The Negative Impact Of Sexual Assault On College Campuses

Eyewitness 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 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.

The US Department of Justice explains that “Title IX protects students from sexual harassment in educational programs or activities operated by recipients of federal funding” (“Title IX”). In order to evaluate the full impact of Title IX on students today, it’s necessary

In effect to conventional educational institutions such as universities, colleges, and secondary and elementary schools, Title IX correspondingly applies to any training program or education operated by a beneficiary of federal financial assistance. Various people have still never heard of Title IX even though it was passed in 1972, and it hold a major effect in our education system. Furthermost of the people who know/heard about Title IX believe that it only applies to sports, but the athletic equality is only 1 of the 10 main areas that is addressed by the law. The areas included are as followed: “Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing and Technology (http://www.titleix.info/).” Though Title IX is a short ruling, the Supreme Court conclusions and direction from the United States Department of Education, have provided a wide space covering sexual violence and sexual harassment.

This article is about a college professor who has been charged with sexual harassment by 4 of his students. This included “groping them, kissing them and touching or massaging them”. The professor posted an apology note on the universities web page, apologizing for his actions. He has been asked to step down from some of the committees he is a part of but has retained his job.

A book that I recently read that showed a reflection of my self-understanding was Missoula by Jon Krakauer because it extended my perspective on women’s safety on college campuses. The book Missoula shares stories of five women who were sexually assaulted at the University of Montana, Missoula and follows their cases all the way to trial. As a girl who has always been told that a college education is necessary to succeed in life, the idea that colleges arent safe for me felt like a secret that I wasnt allowed to know until I experienced it for myself. Reading the statistics and seeing how all of the rapists walked away unpunished strengthened my understanding of the fact that sexual assault is a normal occurance on college campuses.

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.

On November 19, 2014, the publication of an arIt was on November 19, 2014 that the publication of an article in the Rolling Stone magazine concerning sexual assault on campus led to two long and complex court cases. The article titled “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” was describing the gang rape of a University of Virginia freshmen identified as “Jackie” perpetrated by fraternity members of the UVA Phi Kappa Psi house. The article also identifies the existence of a certain UVA junior named“Drew” who happens to be the member that invited “Jackie’ at the house. While the two court cases Elias et al v. Rolling Stone LLC and Eramo v. Rolling Stone LLC were linked to this same article and had the same defendants,

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.

Sexual assaults on campuses have received more attention than in the past, because of an increased number of incidents occurring. Eliminating these assaults is nearly impossible, although with the help of society, individual strategies, and the involvement of the universities, we can cut down the number of victims dramatically. Schools want their campuses to be safe, yet all schools have violence. Every student deserves the right to a safe learning environment. Should schools do more to help prevent sexual assaults on campus or, should more women carry around pepper spray like I do?

A few short months following the rape, Brzonkala filed a complaint against the respondents under Virginia Tech’s Sexual Assault Policy. During the conducted hearing at Virginia Tech, Morrison confessed to having sexual contact with Christy, even though she had told him “no.” twice. With much consideration, Virginia Tech’s

Statement of the Problem Alcohol-related sexual assaults happen frequently within a college campus. Although sexual assault on campus has become a growing concern for the public, many of these sexual assaults go unreported so it is hard to know how severe of a problem it really is. Even though the majority of these sexual assaults are committed by acquaintances known to the victim many will be disciplined lightly or not at all by the university board. It is important to understand that sexual assault does not just mean rape, but also any sexual contact that involved force upon a person without that person’s consent. Based on the university’s alcohol policy on campus, I want to know if the environment created creates a setting where sexual assaults

College campuses need to foster a community where victims of sexual assault can feel comfortable to confide in someone on the situation in order to report it. It can be hard for a victim to report sexual assault because most likely the perpetrator was someone they knew. Many victims do not want to be seen as a victim, which discourages them from reporting as well. When a victim reports a sexual assault, almost always nothing happens to the perpetrator. College campuses need to work on revising their sexual assault policies in order to make the victim feel safe and ensure that the appropriate action will be