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. Using the sociological perspective it is clear
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.
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. Sexual assault is never caused by a “rape culture” or the clothing that one chooses to wear. Sexual assault is caused by the attacker, never the victim. Sexual assault is an issue very prevalent in our society today and is starting to get recognized because of the bravery of these victims. Cases like the Larry Nassar case, the Harvey Weinstein case, and the Brock Turner case are just some examples of sexual assault that our society is fighting today.
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.,
Because these crimes have great impacts on lives, it is necessary that problem be eliminated. There are two aspects to solving the issue at hand, increased government intervention and increased efforts by universities to prevent sexual assaults. The former has already begun to happen. Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, explains that “institutions of higher education have seen an explosion in new requirements imposed by the Department of Education, Congress, and state legislatures” (Napolitano 392). These requirements force colleges to take certain steps in protecting students from potential danger. Though these regulations help prevent sexual assault, they focus mainly on how a reported case is handled. Because of this, current government regulations are not enough to solve the issue at hand. Gray mentions how the White House wants to mandate annual surveys that provide unbiased information about sexual assaults (Gray 27). These surveys will allow the government to accurately determine the number of cases each year, because students complete them anonymously. Even if government regulations help improve the issue, universities still must find ways to prevent sexual assault on
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
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.
The Hunting Ground is a documentary film that captures students who have been sexually assaulted at their college campus. This documentary specifically focuses on two former University of North Carolina students, Andrea Pino and Annie Clark. They both share the same story of being raped on UNC campus. 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.
This most recent wave of legislation is buoyed by arguments that guns on campus will help address the problem of sexual assault. As Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore put it memorably, “If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them. [Sexual] assaults... would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in the head.”
My participation in the “Remove Judge Aaron Persky from the Bench For Decision in Brock Turner rape case” petition has influenced my attitudes and beliefs towards this matter in both good and bad ways. I still believe that no matter race, sex, or success of the defendant, a sexual assault is a crime and should be treated as such. What I used to believe but has now changed for me is that with all the safety precautions that college campus take to maintain a safe environment, such as blue lights and campus guardians, you would suspect a college to be
The Duke lacrosse case implicated criminal actions of: first degree rape, first degree sex offenses’ and kidnapping charges against three Duke University lacrosse players; Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligman and Dean Evans (North Carolina State Bar v. Nifong, 2007,p.18-20). According to Mosteller (2007) the case started with “gang rape allegations” by Crystal Mangum, a black exotic dancer who was also a student at North Carolina Central University on the morning of March 14th, 2006 (p.1337). The alleged rape occurred during the Duke lacrosse teams’ party at 610 North Buchanan Blvd (North Carolina State Bar v. Nifong, 2007,p.1). Suspiciously Mangum could not make any identifications of her attackers even after viewing most Duke lacrosse team members including the names mentioned above and the lacrosse team members who actually lived at 610 North Buchanan Blvd (Mosteller, 2007, p.1407). Mosteller (2007) also mentions that Mike Nifong had to know that
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.
Many new laws regarding sex crimes were developed following the sexual assaults of minors sensationalized in the news from 1993-2005. However, from the late 1970s through 2008, rape and sexual assault rates, as measured by the National Crime Victimization Survey, steadily declined (Mears, 2010, p. 82). This survey, however, does not consider all crimes that are considered sexual crimes. There is no existing data on all the various crimes that could be considered sexual crimes.
The first thing colleges can do is develop and give every student an official, written policy statement about sexual misconduct. Every student should be handed the official document, and then it should be explained in detail. Next, the college should establish a network of services like emergency rooms or policeman on campus at all times. This should be done because if the crime can’t be stopped, at least there should be someone to help the victim right away. The police should be there to prevent the crime or to punish the assailant after. Another important thing a school should do is educate both males and females about sexual harassment(sexual education classes). It should be required that for at least the quintile all student attend a sexual education class. That will give a chance for the students to understand how important our bodies are, and what it would feel like to be harassed and crossing that line between trying to be friendly and crossing it. But the best action all colleges should take is implement state-of-the-art security measures. Though this would be pretty expensive, this will ensure that sexual harassment doesn't occur as frequently as it does
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