Sexual Assault On College Campuses

Sexual assault is defined by the department of justice as: any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. Women aged 18-24, in college, are three times greater at risk than the average woman any age. (RAINN). The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has 246 ongoing investigations into how 195 colleges and universities handled sexual assault under Title IX. (Huffington Post). Many ask, Why on college campuses? Why have these statistics been rising? For a rapist or an assaulter, college is

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

Every 98 seconds sexual assault occurs. More than 570 people in the United States alone face sexual assault in the duration of 24 hours. A large percent of these victims are students. Rape and sexual assault is escalating rapidly throughout the country within highschool and college students meanwhile schools are not addressing these issues. Many factors contribute to the rise of sexual assault such as; illegal drinking, greek-life, lack of police related officials, and campuses are not supporting them. Although students don’t speak up about sexual assault because they are afraid of getting in trouble, these incidents are occurring more and more. Schools need to address the issue of sexual assault on campuses because it is the victims and their

Many teens enter college expecting a different atmosphere from what they had in high school, but in reality they may have more to worry about than they originally thought. Although the number of cases of sexual assault on college campuses has decreased since 1993 it is still a relevant topic. 5% of women, every year, on college campuses experience rape or attempted rape as reported by One in Four, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of rape. 11% of women who experience rape actually report it to the police; most sworn campus law enforcement officials

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.

As students graduate from high school they begin the journey of getting ready for the University they want to go to and get excited for the best time of their lives. As anybody on campus the last thing they want to be worrying about is whether they will be sexually assaulted or not. It is becoming clear that University's around the United States needs to broadcast what sexual assault is and why it isn't okay. In most cases, many campuses do not have an effective way to stop sexual assaults. Nobody wants to be a victim in a sexual assault case. Assuming nobody wants to be the attacker in a sexual assault case results to sexual assaults on campus must stop. University's must take the proper precautions to help stop campus assault. In the article, "Male students are victims of sexual assault, too" the author writes:

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.

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 campuses undergo serious health problems yearly, and sexual assault is a big one. In the U.S there is an estimated 20% to 25% of undergraduate females who go through some form of rape. There is a study that has shown that at the University of New Hampshire that 8.2% of college males also report sexual assault within the last 6 months (Exner 1). Sexual assault has been shown to occur most commonly between acquaintances, friends, spouses, and family members. Sexual assaults are often from someone who is intimately connected to the victim. Date rape is used to show that rape occurs between individuals who are dating. Women often lie about sexual assault. Men usually say that the women’s choices of clothing, manners of walking, and spaces of occupancy are reasons for their assault. The fact that men say that shows how sexist our country is. Just because a woman walks, talks, or dresses a certain way does not mean that they want to get raped or sexually assaulted. There are also many males who say that they experience females who sexually assault them. Females can and do rape males. Nevertheless, the vast majority of rapes are male perpetrated. This difficulty proceed from the extremely low numbers of sexually violent acts that are reported to police. Many victims do not report crimes of sexual assault because of embarrassment, self-blame, and fear. On university and college campuses, victims of sexual assault are less likely to report their experience if they were under the influence of alcohol during the assault, they have limited understanding of the university's policies and procedures surrounding sexual assault, and they have limited knowledge of other sexual assaults on their campus. A lot of the victims of sexual assault suffer greatly from PTSD after they’ve been attacked. Most of

Being a freshman at a college, it is normal to feel nervous about being in a new environment. It becomes abnormal when you fear for your life during the first few weeks as a freshman. The most vulnerable age group for sexual assault is college students. For incoming freshman, the first six weeks of college are considered the “red-zone” for rape. This is because freshman often aren’t accustomed to their surroundings or do not know how to look out for themselves. According to the Princeton Sexual Experience Study, more than 16 percent, 1 out of 4, women are raped or sexually assaulted during their college career. So many young students are

Forty- two percent of college women that are sexually assaulted do not report it. In sexual assault young women tend to be the most targeted victims. Sexual assault on college campuses is a problem that has been ongoing for years, due to the mixture of underage drinking and the sexual desires of adolescents. Others are starting to take notice and have created a process called The “saVE act” to help minimize and potentially eliminate sexual assault. It is also said that most college women are assaulted by somebody that they already know.

An average person may say that sexual assault on college campuses are hidden because of peer pressure and how their peers might judge them. Many victims believe that speaking out will jeopardize their reputation and friendships. Victims of sexual assault on college campuses say there is no need to report the incident to campus police, because they feel as if the police will make it seem that the reason they were sexually assaulted was their fault. Just because a person doesn’t give you an answer or says “No”, doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want to them. If they don’t give you permission or approve, then it’s consider sexual assault. Sexual assault

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”

College for many is the best four years of their live, but for others it’s hard four years trying to balance a social life, working, and getting good grades. However, women have even one more thing to add to their list of things to worry about. Resisting Gender Violence states “Among college women it is reported that women at a university with 10,000 female students could experience about 350 rapes a year” (550). The likelihood of sexual assault or rape on a college campus is tremendously high due to social organizations, alcohol, and the presence of ‘rape culture’. Sexual violence is the most prevalent crime committed on a college campus, for every two sexual assaults there is just one robbery. Therefore, college women are twice as more likely to get raped than robbed. This leaves the elephant sized question, what is it about college that fosters ‘rape culture’?

Further support is supplied by Fisher et al. (2000) who reviewed the 1997 National Institute of Justice study on rape and reported that between one-fifth and one-quarter of women within college campus report rape cases within each year. It was further stated that, “Women within college campuses, and the social values and believed associated to campus rape are at greater risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women in the general population or in a comparable age group” (Fisher et. Al pg. 3). Based on other findings in a study conducted by Martin et al. (2009) 20–25% of female undergraduates experience rape in their college life. However, though rape among male students occurs at a lower rate, the students also report rape cases.