Rape Culture
Rape culture is an issue all over America. It usually comes to light when a victim of sexual assault comes forward to talk about their experience and what occurred during the event. Rape culture is also embedded in today’s society, it can happen in an everyday setting with social media posts as well as the toxic masculinity that is taught and displayed throughout all of a young man’s life. However, not a lot of people are aware of how rape culture affects everyday life. The way to make people aware of what they’re doing to contribute to the problem is to educate the general public about rape culture and how it affects a victim’s life. We can also ensure victim’s safety by implementing stronger consequences against those accused of rape. Rape culture is commonly perpetrated by young men on college campuses. In a report published in 2015, it is stated that one in five women have experienced sexual assault while on a college campus (Luna 1). This is because young men are not taught that they do not have a right to women’s bodies. Rape is not spoken about in most American schools because it is considered a “taboo” topic, that in itself is considered rape culture. In another report in 2009, studies show that only nine percent of women report their sexual assault cases to the authorities (Luna 1). Women get assaulted every day in the US, yet very few come forward to the authorities because they have seen the backlash that almost all other women face when they accuse
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Show MoreIn Zoë Heller’s Rape on the Campus, She advocates how sexual assault happens often on campuses, and that it needs to be significantly more addressed; as it is scarce for women to bring the college’s attention to the assault. Heller asserts that, “20 percent of women are sexually assaulted during their time at college and as few as 5 percent of these assaults are ever reported to police” (185). Noting that ninety-five percent of sexual assault cases are dealt by the college, colleges can take advantage and handle its reputation by outputting false information to cover any potential negative reputation. While colleges are forced to obey the rules of title IX, I believe this is an inadequate effort to remove bias teachers and workers from colleges.
One of the main reasons many victims choose not to report sexual assault is distrust in law enforcement and the belief that nothing would be done to help them. A report done by the Sexual Assault Among Latinas Study showed that many victims spoke with their families about what happened, but very few victims sought help from the criminal justice department. According to the study, only 6.6% of the women involved sought help from law enforcement, and 33%
Building upon earlier work, they used approximately 4,500 female college students to report their sexual victimization. The analysis revealed few incidents, including rapes, are reported to police and/or campus authorities, a high portion disclosing to close friends. Gillibrand, K., Rubenfeld, J., Sulkowicz, E., Hargitay, M., Sullivan, T., Biden, J., & ... Sommers, C. H. (2014). The Debate: How should college campuses handle sexual assault?.
To see this trend that schools not following through on reported sexual assault cases is a huge disservice to their students and victims when it comes to supporting and educating the people are a part of the institution. A serious discussion and realization needs to come forth that there is much more that is needed to be done for people to realize that sexual assault does happen at almost every school, and more actions are needed in order to stop
Rape myths are at the center of the problem of how rape and sexual assault cases are looked at, and treated as in society. Rape myths vary, some excuse the rape, others try to minimize the severity of the situation, while others doubt the act even happened in the first place (Levit and Verchick, 196). Some examples of rape myths include: a victim was “asking for it,” a victim’s previous sexual history, regretful sex is not rape, a woman’s “no” means “yes,” and women lie about rape all the time. Rape myths are targeted towards women, not the rapist. Despite, rape myths being proved false by empirical evidence, they are still prevalent in society.
But to directly tackle the issue of stopping sexual assault, schools have implemented online programs that educate students about the details and facts of the crime. These programs seem like a good idea since they are easily accessible, comply with state and federal requirements, and require time for students to partake in them. In a broad sense, these programs do a good job spreading awareness of the issue at hand. However, the programs fail to help enact the drastic change that many schools hope the programs would. These programs are unsuccessful due to the fact that they are taught through a computer screen; users never truly interact with the actual experiences and emotions that one goes through during sexual assault.
Growing up in today’s world presents a numerous amount of different challenges, hardships, and an abundance of controversy among other daily tribulations. Not only do people encounter certain hardships some may face life scarring events. For some being a victim of rape is categorized into one of these situations and it may become a recurring burden for the individual. He or she may have not received justice for the action that took place or they may have been humiliated. A curious individual or one who has been affected by this first hand may ask how do we as a world overcome such an act.
It is known to a number of people that sexual assaults are more likely to happen on college campuses than anywhere else. Due to the number of students that are enrolled in college, this is a huge problem that the nation needs to spend more time finding solutions. This topic is important to me because I am a young woman in college who lives on a college campus and it is a necessity
Throughout this documentary, viewers learn that many sexual assault cases happen on college campuses. However, many of these cases are often ignored by college administrators because universities want to keep rape statistics low and they have an financial incentive to do so. In the film it states that there are less than 8% of men in college that commit more than 90% of sexual assaults. This indicates that because
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.
Native American women are twice as likely to experience rape or sexual assault compared to women of other races (Gebhardt and Woody 2012). Findings have shown that the needs of these women who do fall victim to sexual assault, just as many others, are not being
Often times men and women are afraid to speak up about rape because often times attorneys and judicial figures choose to baby the suspect and sympathize with them. Rape victims are questioned about the rape, but not in the way they should be. Questions like, “What were you wearing?” are asked, but should be replaced with, “What was the situation surrounding the rape?” Rape has become such an everyday occurrence in the US today that it might as well be legal. Women and men are constantly being told that they are the problem and that it is their own fault they were raped.
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.
When I first learned about rape, and sexual violence in general, I assumed that every victim reported their abuse, and every rapist went to jail. Once I learned that the reality was the opposite of my beliefs, I was confused. I did not understand why someone would not go to the police and seek out charges against their assaulters. Yet, the stories of Frances Thompson and the victim of Nate Parker, illustrate the extreme dangers that come along with reporting. Moreover, I am currently worried about the details that have been released in the Derek Rose rape case, and what may happen to the victim in this situation.
68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police, and 98% of rapists will never spend more than one day in jail or prison. What is also startling is, someone the victim knows commits approximately 4 out of 5 assaults, and 47% of the rapists are friends or