Stephanie Hale

“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)

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.

Any involuntary, unwelcome, and nonconsensual sexual interaction or activity, including touching, kissing, and any type of sexual intercourse would be defined as sexual assault. It is not likely for one to be aware of the law governing sexual assault, until one is placed in a position that requires knowledge of it. (Constance Backhouse, 2016). Rape myths and stereotypes in the Canadian Court system and legislature will be ascertained in the following paper. First, rape myths will be discussed, moreover, it will be shown that regardless of the fluctuations in the Canadian law, sexual assault rates remain high, reporting and conviction rates remain low, and rape myths continue to operate. These rape myths are existing in Canadian universities and in the Canadian Court Houses. Many social constructions that are present in the Ewanchuk case are a result outcome because of the judiciary system and the university system. Furthermore, the rape myth and stereotypes in law and universities can relate to the social constructions of gender, race, masculinity/femininity, and heterosexuality. In this essay the focus will be directed to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Ewanchuk case, [199] 1 S.C.R. 330, and argue how the rape myths then are still present in today’s society despite feminist attempts to amend criminal laws to be more unbiased in resolving conflicts.

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

I interviewed two women and one man about the University of Iowa’s efforts with respect to sexual assault on campus. The first person I interviewed was a twenty-one year old woman from England named Gina. Michaela, an eighteen year old female from a small-town Southern Baptist high school, was the second female I interviewed. The only man I interviewed was Matt, a 19 year old male from a mid-sized town.

‘Sexual Violence is more than just a crime against individuals. It threatens our families; it threatens our communities. Ultimately, it threatens the entire country’ (qtd. in Burleigh pg. 2). In the article, “Confronting Campus Rape” written by Nina Burleigh; a writer, journalist, and professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, describes what students are doing to force universities to take a stronger stand against campus sexual assault. Moreover Burleigh describes what the government is doing to make a difference on the issue. This includes laws that have created consequences for the assaulter and laws that protect the victim. According to Burleigh, a young woman called Laura Dunn was sexually assaulted on campus. Dunn was a student of UW. On April 4th, 2014, Dunn lost her virginity to two UW athletes. That night, Dunn was attending a party at the university. Dunn was enjoying the party and lost count of her alcohol intake. Dunn remembers being led out by two older teammates, who she knew. Dunn was very intoxicated, enough to stumble on her way back to what she thought would be another campus party, as one of the athletes helped her walk. The athletes led Dunn to one of their apartments where she found herself on a bed with both of them on top of her. Dunn was so intoxicated that she couldn’t help but to drift in and out of conscious leaving her unable to stop the two men. Dunn began to feel sick and was led to the bathroom by one of the athletes, where he penetrated her from behind while she was throwing up. That was a date Dunn would never forget. Dunn like many other women at the UW have been sexually abused by other students. Although Dun’s incident is shocking, it is not uncommon for women to be sexually assaulted on campus. A woman at the  university of Wisconsin is more prone to being sexually assaulted than any other woman in the country because of alcohol intoxication; this is a problem that must be resolved.

Before watching this film, I did not aware of the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses. It surprised me how the school administrations suspected the victims are the wrong people.

To begin with, The College at Brockport tries to prevent all forms of sexual discrimination by hosting mandatory discussion meetings that give advice on how females can prevent themselves from becoming a victim. Usually in these meetings, females are given tips and steps that they can undergo to prevent themselves from being sexually assaulted or harassed. For example, the school tells women to wear more clothing when going out and to control the amount they 're drinking due to the fact that it will have a greater affect on them than it would on a male. The school also emphasizes that males must obtain consent to avoid them from being charged with sexual assault. The biggest mistake that the college makes when addressing the issue of sexual discrimination to students is convincing them that women are

McCaskill, who is organizing the three roundtables through her Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight, is teaming up with Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to better understand how colleges and universities handle sexual assaults on campus, as the Senators consider legislative solutions. Participating in the roundtables will be current or former student survivors, campus safety and sexual assault experts, sex crimes prosecutors, university law enforcement, victim advocacy and response organizations, and university administrators. "These roundtables are the next step in our in-depth look at the practices our campus communities have in place to protect students and bring perpetrators to justice and how we can fix, strengthen and enforce them," said McCaskill, a former courtroom prosecutor of sex crimes. "It's clear we have a lot of work to do to tackle the systemic issues that prevent victims from reporting these crimes, that prevent schools from effectively protecting these survivors, and prevent clear and proper enforcement of federal law. These meetings will help us understand, from those who know best, what more we can do for students, administrators, and law enforcement to give them the tools they need to curb this epidemic. (McCaskill, Paragraph 4)" With all of this happening many procedures have been suggested and are all getting tested out. “The consequences of sexual assault are potentially very serious. An immediate concern is a physical injury, which may be extensive enough to require medical treatment or hospitalization.11 Pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV, are additional concerns.12 Emotional damage may be serious and equally requiring of treatment. Sexual assault may affect students’ academic achievement

Anything from unwanted touching in a sexual manner to non-consensual sexual intercourse is classified as sexual assault in Canada. Male survivors of sexual assault frequently face unsympathetic attitudes after choosing to report the criminal offence. Unfortunately, despite the similar chances of sexual assault amongst both males and females during their teenage years, with 20% for males and 25% for females, there are fewer researches conducted on male sexual assault in Canada (Statistics Canada 2015). A large proportion (16%) of male victims are sexually assaulted in an institutional setting, which is over two and a half times greater than the percentage of females in the same location (Brennan 2008). The UCR2 (Uniform Crime Reporting Survey)

According to Nancy Chi Cantalupo, writer in the University Chicago Law Journal, “twenty to twenty-five percent of college women are victims of attempted or completed nonconsensual sex” (Burying Our Heads 207). In October 2014, an eighteen-year-old freshman at Old Dominion University was sexually assaulted. She reported her case to the ODU Police Department where she was treated as a suspect rather than a victim (Jane). The university police department denied this young woman of many things such as a medical examination right away, food, drinks and even did not allow her to use the bathroom (Jane). These factors caused her to suffer multiple injuries mentally, emotionally, and physically (Jane). Many cases of on campus sexual assault has come

Gray, Eliza. "Campus Sexual Assault: Why Don't victims Go To Police?" Time. Time, 23 June 2014. Web. 09 May 2017

She described to me a situation where UNCW failed to alert the students in a timely manner about a possible case of sexual assault on campus (B. Whitley, personal communications, April 24, 2017). After she informed me of this, I decided to research the rape and sexual assault statistics that the school is legally obligated to update each year. The statistics showed that in 2015 rape was reported seven times on campus and 3 times in residential facilities (Annual Security Report…, 2016, pg. 41).

An article run by the school's newspaper, The East Carolinian, exposed the university for inappropriately handling student's cases. One victim revealed that during a group support session, the students were asked what they had been wearing when they were assaulted. It is this kind of approach that makes victims feel as though it is their fault and makes it less likely that students will feel like they can go to the university for