As I have spent my first couple weeks at college I have realized how vulnerable one can be. As an undergraduate girl my safety is at more risk than anyone else on campus. I decided to research how safe UIUC campus is against sexual assault. When sexual assault occurs, the victim is not the only one that is hurt. The families and friends of victims and the community in which the assault occurs is impacted by any attack. The safety of somebody’s sister, daughter, or son is at risk anytime another assault arises. This essay is a work to analyze the safety of all college campuses including UIUC and what actions institutions are enforcing to keep their students safe. The Daily Illini’s article “Students Knew Their Attacker in University Sexual …show more content…
They emphasize how this case on our campus is the standard kind of assault situation. This case occurred within the first two months of classes beginning and both victims knew their attacker. This article cites not only that over half of college assaults occur in the first four months of the school year. Their interview with the Director of the Women’s Resource Center also included data that has been collected by the National Institute of Justice on sexual assaults that shows, “between 85 and 90 percent of female survivors of sexual assault knew the person that assaulted them.” Collectively, the authors are responding to the conversation and research on sexual assaults across college campuses while providing their readers with information about how these statistics are prominent in our own community. They are agreeing with and providing evidence for this research, while raising awareness about how close to home this threat is for students. One strong characteristic of this article is the amount of other statistics reported about sexual assault for both men and women. Compared to other articles, by including an interview with the head of an on-campus resource and a direct case from this year, this article is the closest I have come to direct information about UIUC campus specifically. Therefore, this article is vital to understanding how my topic relates directly to our …show more content…
The research done by Backes, Fedina, and Holmes concluded that, “Findings among studies measuring unwanted sexual contact…ranged from 1.8% to 34% of college women,” “studies measuring incapacitated rape…ranged from 1.8% to 14.2%,” and “studies measuring sexual coercion…ranged from 1.7% to 32% of women” (11). Research such as this proves that although results from school to school may be varied, there is still a predominant issue of sexual assault that affects about a quarter of the women population on campus. These findings contribute to the claims of the previous article, by providing more data on the frequency of assaults. A good portion of this article agrees with the conversation of campus safety being a problem, however part of this article adds more to the conversation by pointing out the fact that most research done on this topic is mainly sampling white, heterosexual, women in four-year universities. Since there is not much data on minority and nontraditional colleges, the rates of assault could essentially be even higher than what has been calculated so
The trial of 19 year old Owen Laurie has brought into light the alarming rate in which Sexual assault is rising. The issue that rages on in Colleges is said to be making its way to high schools and primary school. In a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Division of Violence Prevention, 19% of Undergraduate women experienced
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
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.
Sexual assault is defined 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 In the United States 80% of sexual assault victims are under the age of 30. Of that 80%, 44% are under the age of 18 (RAINN, 2016). That leaves 36% of victims between the ages of 18 and 30. These percentages become even more alarming when that 80% is of about 293,000 victims of secual assualt each year (RAINN, 2016). It is estimated that 1 in every 6 women in the US has been or will be victims of sexual assault in their lifetime. The risks of sexual assault increase on college campuses. Women ages 18-24 who are enrolled in college are 3 times more likely than women in general to suffer from sexual violence (RAINN, 2016). One would think that with all these women being sexually assaulted, one would hear more about it, or perhaps the police stations would constantly be busy. This is not the case. Sexual assault is one of the most unreported crimes, with 68% still being left unreported (RAINN, 2016). This could be because of every 100 rapists, only 2 will spend a day in jail. Of the 32 out of 100 that would be reported, only 7 are referred to an arrest (RAINN, 2016). Why would men or women want to report sexual assault when the system that is supposed to protect them fails so often, and why does this system continue to fail?
“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.
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
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
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
Sexual assault is a social issue that has been a pressing topic of conversation throughout communities in the United States. The rapid interest in sexual assault comes after a string of released content about the prominence and severity of sexual assault against women. The media has chosen increase public awareness on the fact that “one in 5 women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college” (). Media content on the topic includes the highly-rated documentary “The Hunting Ground” and a report and a call to action from the White House Council on Women and Girls. The public outcry is not only because of the staggering rate of sexual assault rather it is the lack of or mishandled reporting of sexual assaults in college. This paper
Rape culture on college campuses is a prominent issue that various universities cannot effectively tame. Unfortunately, many put quotations on the issue as if its presence on college campuses is not as dramatic or detrimental as statistics illustrate. Although there are programs that receive grants to educate youth and young adults on rape prevention, the percentages of reported incidents and unreported incidents are not reducing as planned. This is in direct relation to some colleges and programs believing that “rape prevention is still a woman’s job”. (Allen) As reported by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men are sexually assaulted during their college career suggesting that this is more than a woman’s
Sexual assaults on college campuses has become a major phenomenon and increases on a daily throughout the United States. 1 out of 4 women on college campuses have been reported as victims in sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults in a study by Koss, Gidyez, and Wisniewski. (Lee, Spring 2003) In majority reports of sexual assaults the victims knew their perpetrator personally and the sexual assault took place while on a date with the perpetrator. (Lee, Spring 2003) Their study also exposed that 1 in 12 college men were involved in sexual assaults but felt that their actions were not illegal. Alcohol and drug use are major components in which sexual assaults are created by. Alcohol and drug us amplified rapidly at the beginning of college
About one in four women are victims of sexual assault in college, but there are ways to prevent this problem. The consequences of sexual assault are harmful and long-lasting and affect not only the victims but also their families and communities. Solutions to this problem _______. But, as Richard Edwards, chancellor of Rutgers-New Brunswick college said, “Regardless of the number, it’s a major problem, affecting our students and people all across the country and it has to be taken seriously” (5). If people work together, the steps can be taken to stop sexual assault in colleges.
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.
Unfortunately, there are many sexual assaults, or rapes, per year. According to the Affirmative Action Office at Iowa State University, there have been at least two reported rapes per weekend since classes have begun this year. Throughout the United States in 1996, there were 98,000 completed rapes, and 219,000 attempted rapes (Stanford University, 1999). Most of these assaults were upon women. In fact, women were ten times more likely than men to become victims of rape or sexual assault in 1996, a reality that still holds true (Stanford University, 1999). The number of sexual assaults upon men is so minor that statistics are rarely given.
The World Health Organization defines sexual violence as: “…any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic or other wise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work (WHO, 2001).” From this definition it is evident that sexual violence encompasses a variety of situations. Sexual violence includes rape, incest, sexual harassment, abuse, unwanted sexual touching, non-consensual sexual actions, and even physical or emotional coercion. The sad reality is that some people might have not even have known a particular situation was sexual violence, which makes this