When someone makes an oath in court, it says that one must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. However, we know that there is never a whole truth, in anything. Colleges and Universities face this problem more than others with situations like date rape. To understand how serious date rape is, one would have to see the history behind it, how to prevent it, and how it happens.
For example, the history of sex crimes really gives a “reality check” to the situation. One in every five female students that attend a college or university have been sexually assaulted at some point. (___) So, if someone attended a small college with about 10,000 students or so that would mean that 2,000 of those students were raped. With something
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Alcohol plays an enormous role when it comes to date rape, because for some reason, everything seems like a good idea when alcohol is involved. More times than not a victim of a sexual offense was at a party drinking and then it escalated from there. RAINN finds a high correlation between sexual incursion and alcohol use. Although drinking doesn’t make sexually abusing someone okay, it does influence others and occasionally make them unaware of their actions. Or in that case, how extreme the actions being taken actually are. So, when going out, drinking or not, there are ways to help prevent being the next victim of a sex crime. For instance, a report by the National Institute of Justice reveals that self-protection actions such as weaponless attacking, running, hiding, getting help, or struggling seem to decrease the risk of rape completion by 80%. Also, things like watching drinks and staying with friends that are trusted helps. Studies have shown that about 38% of rape incidents are committed by a friend or acquaintance of the victim and only 16.7% are complete strangers.(___) So not only does one have to watch who they don’t know, but they have to consider how well they know their friends too. Women between ages 16 and 24 are four times more likely to be raped as compared with the rate for all women, which is the age of most college students.(__) This issue is so low on the totem pole that victims of date rape don’t even report their cases anymore. If they do, however, decide to get help many cases of sexual violence are ignored or buried when brought to the attention of college officials. (__) With colleges ignoring it, it only makes it that much easier for the perpetrator to get away and adds another victim to the
One in five women and one in sixteen men are sexually assaulted while in college. 63% of sexual assaults are not reported to police and only about 2 to 10% of reports are found to be false. In Jon Krakauer’s book: Missoula, Rape and the Justice System in a College Town. Krakauer focuses on the many rapes that occur on the college campus in Missoula. Most of the rapes that happen on college campuses are done by men, but to say all men are rapists is unjust and sexist.
However, even though they are usually not the ones at fault, nothing is ever said about the event. In a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it was found that 75 to 77 percent of sexual assaults, attempted rapes, and completed rapes were never reported (“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). Furthermore, the blame of the whole event was never put on the person responsible. Instead, the victim was blamed for not denying the advances, or for not making themselves clearer in their intents(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). This huge chip to carry often leaves the victims feeling isolated, scared, full of shame, depressed, and with a low self-esteem(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”).
Many words come up when thinking of ‘College’, some of which are: learning, independence, goals, party, and freedom; although, that’s not always the case. At residential colleges rape culture has grown tremendously throughout time. In the article, “Mishandling Rape”, written by Jed Rubenfeld completely analyzes and supports the problem of rape in colleges throughout the United States. In this article, he establishes the importance of his argument, the audience he is hoping to speak out to, various logistics, and has a strong ethos appeal which supports his argument.
In the book, Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in College Town, by Jon Krakauer, the reader delves into how rape and sexual assault are treated in the town of Missoula, and the University of Montana. As the reader, we are informed on how the university, the police department, the district attorney’s office, and the community reacted to these rape and sexual assault allegations. We see how the criminal justice system has failed the victims, and are forced to live with what happened to them, while their assailants are free of any burden. The law is set in place to protect people from victimization, but when the men, in this book, are not legally held accountable, then any woman, or man, is more susceptible to victimization. It is interesting
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town is a in-depth look at the issue of sexual assault on college campuses as told through the stories of students at the University of Montana in Missoula. Through the narratives, author Jon Krakauer ties in statistics and information creating an effective work that stands as emotionally compelling while remaining grounded and applying these stories to the greater problem of sexual assault. It tackles one of the biggest problems surrounding sexual assault in general, the treatment of the accused compared with the treatment of the accuser. Though Missoula focuses on the victims, it does provide much of the necessary background and possible motivations for the assaulters. These insights contribute
Sexual assault remains the most underreported crime for teens as well as adults, (Why Don’t They Tell? In the award-winning novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson writes about a character named Melinda Sorinado who was raped in the summer of freshman year and during freshman year we read about her dealing with the trauma she experienced. “Its choppy, nonlinear narrative gradually reveals that shortly before the first day of school, Melinda went to a party, where she was raped by a handsome, popular senior… But also, I had been sexually assaulted a month before ninth grade started,” (Interview with Author). Due to him being so popular, she didn’t tell anyone, some of the reasons that may have happened could be.
