Universities need the necessary guidance to provide safe campuses for their students and assistance to help reduce the number of cases of sexual violence. If a case of sexual violence is brought to the attention of the university, guidelines need to be provided and followed as to insure a due and fair process to protect the student accused of the assault, as well as the student reporting the assault. In the articles written by Rosenfeld and Douthat, sexual assault on university campuses are discussed and concerns raised centered around Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary’s announcement to protect students. Sexual assault can cause long term effects on the individuals assaulted. It is important that Universities continue to protect and encourage …show more content…
Ross Douthat begins by mentioning the series that ran in The Atlantic discussing the policies in place on sexual assault. Campus administrations’ response to sexual assault is getting out of hand and accused assaulters are presumed guilty, instead of innocent until proven guilty, due to political pressure and the fury of the public. Times have changed on university campuses. To increase paying attendance campuses have gone liberal. Dorms have gone from single sex to mingled, allowing young sex crazed adults to mingle at night without the adult supervision. The atmosphere that is presented is one of fun and continuous partying. Campus is a location where a sexual predator can go to find their next prey. However, it is hard to tell in these atmospheres if the individual is a sexual predator, or a hook up that is later regretted. Upset with how university administrations’ lack of wanting to get involved in sexual assaults has resulted in now the opposite problem. University administration are now quick to discipline, and most times expel the innocent. It was not long ago that anti-rape activists felt that there were few falsely accused rapists. Believing the accuser and not giving the accused a chance to defend ones’ actions can …show more content…
While I feel students need someone to go to at their university to discuss possible sexual assault, I also feel the accused needs a contact person as well to make sure their rights are protected. The university should not be the judge and jury of sexual violence cases, but the cases should go through the proper judicial system to protect everyone’s rights. An accused student of sexual assault should not be excused from the university until found guilty in a court of law. I feel the atmosphere and culture that many campuses imply to new students needs to be reviewed and improved. As Douthat points out in his article, campuses are providing social environments where it becomes hard at times to distinguish “a real assault from a bad or gross or swiftly regretted consensual encounter”. I have not had any personal experience with sexual assault, nor have I known anyone that has experienced sexual assault, however I have witnessed on campus when there is a group of guys and a single girl walks by, the guys make obscene comments. In a show that I used to watch called Switch at Birth, there was a scene where one of the girls got drunk and a guy friend who was also drunk but knew what he was doing took advantage of her. This would be a good example to show and talk to college students about the effects of alcohol and to be
“Every 21 hours there is a rape on an American College Campus” (Sexual Violence on College Campuses). Sexual assault is something many have heard of and maybe know someone who was sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Sexual assault and sexual violence has been around for as long as our history books can tell us. With multiple cultural changes and new “fads”, as some may say, of college life; sexual assault has become a sort of recurring phenomenon of college lifestyles. This is not a positive thing and in no way should this be labeled as something good for college campuses. Sexual assault on college campuses should be prosecuted as rape can be falsely accused, non-consensual or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, and is permanently
In the book Unsafe in the Ivory Tower; the Sexual Victimization of College Women, it is discussed how establishing one dedicated prevention method for sexual assault on college campuses may be difficult. This is due to not having accurate statistics on sexual assaults and also the assaults occurring behind closed doors with offenders being known to the victims. Establishing policy, awareness, and prevention programs may look good on paper and ease a parent’s mind about their kids going to college. However, these programs may be ignored or do not reach men who statistically are the violators. In the book the Unsafe in the Ivory Tower, the author states:
Sexual assault and rape on college campuses is a serious public issue. Before applying to these accredited institutions most students do not look up the school 's past records of sexual assault and rape on their campus.College campuses have failed to keep students safe the system they use has failed to protect and obtain justice for those that have been victims of sexual assault. Society plays a huge part in how young adults view sexual assault. From young age girls are told “if he’s bothering you it 's because he likes you”, and boys aren 't held accountable for their actions because “boys will be boys”. At what time does it stop being a game. At what age is it not acceptable for boys to mistreat girls, when is the line drawn and, what is the punishment for when this line is crossed.
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.
According to an interview by Beckett Brennan with Katie Couric “95 percent of victims that were sexual assault on college campuses do not report the sexual assault” (The Case). Majority of sexual assaults that happen on a college campus, will never be reported. Colleges should have more of a responsibility when it comes to the sexual assaults on campuses. Colleges need to own up to the sexual assaults, and take responsibility for the sexual assaults. Colleges need to stop pushing sexual assaults away, and need to stand up and do something about the sexual assaults on college campuses. Although sexual assaults are an individuals responsible, colleges should also be responsible in the sexual assaults that happen on college campuses.
A. Background Information: The next four years of the students’ lives after high school mark the moment they become independent. Because of the freedom, college students are more susceptible to careless actions like drinking, doing drugs, and even committing sexualt assualt. Sexual assault has been around for years and the actions to prevent this heinous crime has been minimal, especially in colleges and universities. In 2015, Brock Turner, a student from Stanford, sexually assaulted a young woman on campus. Turner claimed that because he was drinking, was with friends, and saw a “promiscuous” female student, that pressured him into committing such a heinous crime. This was because Stanford University didn’t teach its students sexual assault prevention which caused the victim to be harm and violated. By teaching college students about sexual assault prevention, it decreases the number of sexual assault cases on campus, prevents psychological damage to the victim’s mental state, and educates other students to know the signs
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
Every semester, a student attending a college campus will have at some point experience some inappropriate, unwanted attention. There is always someone at school who tends to make someone uncomfortable, be it through eye contact, persistent advances, or just uncalled for innuendos. Of course, we do our best to ignore it, or to just report the bothersome activity, but that can only do so much without someone finding a way around such things. Someone is always going the extra mile to get what he or she wants, even if it’s at the expense of the victim. We can’t turn a blind eye on our friends, our family, or our associates in these dark, sexual assault situation. Campus sexual assault is a problem with plenty of factors regarding it.
One night, “Amy,” a student at State, was hanging out with some friends in her room. “A bunch of people were there, and one guy I didn’t know was obviously drunk and kept asking me out. I tried to brush him off, and didn’t take it seriously because he was drunk. I left to go to sleep. “He followed me to my room and kept banging on my bedroom door, trying to push it open and asking me to talk to him. I talked to him for a little while just to appease him.” Finally, the guy’s friends coaxed him away from Amy’s door. “I don’t know if that’s sexual harassment,” she said. “I wasn’t worried that he was going to assault me. The whole thing was just annoying.”
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.
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.