Sexual Assault In Sports Research Paper

1279 Words3 Pages

The Raising Issues of Sexual Assault in Sports A majority of sexual assault cases go unreported in sports. Professional and college athletes become entitled because of their “celebrity” status, so when schools notice a sexual assault case, they minimize or cover up the inhumane behavior to avoid negative publicity that could harm big-money sports programs. They hide the voices of the victims to maintain a good reputation and keep their sport founded. Granted, in some instances, rape or sexual assault allegations are false, which can unnecessarily jeopardize the college or professional athlete's image. Although there are false sexual or rape accusations, victims must be allowed to voice what happened, because the country should not allow cases …show more content…

In sports, many of the cases of sexual assault or rape go unreported, but those that do either go unresolved or are false accusations. Colleges get pressured to construct a system that can resolve cases and detect whether the allegation is true or false. The “string of sexual assault” in recent years against colleges and pro athletes has increased debate about whether athletes are more likely to get falsely accused or are more likely to commit sexual violence than non-athletes (9). Ladika acknowledges the debate of whether athletes or non-athletes are likely to commit sexual assault and suggests that sexual assault cases need deeper investigation to detect if the allegation is true or false. Also, it can be reasonable why people would not automatically believe the accuser since they twist the truth. Labika uses an instance of the NBA in which a professional athlete was falsely accused of committing sexual assault. She states, “For instance, the jury in a 2016 civil trial in Los Angeles found NBA star Derrick Rose and two of his friends did not rape a woman, concluding instead that the encounter was …show more content…

High rates of sexual assault threaten the image of colleges. In Ladika’s article, she provides statistics from 1995 to 2013 to unravel the cases of sexual assault. She mentions, “A total of 37,846 post-secondary school students between ages 18 and 24 — 31,302 females and 6,544 males — were victims of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault or the threat of rape or sexual assault” (7). Ladika notes the rates of sexual assault to show why colleges reduce the attention to sexual assault cases. Colleges do not want applicants to see the rates of sexual assault because colleges want students to feel safe on campus. Colleges want to build a reputation for having a guarded environment for their students, and the high rates of sexual assault intervene with that. In recent years, colleges have failed to build a proper system. But at times, allegations are invalidated, which can make it difficult for colleges to construct systems to detect sexual assault cases. In the professional world, athletes have various accusations made against them, which can be questioned if they are true or

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