Sexual Assault In Zoë Heller's Rape On The Campus

Bennett Barbour was a 22 year old, black male who was charged and convicted of rape in the state of Virginia. Barbour fought for over thirty years o clear his good name. Barbour was sentenced on for the alleged rape on April 15 of the same year. Bennett received a ten-year sentence for which he served four and a half years in prison. Barbour was exonerated on May 24, 2012.

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 assaults are a problem because they can have lasting effects on victims. It is the job of both the government and colleges to find solutions to the problem, by preventing

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.

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.

Which campus will be next? It is not a question of it, but when and where? College is the first time students get to spend time without parental guidance. In fact, college is a place where many students learn about themselves, but are they safe? Campuses are filled with all kinds of students, including different ages. 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

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

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.

Last summer, I was afforded the opportunity to take a three-day class on Title IX in Intercollegiate Athletics hosted by a former employee of the Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Valerie Bonnette. The class opened my eyes to the basic fundamentals of Title IX, key issues on college campuses and what I could do to make an immediate impact on the campus of Hampton University. The class broke down the understanding of the three prong test and with the recent additions of Women’s Soccer and Men’s Lacrosse. In addition to understanding Title IX’s effects on scholarships, budget, facilities and most importantly female student-athletes.

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. It looks scary how vulnerable the survivor can be at the time of assault. However, as long as the matter of violence is associated, the students at college campuses are safer than their non-college mates. Some training and education has been administrated to the students for awareness about the violence and sexual assaults. Even, with increased training and education, most of the college campuses have much longer way to go for decreasing the intensity and number of assaults and the incidents have immense negative impact on the society and people around us.

Title IX has played a significant role in the lives of women and will continue to do so if school administrators, policymakers, and community leaders have a better understanding of the law and use it accordingly to benefit those in need of it. By understanding its implications for mothers and creating programs that represents the law and its purpose, school institutions can better facilitate education for them. Mothers have often been neglected when it comes to Title IX because school administrators did not understand the law’s effects on and intentions for mothers (Fershee, 2009; McNeeley, 2008). Its focused has been primarily on sports and athletic matters; however, mothers pursuing school, especially higher education, needs as much attention

As sweat pooled down her face and a low guttural grunt escaped her mouth, DePaul University student Natalie Marcrum gave one final thrust of her knee to the imaginary predator. Learning to defend herself, as well as others Marcrum works to prevent sexual assault before it happens.

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.

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.

The Hunting Ground is a documentary film targeting the frequent sexual assaults on college campuses in the United States. Colleges across the United States have failed to meet justice for victims with confrontations. The film is concentrated on Annie. E. Clark and Andrea Pino, two graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who decided to file a complaint about their assaults while they were attending the University.

Sexual assault is a form of forced sexual violence. The term sexual assault can be defined as an act in which a person sexually violates a victim without the victims consent. This is one of the most common problems faced by many schools in South Africa, the problem of sexual assault amongst learners in South African school. Sexual assault is an unlawful act, which the perpetrator can be sentenced to jail for practicing it. Sexual assault can be in a form of fondling of unwanted sexual touching, forcing a victim to perform sexual acts such as oral sex or penetrating the victim’s body and torturing a person in a sexual manner. 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