The Effects Of Sexual Assault On College Students

When it comes to choosing a college, there are many factors in this major life decision: price, location, type of education, and finally, safety. Young women in college campuses across the country, although no campus is immune from these heinous acts, safety is still a main concern. “If you knew your son had a 20% chance of being held up at gunpoint, you’d think twice before dropping your kid off,” says Vice President Joe Biden. “Well, my God, you drop a daughter off, it’s 1 in 5 she could be raped or physically abused? It is just outrageous.” (TIME magazine). Twenty percent of young woman will be sexually assaulted during their college career. Why is sexual assault prevalent on college campuses now more than ever?

This study focuses on high risk and low risk environments and relationship interactions to gain a perspective on rape culture. According to, “ FRATERNITIES AND COLLEGIATE RAPE Culture: Why Are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?” by Boswell and Spade (1996) indicate that the relationship that is developed between men and women influence the way in which people are treated. Women and men often seek relationships differently then each other. The environments in which people interact impact the quality of relationship building. Along with values of the culture people are living in also influence the type of interactions seen as worthy or unworthy. The researchers in this study observes and interview people in a college setting based apon lifestyle choices such as living arrangements, the campus’ social setting, social environments, participation, interactions, values, awareness, relationship characteristics, respect, aggression, and interpersonal

Common phrases college students toss around during their time spent on campus are “freshman 15”, “syllabus week”, or “rape culture”. Culture is understood to be something that people engage in together as a society. Rape culture is when people of a society excuse or tolerate sexual violence. It is when sexual assault, rape, and harassment are ignored, belittled, normalized, or made into jokes. Rape Culture is when pop music tells women “you know you want it” because of these “blurred lines” (Thicke), when society supports athletes who are charged with rape and then calling their victims career-destroyers, when companies create advertisements using women in order to promote business, when people believe that girls allow themselves to be raped,

Arditi, Lynn. "R.I. Schools Report 18% Increase In Sex Assaults." LexisNexis Academic [LexisNexis]. Providence Journal, 8 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.ytgfd

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.

College is a place for trying out, experiencing and learning new things and being sexually assaulted should not be one of them. Sexual assault in college campuses over the past decade has increased by over 50% as stated by Laura Stampler in her article “Report Sees Surge in Sex Crimes on College Campuses”: “The number of sex crimes reported on U.S. college campuses soared by 50% over the course of a decade, according to a new government report Tuesday, even as total campus crime decreased” (Laura Stampler). A national survey made by and released in April of 2014 by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault states that at least one in five college students, including men and women, experience some form of sexual assault during their time in college. In another article published on bestcolleges.com, the author states that over 95% of college campus rapes go unreported, which implies that there might be more than one in five students that gets sexually assaulted by the end of their college career. Not only that but the article on bestcolleges.com also states that women are most likely to be sexually

When young adults graduate high school and get ready to begin their first year of college, it is already nerve-racking to adapt to a new place and new people that a sexual assault is the last thing that one would think could happen to them. In an article, “Examining Sexual Assault on College Campuses,” by Kelsey Wank she reports

Sexual assaults happen on many campuses. Winston Salem State University has had the most reported sexual assaults out of the three universities researched. Winston keeps an up to date log of all crimes that happen on campus and with students on their website.  Everyone is able to access the crime logs throughout every year and month. The crime logs just tell of the crimes committed and where they took place but not what happened next. The website does not give information on the next part after the crime and what happens to the victims. Which is why attempts were made to receive health and disciplinary statistics by emailing Ivee U. Greer, Administrative Support for the Office of the Dean of Students, and Jeanette L. Bourne, Affiliate for the

