The Social Context Of Academia

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 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.

Current data and statistics involving sexual assaults on college campuses are very sad and depressing. According to Monique DiCarlo, who used data from the Department of Justice, 1 in 5 women are likely to be sexually assaulted during their time on campus (M. DiCarlo, personal presentation, October 17). However, many of these assaults go unreported to authorities or the universities. Some of the reasons victims do not report are because victims do not believe the school will do anything or help, do not believe it to be important enough to report and fear of reprisal (M. DiCarlo, personal presentation, October 17). With major advancements in policy including Title IX, the Cleary Act, and defining what is consent, one could assume sexual assaults on campuses should be declining. However, sexual assaults are not declining and many departments such as athletics and international student offices have to deal with the problem. In this paper, I will discuss the current climate of sexual assault on campus, provide a brief overview of rights and protections of Title IX, discuss how the office of international student services could be impacted and how Title IX coordinators are handling the problem and what still needs to be done to help protect all students.

Recently while reading Rolling Stone and looking for an article for this paper, and came across an article called “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” In summary, a freshman at the University of Virginia was at a frat party and her date was a member of that certain frat. She chose against drinking which is uncommon in most rape cases that occur on campuses. He later asks her to join him upstairs, and being an innocent naïve girl she decided to follow him. As soon as she entered the dark room and he did not turn on the lights she knew that something was wrong. Soon after she heard many different voices in the room and after seven different frat boys did horrid things to her she understood that this was something that some of these boys were doing this as an initiation into that frat. Of course, her friends who were so-called ‘loyal’ to their college urged her to keep quiet for fear that “she may never be allowed in a frat again” or “put a bad light on the university.” Furthermore, the UVA is under a federal investigation to try to determine if there have been other cases of rape that may have been ‘swept under the rug.’ In this essay I want to investigate the psychology of rape and the rapist, why it happens largely in college campuses and specifically fraternities, and also to understand the “rape culture.”

Sexual assault on college campuses has always been a problem (Dick, Ziering, & Mattheissen, 2016). It has been repeatedly established in dozens of national and single school studies that one in five or more women are sexually assaulted while in college and, as stated previously, 5 percent of men who attend college also experience sexual assault (Cleere & Lynn, 2013; Dick, Ziering, & Mattheissen, 2016). But recently, the issue of sexual assault has been brought to the attention of national media (Maurer, 2016). This increasing attention may have led President Obama, in 2014, to sign a memorandum creating a task force to help address sexual violence on college campuses, “The charge of the task force is to identify recommendations for best practices

Sexual assault on college campuses has become a hot topic in today’s society. From the Stanford swimmer, Brock Turner, raping an unconscious woman (Miller, 2016, para.1) to the Florida State star football player, Jameis Winston, being accused of rape and FSU covering it up (Dick, 2016, para 1), sexual assault on campus is everywhere. The prevalence of reported assaults is often skewed, due to women feeling uncomfortable about discussing what they went through, but the numbers tell the story all on their own. Many of these occurrences happen because of frats, and the alcohol they serve. Groups have started to advocate for the ending of sexual assault on campus by creating apps. The government was involved in creating the Title IX law only recently. Sexual assault on college campuses has become a major issue in the United States, so that it has become increasingly prevalent to the public eye, the causes of these attacks are coming to light such as fraternities and alcohol, how the government is battling it, what colleges and universities are doing about it, and how prevention apps have become the new trend.

Sexual assault is something that is increasingly common on college campus’, 1 in 4 women are assaulted at some point during their university career. Some might say “are you serious? That’s some feminist propaganda!” But this is the truth, and is the reality of universities across the US and beyond. When you see a promotional video about Harvard University, they don’t show you the statistics of sexual assault/misconduct. They show you an idealized view of university, they want to show you how you can achieve the American dream! Harvard, as the top dog of ivy league universities, has one of the highest numbers of sexual assault and misconduct. They are top in education, and in crime.

