The Hunting Grounds: A Film Analysis

In the film “Hunt for the Wilder People” and the prologue of ‘Kafka on Shore ‘identity can change through hardship. In ‘hunt for the Wilder people ‘. Identity can change through hardship is evident when Ricky Baker changes into clothes that blend into the bush setting whilst he was getting chased by the child welfare. Nevertheless, Ricky’s identity changes towards the end of the film as he no longer conforms to the gangster style clothing hence he blends in with the environment. Similarly, in the prologue of ‘Kafka on Shore’, Identity changing through hardship is evident when Kafka plans to escape from his father to re-establish his life. Moreover, He creates a new imaginary friend called Crow whilst he was facing hardship with his father.

Women who commit sex offenses was largely overlooked by the public, until recently (Cain & Anderson, 2016, p. 5). It is normal for one to automatically associate men with sex crimes. Yet past research as well as previous criminal cases has proven that women commit sex crimes, just as men do. However, women and men are not treated the same by society or the judicial system, nor do they have the same impacts on their victims. Although it is very rare instances when women commit sexual offenses, more research and advancements made towards the specific topic of female sex offenders. It is also clear that majority of the research on sex offenders fails to even consider the female sex offender (Carpenter, 2013, p. 162).

Last week, the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries; the culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions.

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.

The Hunting Ground (2015), explores sexual assaults on college campuses. The film shows many survivors conveying their experience with sexual assault and how their colleges or universities has handled their trauma. This film also shows the psychological toll sexual assault has on the survivor as well as their families. Additionally, the film presents how institutions cover it up and/or present a penalty that is not fit for the crime.

The film I watched was called The Hunting Ground this film started off very interesting. It showed clips of students finding out for the first time they got accepted to the university of their choice. Most of the students screamed of shock and it was obvious they were thrilled. Then a couple girls get interviewed about their experience their first months at that school, almost all of them had the perfect grades and perfect lives. However, these interviews take a twist when many girls getting interviewed start telling the story of when they got raped, there was also about three guys that were victims of this too. The weird part of it all was that more than half of them got raped by a friend or someone they knew for a while. Many of the victims didn’t know how to handle what had happened to them. If they spoke to friends they could be judged, and speaking to their parents was even worse. After a while of keeping that secret in many decided to go talk to someone in their university office. In almost all of these cases, the person in the office starts questioning them about what they could of changed to avoid it etc. instead of helping them and taking care of this horrible problem. The people in the office ultimately say they will help, but several days pass and the victims don’t hear anything about them. The universities do it on purpose, the statistics show almost all universities never expel students for such thing. They do this to make their campus look safe and to not keep

“I never realized that once I was labeled as a criminal, I had forfeited my right to be considered a victim,” says Elizabeth Reid at the end of an article she wrote describing her horrific experience as a resident at one of Washington Department of Corrections Work Release facilities (Reid 2013). Elizabeth was led to a secluded room of the facility where she was raped by one of the staff/ guards. She was forced to face the wall as he forcibly raped her. At first she did not report the rape because she feared that he would cause her to be sent back to prison. However, instead of telling someone inside the facility, she went to the local police to report the rape. To her amazement, the cops did not follow through because they were informed that she was on a form of supervised release. As a result, Elizabeth’s rapist was never charged or apprehended for her rape. Sexual misconduct between female inmates and male correctional officers (CO) has been a problem that

Sexual assault is apparently a growing concern that has emotionally and physically affected many victims in the country. While most of them report the problem, they have a difficult time opening up and complying with the therapy sessions that can help gather enough information addressing the problem. Laurel is a good example of the victim who had suffered sexual

The theory behind this approach is to improve case outcomes for victims by giving them control back by eliminating as many barriers that cause victims to not want to report or to not stay engaged with the criminal justice process. First responding police officers have a difficult role in complex sexuall assault complaints. They are required to take reports from people who report crimes, write a report, gather evidence, interview witnesses and suspects and conduct follow-up. When reports from sexual assault victims are delay, have no evidence to produce, are unsure of a location, and change their story it brings skepticism to the investigative process. This is a difficult task if police officers use the traditional method law enforcement has historically used in sexual assault investigtions. This tradional method is an investigative process that suggests the victim is not credible in terms of their vulnerability of what they wore, how much they had to drink, whether they were a prostitute, changed their story, a lack of noticeable injuries, instead of investigating what the perpetrator did to make the victim less credible and vulnerable to the

For the reason that, data has become increasingly difficult to obtain, and few of the assailants are held accountable for their actions. There is an insufficient amount of work being done in order to help with sexual assault against women

“One in five college women, and one in 33 college men, will be sexually assaulted during their time on campus, adding up to an estimated 100,000 assaults for the coming year. But only 5% of these get reported. (The Hunting Ground).” With statistics like these, it’s easy to see why sexual assault is still a prevalent issue on college campuses. In the Movie, The Hunting Ground, the issue of sexual assault on college campuses is addressed. What set this documentary apart from other documentaries that address sexual assault was that it was from the views of the victims, as opposed to just covering statistics and generally talking about the issue. Aside from sexual assault, the other main topic covered was title IX, which is a program that is required

“'Til it happens to you, you don't know” You won't know how it feels to be victimized, or what it’s like to have, what seems like, the world against you. The documentary, The Hunting Ground directed by Kirby Dick, gives a small look into the life and treatment of a rape or sexual assault victim on colleges campuses. Using anaphora, the rule of three, and imagery, The Hunting Ground makes it a little easier to understand exactly what is happening.

I am writing to you today out of concern for many students, specifically female Penn Staters. Sexual assault is something that is frequently occurs at every university, especially this one. “At Penn State’s campus alone, since the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, almost 30 sexual assaults have been reported to local and off-campus police departments” (Thomas par. 2). Penn State University has a rich history that dates all the way back to 1855, but that history has since been marred by the night life here in State College. Sexual assault is an extremely hot topic right now, especially after the new release of the featured film of 2015, “The Hunting Ground” directed by Kirby Dick. This film opened the eyes of the public to sexual assaults on college campuses and how frequent they really are. Dr. Barron, the number of sexual assaults at Penn State needs to decrease drastically and in order to do that we need to educate the students as much as possible, increase the number of on campus police officers, enhance the punishment for sexual assault crimes, and work closely with the town police as well.

Department of Education implemented policies to protect students from gender discrimination and sexual persecution. Yet, campuses continue to defend their staff when discrimination or sexual assault reports are formed. Sadly, the educational system often disregards a sexually harassed victim for lack of proof. As an example, in campuses such as Harvard, Yale, and University of Southern California the victims were asked to keep quiet or made to feel like it was their fault and not the harassers’. Due to the ignorance from institution of higher education, students began to create demonstrations and protest against sexual violence on campus. As well, documentaries such as “The Hunting Ground” were produced to display the victim’s suffering after they were attacked and dehumanized by their oppressor and by authority figures on and off

In the first critique of The Hunting Ground written by Robby Soave called “How The Hunting Ground Spreads Myths About Campus Rape,” Soave basically is trying to discredit the film and find ways to discredit the victims. Soave uses the fact that nineteen Harvard University professors have denounced the film, but of course they would because one of the main examples in the movie was a case that occurred at Harvard University. Soave also tried to say that the victims that were talked about in the two main cases in the movie had been faulty in their explanations of what happened on the night of the attacks. Soave also mentions the guy they showed in the movie who admitted to sexually assaulting someone and going to jail for six years, Soave says