Throughout many colleges around the world, assault amongst students is happening far too often. It harms them in a way that society occasionally does not see. Many students who are involved, bystanders or simply just attend the school are suffering in silence from feeling unsafe or from being targeted as the next possible victim. Sexual violence on campus is pervasive. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, “11.2% of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.” These incidents continue to affect student’s everyday comfortability. Being associated with or exposed to assault while attending college produces a negative impact on students' education, mental well-being, and their …show more content…
Students that have been assaulted or have seen assault first hand on campus, start to feel helpless and scared. This makes for an inadequate learning environment. Statistics show that, “More than 50% of college sexual assaults occur in either August, September, October, or November. Students are at an increased risk during the first few months of their first and second semesters in college.” During these crucial months, students are adjusting to college and suffer greatly if pressured by the burden of an assault. They often have many issues with their grades beginning to drop because of an inability to concentrate and a lack of attendance in class. Simon talks about a young student who was raped on campus and began struggling academically, stating that “It was the classes requiring participation in which her grades suffered the most, as some days she was too terrified to leave her dorm room, especially after running into her assailant on campus.” In severe instances like these, many GPA’s drop as low as a 2.0 and some students unfortunately lose focus so much that they forfeit their scholarship or cannot continue to participate in extracurricular activities. This damages their experience during college, and possibly their chances of success afterwards. For example, Simon agrees by saying that, “These deflated GPAs have …show more content…
Every victim responds to traumatic events in their own way. After a sexual assault or rape, the effects of the trauma can be short-term or long-term. Dealing with these drastic psychological issues can be hard on students that were once joyful and excited about school. These issues can also interfere within their life and harmfully affect their personal well-being. For instance, Hairston mentions that, “Sexual assault and rape can bring on post-trauma reactions, such as eating disorders, anxiety, depression, even suicide.” These cases have long term effects mostly because victims often suffer from feeling responsible for allowing the assault to happen. One of the most common consequences is self-blame. The Mental Health Effects of Sexual Assault and Abuse article states that, “Victims often report feelings such as shame, terror, depression, and guilt, and many blame themselves for the assault.” This remorseful feeling towards oneself damages a person’s self-esteem and enables them to recover. Gluck points out that “Victims use self-blame as an avoidance-based coping tool. Self-blame slows or, in many cases, stops the healing process.” Therefore accusing oneself of being responsible causes lifelong harm to the victim. Sexual assaults leave “psychological scars” on students, and they deal with many issues that society is not aware of. For example, The
According to the authors of “Enhancing Care and Advocacy for Sexual Assault Survivors on Canadian Campuses”, “Sexual assault has immediate and long-term health consequences for victims including suicide, HIV infection, depression, and social isolation,” (Quinlan, Clarke, and Miller). Another common side effect these victims face is post-traumatic stress disorder. Someone experiencing PTSD may have random outburst of anger, have trouble concentrating on day to day tasks, or may even have flashbacks of their attack. These consequences make it hard for victims to get back into the normal routine of everyday life (“Effects of Sexual Assault”). In a case at Amherst College a young women named Angie Epifano faced many of these consequences after she was raped by an acquaintance in one of the college’s dormitories. While immediately choosing to ignore what had happened to her Epifano soon became an emotional wreck. Before the attack Epifano had believed herself to be an extremely strong and independent individual. In an article done on Epifano’s story she stated “Everything I had believed myself to be was gone in 30 minutes,” (Epifano). Sexual assault takes away a piece of someone. With their hopes and dreams clouded by the tragedy they have endured, victims face a lifetime of
Vladutiu, Catherine J., Sandra L. Martin, and Rebecca J. Macy. "College- or University- Based Sexual Assault Prevention Programs: A Review of Program Outcomes, Characteristics, and Recommendations." Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. SAGE, n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. .
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.
The trauma of rape can lead to depression and can put victims in a horrible mental state of mind. Symptoms of depression can go unnoticed for long periods of time especially if the victims doesn’t speak out and tell someone. “Symptoms of depression are social withdrawnness, lack of interest in things the victim would normally enjoy, feelings of worthless unexplained irritability, and inability to sleep. After rape or sexual abuse, survivors often find their self-esteem suffers significantly”.(After silence. org) The way victims view themselves and others change significantly after being raped. They may lose their integrity and power to continue a balanced life.
