Essay On Campus Rape

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?

On November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone Magazine published an article that attracted over 2.7 million views, “more than any other feature not about a celebrity that the magazine had ever published.” The article, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” catapulted the issue of rape culture on college campuses into a national discussion. Encouraging this discussion and urging universities across the country to increase their efforts to combat this was the goal of Sabrina Rubin Erdely when she set out to find a story that encompassed just that. However, the article was ultimately retracted and removed from the website by Rolling Stone due to fabrications and ethical issues in the story.

‘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.

Rolling Stone is a magazine that was first known for its coverage of music and politics now mainly focuses on pop culture and entertainment. In the November 2014 issue, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” story was published about an alleged rape on the University of Virginia campus. Rolling Stone released information about the alleged rape of a freshman and how the school mishandled the situation. The Rolling Stone wrote and published a story that was only told from the student’s point of view; the magazine never interviewed anyone else related to the case. “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” story caused much controversy and many ethical issues came from the release of the

Despite federal laws issued to combat sexual violence, each year 4,000 college women report to school officials that they've been sexually assaulted. What happens after they file those reports has stirred debate on campuses across the country, leaving parents and students fearful that colleges may not be the ivory towers of security and integrity that appear on their recruitment pamphlets.

Sexual assault and rape among college campuses has been an ongoing issue across the nation for decades. In the state of Utah, this complex issue will not have a simple solution, but measures can be taken to prevent sexual assault and rape occurring on campuses. Utah Valley University is a campus that is taking considerably impressive measures to combat sexual assault, which will be a basis of this paper. Through university sex education, stricter laws and enforcement, and providing on-campus services to students, cases of sexual assault and rape in the higher level education setting will decrease, and students will be more likely to report these crimes.

Many individuals might wonder, what is rape culture? “Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.” Most women limit their behavior because of the existence of rape. (Marshall University)

A lawsuit was filed this year in January against Northern Kentucky University in which a female student is suing the university for mishandling her sexual assault that occurred on campus in 2013. The female, who identifies as Jane Doe in the lawsuit in order to hide her identity, claims that NKU did not do enough to make her feel safe on campus because she feels the university neglected her and did not do anything to stop her attacker from having everyday contact with her. The university feels as if they did as much as they possibly could to help the female student and that they are not at fault for what has happened (Pilcher par. 4-7). Although there has not been a ruling on the case yet, NKU is at fault for the events that have transpired and should be ashamed of what they have allowed to occur.

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.

Sexual assault and rape are serious social and public health issues in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. In particular sexual assault on college campus are prevalent at an alarming rate and leaves serious effects on the victims. This essay will focus on statistics and the prevalence and effects amongst college students, through examining a number of reasons why women fail to report sexual assault and rape. This essay will also cover sexual assault prevention and things that can be done to mitigate the risk of becoming a victim to such matter.

You're walking around campus, all of a sudden you’re pushed to the ground, you're then raped for the first time. You get back up and walk a few more feet, petrified, dazed, and confused, then your face hits a cold metal fence and your pants end up around your ankles and you get raped one more time. That horrendous story was how a night in January went for a Baylor University Freshman. She was on her way back to a party when a Baylor Football player decided to have his way with her and rape her not once, but twice. She was taken to the local hospital where she identified her attacker as Tevin Elliot, a Baylor Football player. He was released from the team and expelled from the University. The victim went to the health center and the security

The topic of sexual assault has always been a tough subject to discuss because it is a heinous crime that can and has happened to men, women, young and old. It is a topic that is disturbing and heart wrenching, especially when involving children. In the past few years, our media outlets have captured the images and stories on sexual assault, focusing mainly on College Institutions and how sexual assault cases have been handled within those institutions. Sexual assault is a very important topic to discuss, since this can happen to anyone you know, man or woman, adult or child, or yourself. This paper will touch on the different types of sexual assault, stigma of sexual assault, treatment of sexual assault, and understanding the perpetrator. There will be a brief discussion of the current social issue of college campus sexual assault. Sexual assault is such a wide topic with many areas to discuss, but this paper will outline the basic understanding of sexual assault and what can be done to overcome this stigma of sexual assault and how we can help the victims/survivors.

Rape culture. This is a term that was coined in the 1970’s feminism movement that has been rehashed with 4th wave feminism amongst millennials in the 2000’s. Though the term seems to irritate many that attempt to refute that the systematic tolerance of rape in America is a non-issue that would disappear if “women just stopped getting so drunk” (Judge Mary Jane Mowat, 2009) it is in fact a perpetuated problem that plagues todays society. By definition, rape culture is the embodiment that of the “complex set of beliefs that sexual aggression" and can be further defined as being found "is in a society that embodies rape culture that women receive a continuum of overly sexualized remarks (cat-calling), to the act of rape itself, and condones that these physical and emotional acts against women are an inevitable fact of life”. Sound familiar? Welcome to our great nation. Though this perpetuation of sexual violence is a normalcy is harmful to women and even men, across the entire nation, its main impact targets the women and children of low socioeconomic areas, female students on university campuses, and of course, the women who choose to seek justice against our everyday superheroes- the famous, and the athletes.

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.

Rape culture is an environment in which social attitudes have the effect of normalizing sexual violence against women and excusing it in the media and other popular cultures. Rape culture attempts to rationalize a continuum of sexual violence that range from sexist remarks to unwanted sexual touching, and rape itself. Rape culture has become so desensitized by society that perpetrators may not be aware of their wrongdoings and victims may not realize they are being victimized. It is a culture in which victims are suppressed when they decide to speak up about their traumatic attack, because they are seen as being dramatic or untruthful while the perpetrator's actions are left unpunished. While the majority of victims are women, rape culture is not solemnly an issue of female oppression, it is a general disconnect between human beings. It is a culture that many of us refuse to accept exist, however there are numerous examples that normalize rape and sexual assault on a daily basis. Rape culture is not a new topic. The term was first used back in the 1970’s by a group of feminist to raise the awareness of the normalization of sexual violence in society. In recent years the topic has become a popular, controversial issue and has come to permeate virtually every aspect of our lives through media, song lyrics, and everyday jargon.