This essay explores the ongoing issue of sexual assault and sexual violence on college campuses across the United States. Education on the topic of sexuality and sexual assault throughout secondary and post secondary education is vital to the awareness of, and battle against sexual assault. Issues in sex-education, included lack of depth into healthy sexuality, and abstinence only sex education. Women are not reporting their cases to the authorities or universities because of issues with privacy, shame and guilt. Universities are not providing reliable support to victims, which creates wide spread apprehension to report cases of sexual assault. Pop culture and media promote a skewed image of sexualized women, creating a cultural expectation for women to please and be subservient, promoting sexual violence against women across the country.

College students are often believed to be a subpopulation at elevated risk for sexual assault, and although sexual assault is experienced by both male and female students, women experience significantly higher rates of sexual assault compared to men. (Krebs, Lindquist., Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2007) Research also suggests that women in college are at a greater risk to be victims of sexual assault in comparison to women of comparable age in the general population. (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000) Due to the higher rates of victimization, most research focuses on the sexual assault experienced by women on college campuses, however, there is some data concerning the sexual assault of men. Although this paper focuses on the

The issue of sexual assaults on college campus leads to the creation of programs and new policies within institutions, but It also encourages innovators to create new approaches to prevent or alleviate the issue. A program that aimed to train first-year female college students to “avoid rape substantially lowered their risk of being sexually assaulted” (Hoffman). Other programs like Bringing in the Bystander try to approach the issue by increasing bystander awareness of the problem expecting a safer environment (National Institute of Justice). For Instance, “in one study, rates of sexual harassment and stalking victimization and perpetration were lower at a college with a bystander-training program than at two colleges without such a program”

Unfortunately today rape is a relevant topic when talking about a college campus. It has become more prominent in the news every day and although it may seem as though actions are being taken to prevent such a tragedy many colleges almost seem to cover up or mask the fact that such a thing is happening. Jessica Valenti the author of The Guardian: The Web Edition Articles is a female feminist who wrote on the topic of college campus rape and how the victims are not being helped as well as the fact that the rapists are not being punished by the college to the full extent. Rape is a touchy subject for most especially for men, because in this situation the women more often times than not is the victim and therefore has full control, and as Valenti

Recent survey by Fisher, Cullen, and Turner (2000) revealed that for every 1,000 women attending institutions of higher education, there might be 35 incidents of rape in a given academic year. For a campus with a population of 10,000 women, the number of rapes could exceed 350. Each of these six articles referenced either, The Sexual Victimization of College Women by Fisher, Cullen, and Turner or Fraternities and Rape on Campus by Martin and Hummer. All of these articles relate to current project of sexual assault on university campuses in the United States. Three of the articles relied on questionnaires or surveys and the other three relied on interviews. Each article gave information related to the three variables in current project: Greek

Rape culture seen through administration response on college campuses has been gaining negative feedback for not doing what they need to do. College administrators are not exposed to the rapid increase of rape culture, and the influence of rape “myths” on response by administration is far more harmful than on the individual level. According to Burnett et.al. (2009), “Since administration is clearly the dominant group on college campuses, it has the power to validate date rape experiences by preventative education and post-rape support, but co-researchers did not feel such validation existed.” Many other researchers have come to the same conclusion as Burnett and colleagues, that college administrators and disciplinarians are not responding

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

College-age adults are known to be high risk for sexual violence and most studies show that one in three women have experiences some type of sexual assault whether it was through physical force or harassment. These statics are known by most women on college campuses to ensure that women know and understand that this could happen to them. The issue is more than ensuring that women are aware of how protect themselves and know how to avoid these situations because it shouldn’t even be happening. When women are taught that they should know how to defend themselves we are saying that this type of behavior is normal and inevitable. We should shift from this dynamic and start teaching both men and women that this behavior is completely unacceptable and that sexually assaulting or harassing someone is NOT normal. This paper will mostly focus on incidents of rape and sexual assault on college campuses and what the outcome and reactions of these incidents were.