Colleges are protecting their public record and do not wish to affect their brand be publicly admitting the high rates of sexual assaults. The documentary focused on a student attending Harvard Law School and the administrators insisted that the female victim should remain silent and avoid spreading the incident around. They asked questions such as, "Did you give him the wrong message, why did you choose not to fight back". Victim blaming is presented when the administrators are more interested in what the victim did wrong rather than what the offender's actions
In their opinion piece published in the New York Times, Miriam Gleckman-Krut and Nicole Bedera, two students from University of Michigan, claim that students being accused of sexual assault on-campus should not be the ones providing the definition of sexual assault because more victims will stay silent. Their article tackles the research question “how does allowing the accused to define sexual assault affect the victim?”. The piece was written in response to Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, who claimed that former President Obama’s policies on on-campus rape stripped the accused of their liberties because less evidence was required from the victims, who often struggle to create concreate evidence due to trauma or difficulty remembering.
The documentary called The Hunting Grounds, had multiple concepts that relate to sociology. Using a sociological perspective, it was very prevalent to see the ways college campuses use patriarchy and gender stratification to keep women who have been sexually assaulted on campus from disclosing information or even getting help about these issues. Through the discrimination against women at these gender institutions the women formed a Feminist movement to bring awareness and help to the victims on campuses all around the world and to stop the assaults from reoccurring. The Hunting Grounds is a documentary that reveals the untold stories of women on college campuses and how these women have fought to have their voice heard about sexual assault on campuses. Sexual assault and rape on campuses has always been a major problem for colleges all over the world yet very little has been done to protect the students.
After reading the article Dating Violence Among College Students: The Risk and Protective Factors by Catherine Kaukinen the two issues that impacted me was the risk and protective factors such as gender, violence in the family of origin, emotional states and mental health, substance use and abuse, sexual risk taking, nature of intimate relationships, academic engagement and protective factors. The author explores each of these factors by looking at other research to gain an understanding and to bring awareness to dating violence among college students. Additionally, giving ideas to how to prevent or reduce the dating violence among college students. When discussing the different factors of college dating violence the author summarizes them
When questioned about rape, especially most women, they might think or even picture a stranger coming out of a dark place to assault someone. But in reality there’s more to it. According to the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, “About half of all people who are raped know the person who attacked them. This is known as date rape — forced sex that can happen not only on a date, but also somewhere like a party with someone the victim may know, like, or even be interested in.” Furthermore, social critic and feminist, Camille Paglia, has been discussing this persisting issue about date rape with a personal stance that many women may disagree with.
In society and college campuses, sexual assault occurs quite frequently. According to an estimation one third of women experience a forced sexual experience at least once in their life and most of the time it occurs in colleges. Men have also been reported to be victim of sexual assaults mostly by other men. Most of the time the sexual assault is planned and perpetrated by a third person, who is known to the victim of incident. Drug and alcohol use play role in this issue and contribute to the problem as most of the time the victim and perpetrators are under the effect of alcohol or any other drug during the incident.
Date rape victims are left ashamed and full of fright. They do not know how to cope with life after they have been through a traumatizing situation. This could affect the perpetrator as well. The perpetrator could have once been a victim. There are many interventions and programs everywhere that could help both the victim and the perpetrator.
At the beginning of the book, in the author’s notes, Krakauer states, “Rape is a much more common crime than most people realize, and women of college age are most frequently the victims.” Most college students are already on edge, especially because of the new environment and people, and introducing them to the possibility of being raped adds a new level of terror for many. Rape can scare anyone and tends to intrude on someone’s piece of mind. [5] Sadly, there is a higher probability that a rape will occur by someone an individual knows; for example, significant others, siblings, friends, and even parents than a complete stranger. Krakauer shows his readers what happens to a person when they are raped; he tells of the emotional and physical damage that can come from the rumors spread, the court cases, and the dirty feelings, and he stands to support victims of rape and stop people from falling victim to this
I hope that during my undergraduate years at George Mason University I will be able to investigate the problem affecting many colleges that is date rape drugs. Rape on college campuses is a horrifying epidemic that our country is facing. According to healthresearchfunding.org “Up to 90% of college campus rapes occur through date rape incidents.” Almost every day on the news there is a new story about a woman who was a victim of rape or sexual assault, and most of the time the perpetrator gets away hands free. A major reason why date rape drugs are commonly used is because they are easily slipped in to drinks at college parties and are undetectable by the victim.