I was absolutely mortified by the administrators response to victims of sexual assault. I just couldn’t believe that they would rather uphold the prestige of a college campus than to do right by a victim of sexual assault. I honestly thought that administrators would be more supporting, it was really difficult to see how administrators are supposed to guide us in the right path but they spoke down to all the women that were rape survivors, it truly disgusted me. The structural issues that influenced the reactions survivors received were the issues from the administrators and even police officers, basically every institution where rape survivors are supposed to be able to turn to turned out to be a big let down to them. It’s terrible because sexual assault survivors don’t feel comfortable to turn to their own parents so they turn to powerful institutions like police officers and administrators but it was just a let down.
I think one way they held their schools accountable would be telling their experiences with the issue. If they weren’t there
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They don’t want their parents to look at them and think about her or his experience with sexual assault. I feel like its important for parents to establish the idea that every child can always count on their parent for support no matter how difficult the situation is. Parents should be more open about this topic, no matter how difficult or awkward it may be to discuss. I feel like if a parent watches to ask questions about sexual assault on the school where the child is applying to they can but how are we supposed to know what their saying is true. For example, for years universities have promoted their schools by saying their academic levels are high and that there is no violence or sexual assault on their campus, mean while we just learned that there is a lot of sexual assaults on campus but the survivors are just being
In the article “Athletic club weekend turns into a nightmare for college freshman” by Carol smith and Lee Van Der Voo, Emily Lorenzen shares her story of being a rape victim. Emily shares her account because she wants to help to prevent rape from happening to anyone else. After interviewing Emily the authors shared a statement expressing that “Emily lorenzen believes that if people hear her story, they will be more comfortable confronting the issue of sexual assault on campus. She wants more conversation, so that men get a clearer definition of rape, face stiffer penalties if they ignore it and administrators learn to reach out to women like her and show compassion. She especially wants bystanders to step up and protect people who are vulnerable.” Rape victims need support to not feel guilty or ashamed, and that is exactly what Emily and her father desire. On this topic, Shipman an influential contributor of the Spokane sexual assault
“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
As sexual assault incidents have an increasing presence in media, the importance of properly processing these cases has also grown. This guide will provide a brief overview of Sexual Assault Response Teams and how the various disciplines independently function for those with an interest in advocacy training.
Though it seems that making sure that the accused is not falsely incriminated is not the only thing that colleges have on their minds. Back in 2004, 91% of colleges recounted that they had a zero reported rape incidences. This means with about 11,000 campuses most said they had no rapes reported that year (Amy Becker). Something needs to be said about our system and the stigma of hiding instead of improving. The best way to improve the situation that is happening in America school systems, is to talk about what everyone will not talk about. There needs to be more communication, not just with who to blame for sexual assault but rape culture affects beyond the victim and the perpetrator.
It has been argued that colleges are more equipped for attending to the emotional well-being of campus sexual assault victims. Title IX, a federal gender equity law passed in 1972
In 2011, Russlyn Ali wrote a letter titled “Dear Colleague” which shined some light on the scenario of sexual assault on campuses, and said a lot of it was up to the universities themselves to help fix the problem. Before the 2011 call to action, campuses across the nation just did whatever they chose to do, due to the fact that the federal laws surrounding sexual assault on campuses were so rarely enforced. An example of that would be in some schools, the case would go straight to law enforcement and
Sexual assault has plagued the military since its inception. The chain of command (COC) is responsible for maintaining the good order and conduct of our service members (SMs). Unfortunately, the U.S. military has not been able to effectively combat the occurrences of sexual assault. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been thrown at the problem, programs have been implemented and task forces have been mobilized. To combat this epidemic, the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program (SHARP) is the U.S. military’s main effort. SHARP is designed to promote advocacy and provide support for victims of sexual assault, in order to decrease or eliminate the instances of sexual assault among SMs. However, the problem of
Sexual assault leaves a long term effect on victims and are afraid to speak up for help, especially if the attack happens on a college campus. Victims of sexual assault become timid to speak up about their attacks because more than likely they know justice is not in the question for them. It is sad to know the statistics that are shown for sexual assault occurring on college campuses are not 100% accurate due to more than half of the sexually assaulted students never have the courage to report their attacks. Sexual assault is a major issue affecting female college students and it needs to be addressed.
