Sexual harassment in college campuses across the country is something that has become progressively more and more concerning. As a result, students have become increasingly susceptible to the dangers that come along with campus delinquency. Furthermore, in this article the author seeks to explore just that, the life of a college student and how their routine activities make them more or less vulnerable to being sexually harassed. In this analysis, I intend to outline the theories of General Crime theory and Routine Activities Theory in accordance to sexual harassment and how they apply to victimization on a college campus. Moreover, I will chronicle the interviewing process and recount how many of the students who claim to have been victimized actually followed through with reporting these delinquent acts to campus authorities.
This article focuses on testing the following two theories, The Theory of Routine Activities and The Theory of General Theory of Crime. According to Cohen and Felson (1979), The Theory of Routines contends that, “… the convergence in time and space of a motivated offender, suitable target, and lack of capable guardian-ship is conducive to criminal offending” (p. 460). The premise of this theory in other words, states that an individual is more at risk of being the subject of opportunity when they are in a situation where there is less guardianship and thus making them substantially more vulnerable to being the victim of an attack. Accordingly, The Theory of General Theory of Crime argues that, “…individuals with low self-control (LSC) will be at an increased risk for involvement in criminal and analogous behavior” (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 2003, p. 461) This theory maintains that individuals with low self c...
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...online survey questionnaire. The study sample included significantly more seniors and juniors, as well as more females than males, and more whites (Clodfelter, Turner, Hartman, Kuhns, 2010, p. 464).
The author is looking to test the factors that make students more at risk of being victimized. Accordingly, the author followed up with the students who claimed that they had been harassed in some way while on campus. Routine Activities Theory was a theory put to the test in this article. This means that students’ normal routines were tested to investigate how likely they were of being victimized in comparison to those students who do not follow the same routine patterns. Some of the factors they tested were: frequenting a particular location where alcohol was being served, living alone, being involved in dating relationships and being involved in prior victimization.
Rape is currently on the rise on American college campuses and it is the most common committed crime among college students today. In their time in college 1 out of every 5 women and 1 out of every 71 men will experience some form of sexual harassment as reported by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. These numbers are growing each year and have raised a lot of concern in the administrative level of higher education institutions. In an effort to try and prevent these occurrences universities have begun to implement mandatory curriculum to educate students on the subject and have even begun to hold campus wide events and create clubs to spread awareness and show support because of the repetitive nature of this crime. While it is good
This paper looks at the different theories of criminal behavior that explain why people commit crimes. It goes deeper to analyze the specific theories in a bid to determine why a person may commit a certain crime and another person under the same circumstances may not. The paper focuses on key factors that motivate unruly behavior among people and why such factors are present in some people and not in others. In doing so, the paper leans more on children in order to determine how delinquency behavior is progressively imparted on them as they undergo developmental trajectory.
When it comes to sexual assault on college campuses there is also the question of what can colleges do to decrease the amount of sexual assaults. Bradford Richardson and Jon A Shields wondered the same thing, so they conducted an ...
“I felt his hands start to move down towards my shorts as if he was trying to unbutton them or pull them off. I was still crying at this point and felt so scared that I couldn’t move” (Henneberger, 2012). These are words written by a college freshman after she had been raped, but they are true for many others as well. According to the Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit Counties, “every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted” (Get the Facts). “Girls ages 16-19 are four times more likely than the than the general population to be victims of sexual assault” (Get the Facts). These women may be described as slut, cheap, or ready for action, rather than victim, sufferer, or survivor. Rape myths encourage these demeaning terms for women and conceal the reality of rape culture. I will describe the pervasiveness of sexual assault on college campuses as well as the systems and procedures in place to address it. Power plays a role in this issue, including the powerful men on campus such as athletes and fraternity members as well as the administrators in power who regulate the punishments and actions that are taken against the perpetrators. The influence of those in power often goes overlooked in our society because it has become so intertwined with our culture.
