The Impact Of Sexual Assault On College Campus

Every 98 seconds, someone is being sexually assaulted, and for every 8 minutes, that victim is a child. Sexual abuse or assault can happen anywhere, from inside the home, to a college campus, or in the workplace. Sexual assault is a more prevalent problem then society realizes because many cases remain unreported. The stigma against reporting sexual assault needs to be eliminated in order to bring a reduction to this societal problem. Many factors play into sexual assault, like alcohol or drugs or just being an a abusive relation with a boyfriend or girlfriend or even a family member or friend.

A common place for sexual assault to take place is on a college campus, or just at a party on campus. One case that is extremely well-known is a case

1 in 5 girls and 1 of 20 boys are victims of sexual assault. Any type of sexual activity, fondling, obsessive phone calls or text messages, and exhibitionism are all types of sexual assault. “93 percent of victims under the age of 18 know the abuser.” (Rainn). There are not exactly any warning signs to watch out for, but after there are some physical changes such as bruising, itching, scratching, difficulty sitting down, torn or bloody clothing. Some mental changing that one may notice are depression, constant showering, self-harm, developing phobias, not caring about school or grades, nightmares, or possibly they start to act as a caretaker for younger siblings. Victims of sexual assault can be very protective about themselves and ones close to them. The abuser or attacker can be anyone from a total stranger, to a close friend, to even a family

You learn a tiny bit about rape and sexual assault in health class, but were you really paying attention, or were you just trying to get by? Teens are uninformed about what exactly sexaul assault is and what they can do to prevent it. Renae Franiuk performed an experiment in her classroom, she called it “Discussing and Defining sexual assault. A classroom activity.” In this activity, Franiuk had students read scenarios that involved sexual situations and then had the students decide if it was classified as sexual assault. The students also had to give their definitions of what the believed sexual assault and sexual abuse is. Schools do not like to talk about rape and sexual assault, let alone parents and close relatives. Sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape, date rape, these are topics that everybody strays away from because of the stigma the words have on them. If you hear someone mention rape, everybody turns to look at whoever said it, even if it did not specifically happen to that person. Sexual abuse or assault is typically only classified around women and children that are female, nobody recognizes that men can be sexually abuse too. Men are supposed to be strong, and they are told that if a women comes on to them, then they are supposed to like it and they are supposed to enjoy it. “As of 1998, 2.78 million men in the U.S. had been victims of attempted or completed rape.”