Since the 1970’s this has been a growing problem in many colleges. In the article written by Kingston it states “Universities are often petri dishes for both ‘rape culture’ and sexual assault…They’re a microcosm of the way society teaches people how to party and treat women”. There’s been a large number of incidents at colleges where they seem to encourage rape. The University of Vermont fraternity took a poll with their members and asked “If you could rape someone who would it be”. Another incident was at Wesleyan University a student filed a lawsuit against the school because, she was allegedly assaulted at a frat house known as the “Rape Factory”. Police officials tend to see college rapes as the girls sending mixed signals or simply dates gone wrong. That shows the lack of respect that they have for the victims and sympathy they have for the perpetrators. Student offenders are often serial rapists that raped on average 6 women by the time they hit their early 20’s according to Kingston’s article. The predators on college campuses are usually saved because the women are under the influence it makes the police and college officials trust the girls less and they unwillingly let a monster back on their

"Campus Violence is defined as any action or behavior that may threaten the safety of a member of the campus community, impact his or her physical and/or psychological well-being, or cause damage to campus property" (http://www.sacredheart.edu/officesservices/publicsafety/silentwitnessprogram/flashpointoncampuspowerpointtrainingslides). Many individuals think that violence on college and university campuses is rare and view their campus to be a home away from home. However, "Nationwide, 17 percent of college students indicated they had experienced some form of violence or harassment in the previous year" (http://counseling.uoregon.edu/dnn/ParentsFamilies/PreventingViolenceonCollegeCampuses/tabid/164/Default.aspx). The various types of violence that occur on campus include harassment, stalking, vandalism, physical assault, sexual assault, and other forms of interpersonal violence and suicide. Sexual assault occurs more frequently on college campuses and is estimated that a third of women experience an unwanted sexual experience. The majority of the time, sexual assault on college campuses are committed by someone known to the victim. (http://counseling.uoregon.edu/dnn/ParentsFamilies/PreventingViolenceonCollegeCampuses/tabid/164/Default.aspx)

Many young college students, girls especially, are targeted by other students or even faculty. Jamie Stiehm, a columnist for newspapers such as the huffington post, and websites like the New York Times online, believes that, “For now, college-age women remain as vulnerable in an atmosphere more highly charged with rape in the cultural conversation as ever before.” This holds true in many schools and situations around the country because of society’s view towards sexual assault and rape. People make it seem like less of a problem than it really is. In many colleges around the nation, undergraduates and younger students in general are not fully equipped with the knowledge or resources available to them for rape prevention. In that type of environment, one that makes new students unprepared, makes their shyness, their fear of the attacker, and their silence a weapon for the attacker to use (Stiehm). Armed with these types of weapons, it makes the “rape culture” very real for students, especially young women who have been intoxicated or overpowered. These factors create a plethora of dangerous situations students could find themselves

Sexual assault has always been a concern for young women and young adults all over. Women now account for the majority in the student body at colleges. Women should only worry about their education rather than a potential sexual assault. With an influx of women in college the faculty and staff have been under prepared to respond to sexual assault. Over the years the amount of sexual assault reported and unreported on American campuses has risen. The response of colleges towards sexual assault has not been effective in investigating or punishing the perpetrator.

Since I have come to King’s College, I have seen many presentations or speeches about sexual assault on campus. These events are set up to help prevent sexual assault to female college students. I haven’t heard much about sexual assault actually occurring here, I thought maybe because the school does a good job of preventing this from occurring. On Thursday, September 24 I went to the Burke Auditorium to view the screening of The Hunting Ground. The movie made by CNN was a documentary about sexual assaults at college, and some of the facts that they informed us were actually very frightening not just to the women, but for everyone who was at the event.

On January 22, 2014, President Barack Obama signed the Presidential Memorandum, forming the ‘White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.’ This task force was established to help decrease sexual assaults in college campuses and create awareness of this little talked about topic. Many college students don’t believe sexual assault is an issue until it happens to them or someone they’re close with. Sexual assault affects the victims by making them feel helpless and causing serious negative effects on their emotional health. Many of these incidents don’t get reported due to students feeling unsafe or feeling like it isn’t that big of a deal. Even those that are reported, sometimes aren’t taken seriously by the school’s administrators. College should be a fun learning experience, where safety shouldn’t be a concern.

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