Sexual Assault Awareness Month

In 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.

Recent headlines have highlighted the fact that rape culture is prevalent in our society, most noticeably on college campuses. To understand why this is a social issue we first have to understand what rape culture entails. Rape culture is a set of assumptions that reinforces male sexual aggression and disregards violence against females (Hildebrand & Najdowski, 2015, p. 1062). Simplified, it is an environment where sexual violence is normalized and most of the time excused. One out of five females in the United States are sexually assaulted by a male at some point in their lifetime (Hildebrand & Najdowski, 2015, p. 1059) and college aged females are four times more likely to be a victim of rape than any other age group (Burnett et al.,

According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, another person endures sexual assault every 98 seconds. This information may have been shocking ten years ago, but for many, this news is a basic fact of life. Sexual assault cases have continued to become more and more common as time goes on. What is causing this surge in unwanted physical contact? The cause of sexual assault is one hundred percent of the time, the assaulter’s fault.

For my generation when many of female friends go off to college their parents teach them not to walk home alone late at night in fear of rape, it is such a common occurrence that a friend of mine has taken to carrying around pepper spray. There is a company called women on guard that provide personal safety equipment for its customers. The problem with this is that young women are taught to be on guard for a shadowy figure attacking them at night and not that “60 to 80 percent of rapes are date or acquaintance rape.” (Koss, Dinero, Siebel, and Cox 1988: 217) The essay “Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?” by A. Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade differs by acknowledging who

On February 7, 1978, the 19-year-old student that attended the College of William and Mary reported that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint. She informed police investigators that on that afternoon she went to her “fiancé’s apartment in Williamsburg, Virginia after her morning class was cancelled. When she attempted to enter the apartment with her arms full of groceries, she was then confronted

In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her arduous battle for racial equality in the brutal town of Little Rock, Arkansas in the late 1950s. When she was only twelve years old, Melba survived attempted rape by a white man. Scared and confused, Melba went home and told her family. However, they instructed her to keep quiet about the abuse because they believed getting the police involved would only make things worse. Unfortunately, thousands of sexual assaults still go unreported for a myriad of reasons, including distrust in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, the possibility that the abuser will not be punished, and victim blaming, a common occurrence in our society.

Unfortunately, not every student will have a positive mindset or respect of others. Nowadays, the most assaults happen on a college campus and this is a serious issue that can be prevented. Research claims that, “Eighteen percent experienced an attempted and/or completed sexual assault since entering college.” (NSVRC) On an average, that is one in five students worldwide, but we can make those numbers decrease greatly with a

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.

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

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.

The documentary The Hunting Ground by Kirby Dick was created specifically to spread awareness of the vast problem of sexual assault on college campuses and to try to show that the problem needs to be solved. The creator wanted those struggling with their sexual assault and the unfair treatment they were exposed to, as well as anyone who may have to go through sexual assault in the future, to know that the problem of sexual assault that universities tried to hide in the dark is finally being given the spotlight they deserve. The spark of this idea of the documentary was the many stories of survivors across the nation from many different universities, specifically the story of Annie and Andrea who helped other survivors get the justice they deserve.

Rape is something that many warn us about and tell us to be careful about. What many do not realize is that it can happen in a matter of seconds and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Often it happens, but people find it difficult to report it because of the person who committed the crime, this was the case in the book Missoula by Jon Krakauer. The book begins with a woman, Allison Huguet, who was raped by a member of the football team in the University of Montana, Beau Donaldson. This case was not the first incident to happen in this city and the author does a great job in letting his readers be aware and know it has happened before.

According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men will be a victim of sexual assault in their lifetime. The cases of sexual assault in the Army continues to escalate at an alarming rate, forcing leadership to educate Soldiers of the devastating effects it has on the military as a whole. While the Army is working diligently with military leaders and civilian agencies to implement in-house training to educate service members, the number of sexual assaults continue to rise, affecting the level of morale, and breaking the trust level of the victims and all individuals involved. (Reviewing the facilitator’s notes and advice on my initial thesis statement and outline, I had to re-write the thesis statement as the initial one did not address the W’s very well. As a

The United States is facing a growing problem that shows no signs of slowing: sexual assaults on college campuses. Possible reasons for this epidemic are explained by Janet Napolitano, the current president of the University of California. She describes that “young adults live independently and in close proximity to one another for the first time” while attending college (Napolitano 387). The college setting provides students with opportunities to take advantage of one another. As a result, sexual assaults have become an issue across universities in the United States.

Sexual assault can either be verbal, physical or visual. Joan Van Niekers cited a recent report by the Human Sciences Research Council which revealed that 34% of learners experienced sexual harassment and other 14% were sexually harassed by teachers , therefore this clearly illustrates that sexual assault take place amongst learners in schools is somehow beyond control and happens in many occasions. In this essay, three causes of sexual assault