On a normal day, you typically park in the parking garage down the street and walk the rest of the way to work. It’s the end of the work day, the sun is setting, and you are on your way back to your car. As you were walking, you hear someone trying to get your attention. They shout obscenities at you and ask for your name or number, getting angrier as you ignore them. They start to walk along with you, just one step behind, and you strategically place your keys between your knuckles, one by one, as if you could be Wolverine. In your other hand, you pretend to answer your cell phone, even though no one is on the other end of the line. Your heart begins to race and you walk a little faster, into the closest store you can find, hoping they don’t …show more content…
I conducted my own anonymous survey about how street harassment affects students at Westfield State University. My goal was to see how pervasive it is in students’ lives and whether it is a prominent problem on campus. In conducting my own survey, I received 115 responses from Westfield State students, and 96 of the respondents identified as women. Knowing the statistic that mostly women responded, I found that 71.3% of respondents have been street harassed in their lifetime; only 4 of those respondents were male. On the other hand, I found that 26.1% were street harassed on campus at some point. 48.7% of respondents did not think that street harassment is an issue on …show more content…
Those affected by street harassment often feel uncomfortable and unsafe in public spaces. In a 2008 study, only 3% of college-age women considered different forms of street harassment, such as catcalling or getting whistled at, a compliment. There are many psychological issues that arise in those affected by street harassment, relating significantly to self-objectification, depression, eating disorders, anxiety, and a harder time focusing in school. It can be traumatizing to sexual assault victims and cause people to change their livelihoods in order to avoid being harassed in their daily commute. People are changing what they wear and have to plan out their activities according to the time of day to avoid trouble, but even then, these “precautions” still do not prevent harassment on the
Dangers on roadways is an issue that describes the discrepancy between perception and reality of road rage. The media, for some odd reason, tends to make road rage a huge controversial issue. As seen on talk shows from Oprah Winfrey to CNN, they reveal to people that road rage could happen at any time and to always be looking over your shoulder. These talk shows and news programs also put fear into our minds by explaining that most roadragers often use guns to kill or injure their victims. Glassner contradicts the media's speculations by stating that out of approximately 250,000 people killed on roadways between 1990-1997, AAA attributed that one in one thousand was an act of road rage (pg.5).
In a 2012 study 92% of women reported experiencing some form of sexual violence in public spaces in their lifetime. 88% reported experiencing some form of verbal sexual harassment.
"Statistics about Sexual Assault and College Campuses." Statistics about Sexual Assault. Sarah Lawrence College, n.d. Web. 28 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 ...
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
In Canadian society, the numbers of sexually violent incidents in universities continue to grow. Every year, approximately 58.7% of first-year female students experience forms of sexual violence, a growing concern for universities (Senn et. al. Results). Women constantly say they will never be victims of sexual violence, yet studies show that one in four women have been sexually assaulted (Senn et. al. 2). Although sexual violence will never completely be resolved, the policies created by universities across Canada have proven to be ineffective when compared to student efforts. Also, Canadian universities lack a sufficient number of policies that address sexual violence and have a high number of sexual assaults, which demonstrate the ineffectiveness
Stanley Yelnats the 4th was a teenager who came from a poor family. He was accused of stealing sneakers, belonged to a famous baseball player named Clyde Livingstone. In the court he was asked to choose between jail and Camp Green Lake. His family did not have enough money for a lawyer and they did not have enough time to find out more about Camp Green Lake. They thought whatever place it is, it had to be better than spending time in jail, so they chose the Camp Green Lake. The time Stanley spent in that camp turned him into a better and stronger person.
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.
Perhaps they didn 't like the way this person was dressed or maybe they thought that maybe the strangeness of this person was threatening. While these may be some valid reasons, the root of the issue with street harassment is misogyny. That is defined as the hatred of women. In this video, specifically, the problem is trans misogyny. Trans misogyny means the negative attitudes towards trans women and trans and gender non-conforming people on the feminine end of the gender spectrum (CITE). Simply put, trans misogyny is the hatred of the feminine ,which is not experienced, only by women. In "America Reflexx", people were not sure of the gender of the person walking the street, but knew this person identified with feminine traits. They knew this because this person wore a dress and heels. This elicited an extreme amount of hatred by these people. While many of these harassers were women, the issue is still trans misogyny. Women can be as guilty as men when it comes to misogyny of trans misogyny. If a woman has a hatred for specific women or those acting in a feminine role due to them not behaving in a certain way then they too are a misogynist. For example, if these women attacking this person attacked him or her because they believe women or anyone identifying as feminine must dress and behave in a certain way, they are misogynists. The reason behind this line of thought is that these same women would not have
If only using one word to represent the United States, “freedom” will be the best answer ever. Due to the protection of the First Amendment, free speech has long been an indispensable part of American people's daily lives. However, there have been lots of arguments when free speech come into campuses. For example, the First Amendment protects all kinds of speech, so students have their right to express themselves even if they are doing hate speeches; nevertheless, if hate speeches do injury some other students, it becomes a very serious problem to not keep the institution peaceful anymore. Just like most people say “school is a miniature of society”, reasonably dealing with the issue of hate speech on campus will be more effective in nurturing
In the world we live in today it is not uncommon to hear of teenagers who are not getting through life very peacefully. There are two major factors that contribute to disturbing the peace in the lives of teens. The two factors that are at fault are harassment and bullying. Some people are under the impression that bullying is a rite of passage and that everyone will go through it at some point in their life. Degrading people and blinding them from being able to see their self-worth is not something that everyone must go through.
For some, sexual harassment and assault seem almost like myths or bad dreams. For others, it's a living reality. The United States Department of Justice defines sexual assault as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.” Sexual harassment and assault are demeaning, terrifying, and forceful behaviors. And yet, it’s happening every day. People hollering out car windows at pedestrians. Groups of teenagers terrifying
There have been reports of increased violence on U.S. college campuses since the early 1980s. Alcohol-related problems have included vandalism, fighting, injuries, and rape. However, as in the past, crime on campuses frequently was not reported to authorities or not divulged by institutions. Therefore, it is difficult to know if there has been an increase in incidences or just increased reporting. Roark (1987: 367) has suggested that "although comparative data from previous years are difficult to obtain, it seems to many student affairs professionals that there is an increase in violence on campuses." One study reported that residence hall advisors mediated more physical confrontations between students in the mid-1980s compared to previous years. College campuses are communities populated with individuals at high risk for unintentional and violent injury, the vast majority of whom are single and experiencing freedom from home and parental supervision for the first time. Despite broad-based concern about violence on campus, accurate information about the scope and nature of this problem is hard to come by. Nevertheless, there is general agreement that since the 1960s crime and vio...