Sexual Assault in the United States

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

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).

Sexual Assault described in technical terms is defined as any sort of sexual activity between two or more people in which one of the people involved is involved against his or her will. (3) The description of "against his or her will" extends to varying degrees of aggression, ranging from indirect pressure to a direct physical attack. According to the Crime Victim Research and Treatment Center 1.3 adult women are sexually assaulted in the United States every minute. (1) Of these assaults 84% of the attacks occur by someone the victim knows. The Senate Judiciary Committee the United States sighted the United States as having the highest rate of sexual assaults per capita in the

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.

This paper will discuss sexual assault policy from 1972 to 2013. Sexual assault has been addressed in six pieces of legislature. Two of the six policies are layered policies intended to amend failures in preceding policy. Current sexual assault policy exists in the form of Title IX of 1972, the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, the Jeanne Clery Act of 1990, the Campus SaVE Act of 2013, and the SAFER Act of 2013. Of the six, the Campus SaVE Act and SAFER Act were both created to amend earlier policy – the timeline of this amendment reflects several key actions by President Barack Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden. This will be further expand on later in this paper.

The issue of sexual harassment on college campuses is an issue today that I feel is very important to look at. Many young men and woman go off to school to get an education maybe even to get away from issues at home and of course have fun at the same time. Sexual harassment gets over looked by many people when they come to college. It 's thought to be " oh it won 't happen to me" that 's the thought that gets young woman and in some cases men in trouble. Sexual harassment or assault isn 't just an issue that can occur at parties. The harassment can be an issue even in a classroom. It 's a problem all over the United States , and across the world as well. The only way to address sexual harassment and violence is through the implementation of sexual assault policies by colleges and universities. It has also been noted even with policies, the assault still occurs. The American Association of University Woman reported in 2005 that " 62% of female college students report incidents of sexual harassment at their university." ( Marshall, Dalyot, Galloway, P. 276) It was also stated in a report that the real number of incidents may be higher, given that 10% of students never report their incidents to administration or faculty members. Sexual harassment can include " unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature." (Marshall, Dalyot, Galloway, P.278) " In 2010, the DOE

When such prevalent policies like the Clery Act and Title IX exist on college campuses and for college campuses, many people would believe that those policies are enough in regards to sexual assault and rape on campuses. However, there are far more policy recommendations that could be put in place. Females and males alike, through education, can become aware of what Title IX and the Clery Act are. Awareness about current policies can lead to more people reaching out and coming forward about any incidents they have faced during their time in college. Many colleges do happen to send students and give students access to these policies but they are often ignored. Know the policies implemented and know who is the coordinator of these policies. Far too often, people like to believe that sexual assault and rape incidents rarely occur but that is not the case. Title IX and the Clery Act policies are there for a reason.

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.

According to The United States Department of Justice, Sexual assault is 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 such as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. (Department of Justice) 90 percent of the victims of sexual assault are women and 10 percent are men, and nearly 99 percent of offenders in single-victim assaults are men (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2010). Sexual Assault can happen to anyone, not just women. Sexual Assault these days are a big trouble and it is not being addressed in good order, and it is especially a big problem at the University of Kentucky campus. Although, many people think sexual assault on campus is not a huge issue, it really is and it is not properly spoken of. Even though people have different opinions on sexual assault, sexual assault is a big issue on campus and alcohol is largely to blame.

“Among undergraduate students, 23.1% of females and 5.4% of males experience rape or sexual assault” (RAINN). Rape is a threat virtually anywhere people go, but no place has a higher risk for sexual assault than college campuses. However, many of these occurrences go without penalties against the attacker, and even more are not reported at all. The lack of consequences for the accused indirectly suggests that rape and other forms of sexual assault are allowable and create further problems for the victims of the horrendous actions. Harsher punishments need to be given out for sexual assault on campus, as the current rulings are biased and immoral.

As students graduate from high school they begin the journey of getting ready for the University they want to go to and get excited for the best time of their lives. As anybody on campus the last thing they want to be worrying about is whether they will be sexually assaulted or not. It is becoming clear that University's around the United States needs to broadcast what sexual assault is and why it isn't okay. In most cases, many campuses do not have an effective way to stop sexual assaults. Nobody wants to be a victim in a sexual assault case. Assuming nobody wants to be the attacker in a sexual assault case results to sexual assaults on campus must stop. University's must take the proper precautions to help stop campus assault. In the article, "Male students are victims of sexual assault, too" the author writes:

Following natural disasters sexual assault increases in affected areas. Some victims of these storms are sent to shelters with little security and are put with untrustworthy people. At some of these shelters women and men are not separated from each other. Even young girls are forced to set up their beds next to strange men. Many people, male and female, are raped or molested in these unsupervised areas. Most incidents go unreported due to the busy law enforcement (Blanch). Women are even more vulnerable to rape if they are the caretaker of the family. If these women in particular go out to get supplies alone, they might just become a victim of sexual assault. The recent influx of natural disasters across the world has brought unimaginable devastation. Many have lost their homes, cars, and valuables due to these monster events. With little help from the

According to Kathleen Hirsch, the author of “Fraternities of Fear: Gang Rape, Male Bonding, and the Silencing of Women” 1 in every 4 women attending college will be the victim of sexual assault at some point during her academic career. Or in another study reported in the “The sexual Victimization of College Women” there are 35.3 incidents of sexual assault in a group of 1,000 women in a time span of 6.91 months (Statistics). Obviously sexual assault is a huge problem that should be taken very seriously. Some colleges have wonderful programs put in place that provides great services to help those students who have been have been sexually assaulted and programs that help education and prevent sexual assault.

Sexual assault has become an ongoing problem across the United States, especially on college campuses. It is not uncommon for one to expect a female dressed scandalously or a male under the influence to experience sexual assault. There is no known definition of consent or when consent is given that leads to this increase in sexual violence. Many cases and stories have risen where the victim of these crimes are not taken seriously or given proper respect when dealing with the situation. The victims are stereotyped, used as the root of jokes, mocked in the media, and are not taken seriously. Sexual violence is a serious matter that our society denies as a real issue resulting in a lack of regard for the victims and poor handling of the situation by medical

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