or boy, mostly girl verbally states that they want to have sex, where it would be considered permission, other than saying nothing which could be considered assault. Although, a document is something good to have, so it is

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

Along with that, in most cases the person that was assaulted does not feel that they can tell the school or other authority what happened because they have doubts their school’s actions involving sexual violence, which allows the offender to get away with out any consequences. Furthermore, the schools themselves appear to want to keep the incidents hidden or quiet so they may not always feel like a welcoming place to come and report to. The individual that comes in to make a report of sexual violence will more than likely want some form of justice and the universities may not be able or willing to do what is needed in every case. This happens because the schools want to keep the number of incident reports low so that it does not give a bad image and deter other students from coming to their institution. As time goes on the government and other authorities are creating more rules and regulations that the institutions must follow. They still allow the specific school to make their own methods of handling certain situations however there are a few items that are