In a study done by The Journal of Clinical Psychology, “the primary reason for not reporting seemed to combine a type of guilt with embarrassment.” With the help of utilizing support groups, clubs, and other programs among college campuses that are designed to make the victim’s experience a little easier, the victims may not feel as embarrassed to come out and may feel safer in their decision to move forward with their case. One of the most notable effects of rape is the psychological impact that it has on the victim immediately as well as long-term. Many victims feel depression, anxiety, and other sudden onset mental illnesses as a result of their attack and can last for years post-attack. The Journal of Interpersonal Violence reported that in their study of 95 victims over a 12 week long period, “by 3 months post-crime 47% still met the full criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” This prolonged experience of emotional trauma can weaken the person’s overall mental wellbeing and cause the trauma to stick with them for the rest of their lives, especially if there are no support resources around them. As cited in the Journal of Clinical Psychology study previously, the number one reason for not reporting is the feeling of embarrassment which causes the victims to not talk about their experience and to shut out those around
Through the assessment of data, examiners reached a general conclusion regarding the permanent somatic and emotional effects of CSA. According to Irish et al. (2009), it was proved that victims of sexual assault undergo extreme depression, eating disorders, anxiety, and terror outbreaks. Likewise, the investigation indicated that these persons exhibited a conversion of their psychological trauma into somatic signs since they developed drastic health issues such as body aching, obesity, gastric complications, and heart and lung illnesses; as a result, victims of child sexual abuse usually get sick more often during middle and old age than other individuals.
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
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.
Rape and sexual violence is a very serious problem that affects millions of people each year. Rape is someone taking advantage of another person sexually. Sexual assault can be verbal, physical, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. ("Sexual Assault.") Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. In 2002, only thirty-nine percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law officials. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet.") Victims sometimes do not report that they have raped because of shame or feeling that it was their fault. It is never the victim's fault. "Victim blaming" is holding the victim of a crime to be in a whole or in partly responsible for what had happened to them. Most victims believe this. ("Myths and Facts about Sexual Violence.")
Rape can lead to both short-term and long-term effects. Things such as cognitive appraisal, coping and stress have also been suggested as long-term effects of rape (Koss & Burkhart, 1989). A study conducted by Santiago & McCall-Perez (1985) looked at the long-term effects of rape. The study concluded that rape victims were found to be more likely to be anxious, fearful and depressed in comparison to individuals that have not been sexually assaulted. In addition, this has been supported by Kilpatrick (2017) who suggested that almost one-third (31%) of all rape victims developed post-traumatic stress disorder sometime during their lifetime.
At the outermost level, the article by Best Colleges gives a basic outline of sexual assault, its underreporting, trends in assaults, some prevention methods, and then finally providing some tips to help halt the number of number of sexual assault cases on college campuses. While providing helpful and accurate information, the article only scapes the surface of bringing awareness to what a large problem sexual assault is on campuses throughout the country. A tier up, the article by Beth Howard goes more in depth by explaining certain programs already enacted on certain college campuses, for example, telling of Dartmouth College’s announcement “to mandate education on preventing sexual violence all four years of college and placing everybody, including fraternity members, in one of six new residential communities beginning in 2016.” However, the third article by Breitenbecher specifically addresses the problem with these already enacted sexual assault education programs, but fails to provide a better solution to the problem. Lastly and most in depth, the final article by McMahon et al.
Some of the main effects on victims are depression, flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These effects can make victims feel hopeless, and feel strong anxiety or fear, worried that they might see their attacker again or someone who resembles them. Other effects include self-harm, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), substance abuse, unwanted pregnancies and even thoughts of suicide. (Effects of Sexual Violence) Some of these effects can be even stronger for teens, considering the facts that 93% of teens who have been raped or sexually assaulted know their attacker, and over one third of the attackers are actually family members.
Assigning blame has become an increasingly difficult and complex concept to understand, especially in our legal court system. I associate blame with being held responsible for the consequences of one’s intentional actions. In regards to sexual assault cases, I think the blame should not be placed on the victims, but rather on the perpetrators. Victim blaming justifies the perpetrator’s actions, discourages sexual assault reportings, and can have psychological effects on the victim.