With one in five college students experiencing sexual assault during their college career who wouldn’t be afraid? This remains especially true for young women between the ages of 18-24 (“The Realities of Sexual Assault”). While a woman’s freshman and sophomore year of college are when she is at a most risk for assault, it can happen at any time. According to Robin Gray in the article on sexual assault statistics, “between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career,” (Gray). At Northwest Missouri State University for the 2016-2017 academic year there are 5,618 undergraduate students enrolled. With the ratio of male to female students being 44% to 56%, there are about 3,147 female students. In terms of the statistics estimated by Gray, 630-787 of the female student population at Northwest Missouri State will experience rape during their college career (“Northwest Missouri State University”). This is a disturbingly large figure. Women are not the only ones susceptible to these acts, but men are too. It is said about “10%” of all sexual assault cases involve male victims (“The Realities of Sexual Assault”). While this number is slightly lower for men it is often believed that male victims of sexual assault do not often report their crime due to the social stigma surrounding their assault. Men may feel
Rape is the most common violent crime on American college campuses. A numerous amount of issues dealing with sexual assaults has been caused by unsafe environments on college campuses. Over the past years there has been a
To date, “between 10 to 40 percent of female students [. . .] have been raped while [. . .] up to 60 percent of males students [have] commit[ed] actions that meet the legal definition of sexual assault” (Bretz 19). This percentage demonstrates the ineffectiveness of university policies and signifies a drastic change to procedures is in order if educational institutions want to see improvement. In order to see an effective change, policies must “explicitly define key terms such as “‘consent’, ‘force’ [,]‘incapacity’ and cover [a] range of sexually violent behavior” (Gunraj 9). Furthermore, since the age of fourteen 58.7% of females “ha[ve] experienced one or more forms of victimization[. . .] 35.0% ha[ve] experienced at least one completed or attempted rape and 23.5% ha[ve] been raped” (Senn et. al. Results). First-year female students are not prepared for the perpetrators they will face on campus, and as a result, are more vulnerable to sexual violence. Universities need to develop effective policies and procedures to not only prepare women for the challenges they may face but to reduce the overall number of sexual assaults and make school a safer environment for
In "Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture" Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade analyze the social perspective of the gendered relations in male fraternities that add to the high rate of violence against women on many college campuses. They list a host of factors that distinguish higher-risk from lower-risk atmospheres discussing the rates of rape in colleges and state how "1 out of 4 college women say they were raped or experienced an attempted rape" (217). Additionally, "1 out of 12 college men say they forced a woman to have sexual intercourse against her will" (Boswell, Spade 217). In other words Boswell and Spade indicated that the rates were high when it came down to women getting raped in colleges by men who also attended those colleges. In addition, Boswell and Spade specify in how most people are aware of rape but know very little about rape culture (Boswell, Spade 217).
The faces flash by on the computer screen. The women on the screen are differents shapes, sizes, ages, and colors. However, there is one thing that all the women have in common: they have all been sexually assaulted on a college campus. More than one in five women were sexually assaulted on college campuses (Mott, Par. 1). It has been proven that programs in schools can help prevent these statistics from growing. However, more needs to be done to prevent sexual assault on educational facilities because the current programs are not fulfilling their purpose.
In this research paper, we will evaluate how sexual assault is handled on a college campus. What system is used and how does it
It’s easy for sexual harassment and relationship violence to be dismissed as only “adult” issues. On the contrary, these problems have proven to be pervasive in both junior and senior high schools. Although statistics show that “nearly half of students are sexually harassed in school” (Koebler, 2011), sexual harassment and dating violence are not being appropriately addressed in schools and are in essence, being shoved under the table. These are not fleeting issues, because sexual harassment and domestic violence can be particularly harmful to victims and have long-lasting, detrimental effects. One senior girl at Hoover High School said she has experienced sexual harassment and dating violence first hand,
Gottfredson & Hirschi (1990) suggest that low self-control theory is a better predictor of individual-level crime by a police officer rather than by an employee who carries out a complex crime. Impulsive, low self-control offers “immediate gratification, requires little training or skill, is spontaneous and exciting, and it often provides an outlet for frustration.” (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990, p. 208) On the other hand, low self-control is a harder predicator for employees who are engaged in white collar crimes because of the assumed complexity and planning needed to perpetrate the
"Sexual Assault and College Campuses - Statistics." Statistics about Sexual Assault. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
According to a statement addressing the sexual victimization of college women The Crime and Victimization in America states that, “ One out of four women will be sexually assaulted on a college campus.” This disturbing fact has not minimized throughout the years, instead it is continuing to worsen throughout college campuses. Sexual assault is not an act to be taken lightly. Society must stop pinpointing the individuals who commit these crimes one by one, but rather look at the problem as a whole and begin to understand the main cause of sexual assault and possible methods to reduce these acts of sexual coercion.
This was after they found that criminal acts were mainly influenced by the presence or lack of self-control among the people. They described that self-control was mainly influenced by the type of parenting one received. If one was brought up well, they tend to have more self-control and as a result re less likely to be involved in criminal works. They found that self-control is the main determinant of how prone one is to temptations to commit crime. If the self-control is high, they are able to avoid it.