Sexual Assault On College Campuses

According to the US Justice Department, sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient and includes sexual activities such as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. Sexual assault has always been an unacknowledged problem within society, especially on college campuses, with many people either being reluctant to speak out, believing it to be a sort of “myth” or call for attention, or just not knowing how to deal with it. For example, more than one-third of victims don’t report attacks because they didn’t realize a crime was committed. Sexual assault is a serious problem that must not be suppressed by individuals

In order to decrease the occurrence of sexual assault, first we must increase the use of Sexual Assault Kits, otherwise known as SAKs, in the criminal justice system. Even though most instances of sexual assault committed on college campuses are reported to campus police or school disciplinary boards, some cases make their way to the criminal justice system. Although SAKs can do a lot for sexual assault cases, many remain backlogged or do not make it through the investigation process. Backlogged evidence is generally considered evidence submitted to a crime laboratory for testing that remains unexamined for over thirty days. Among sexual assault crimes, the existence of forensic evidence that was tested by a laboratory was associated with an increased chance of arrest and of charges being filed but was not associated with case referral or conviction outcomes (Falik and Wells,

The Clery Act, which was named for a Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered by a fellow student in 1990, requires all colleges or universities that receive federal funding and maintain a police or security department to keep a daily crime log that is open to public inspection and is readily understandable. Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law banning sex discrimination in education, is best known for mandating equal access to athletic programs and was not taken seriously for anything beyond sports until recently with the abundance of sexual assault stories circulating the media. In 2011, the Department of Education issued a letter known as the “Dear Colleague” letter to colleges and universities nationwide because of the failed regulation and management of sexual assault cases. The letter scared colleges and universities about the possibility of losing federal funding if they didn’t do what the government wanted them to do and resulted in immediate action to address sexual assault on college campuses. It standardized some procedures for adjudication such as sparing accusers from questioning by their alleged attackers and allowing campus hearings to employ a much