Sexual assault is a big issue on college campuses all over the country and it affects everyone that is involved. Sexual assault has increased throughout college campuses in the United States. Because of this the U.S developed a Campus Security Act in 1990 and Crime Awareness. George H. W Bush signed this bill into existence in 1990 (Lee 8). The government is putting a lot of pressure on college administrations to help prevent the chance that one of their students may be drugged and/or sexually assaulted. People are afraid that colleges and administrators are not doing their best to prevent sexual assault on students and they aren’t fully providing the support to the victims. One in five women who attend a college
When colleges and universities are constantly in competition with each other for students, there are certain issues that occur. Competition has turned into universities and colleges often mishandling sexual assault and rape cases. Campuses want to minimize the danger that they may pose which leads to sexual assault and rape crimes to often be veiled. With this veil in place, it counters the efforts of colleges and universities to address the issue of sexual assault and rape. In July 2016, a survey was released to 350 colleges and university presidents. The purpose of this survey was to showcase whether sexual assault and rape cases were handled correctly or mishandled. Over the last five years, “more than 40 percent of the schools had not conducted a sexual assault and/or rape investigation” (citation). It was revealed that
Throughout history, there has been many different types of sexual assault cases. In all of these cases, sexual assault pertains to forced, sexual actions or behavior on a person without their explicit consent. In an article conducted by the New York Times, it said, “In four years of college, more than one-fourth of undergraduate women at a large group of leading universities said they had been sexually assaulted by force or when they were incapacitated”( Perez-Pena). An abounding amount of women are being sexually assaulted during their time as a college student. One in four women in college will be sexually assaulted in college. To add to being sexually assaulted, in a recent research conducted by the National Institute of Justice, researchers discovered that, “Sexual assault is widely considered to be the most underreported violent crime in America. Most sexual assaults on campus are committed by an acquaintance of the victim, which explains, in part, why these crimes are underreported”(Karjane ii). There are many people who are afraid to report their incident to the school or the police. In most cases, they are afraid of letting their friends or family know, so they don 't have a support system to help them. The EROC provides support systems for students by connecting them to a survivor. By doing that victims will be able to heal quicker.
“An internal survey at the University of Michigan of students’ experience with sexual misconduct found that more than 20% of undergraduate women had been touched, kissed or penetrated without their consent” (Gray). People find this ok becuase of excuses like “did you see what she was wearing” or “she was asking for it.” Sexual assault on college campuses is a grievous offense that many people are too scared to report. The media has a role in helping people spread their stories, so that the victims can help others not have to go through the same trauma. If students who have been victimized are able to tell their stories, then it can show others what toxic situations look like and how to avoid them. Another aspect of college sexual assault the
Imagine showing up to work in the food industry while cutting vegetables you badly cut yourself. Instead of your job helping you and feeling sympathetic to the pain you went through they tell you it was your fault for choosing to cut the vegetables. That is how some feel when reporting rape cases on college campuses they feel betrayed by an institution they felt they could trust. Reports of campus sexual assaults are making headlines. The question has been asked many times whether colleges should change their policies regarding sexual assault. Some say that colleges should completely change their policies in order to change the alienation of victims. While other say that current policies are too harsh on the perpetrators and other things may be to blame. I believe that more awareness should be brought to this issue and colleges should make changes to insure this happens.
The Hunting Ground was a very emotional video that highlights a very important issue in our country that most people are not aware of. When it comes to sexual violence, college campuses are more focused on protecting the attacker rather than the victim. What shocked me the most in this film was that most of the faculty members the victims went to seek help from were females, yet the victims were still blamed for their rape. One administrator from UNC at Chapel Hill told a victim “rape is like a football game” meaning that if you look back to that day, what would you have done differently to prevent the rape. Victims who report rapes to university faculties are often questioned about the clothes they wore that day, how much alcohol they had to drink if they said no to the perpetrator, how many times did they said no, etc. Ryan Clifford, a male victim at the University of California, Davis rather than being helped, he was suggested by a faculty member to drop out of school until the situation “blows over.”
Within society, there is an engrained belief of what makes a person a legitimate victim and often their status as a ‘victim’ is questioned. This is especially true if the victim does not fit the typical stereotype of who is considered to be a legitimate victim. This is most widely illustrated in cases involving male victims of sexual assault.