Rape culture has been around for centuries and today we still do not see a drastic change in the rapist serving time, and the victim, preferably labeled as the survivor receiving proper justice. An alleged rapist will most likely never get the full conviction and serve the time they should when unwanted sexual intercourse occurs with another person. Justice is not being fulfilled and with changes revolving around criminal justice rules and laws of punishment will lead to an outcome that is fair on the survivors half as well as the rapist serving the time he should. Even on a smaller scale emphasizing this problem through education systems and using the power of one’s voice and protesting for what is right are also responses to the problem that …show more content…
In the meantime, the best way to respond to this problem is through education through the school systems. The worst topic to discuss with other classmates and especially teachers is always sex. It is important that student’s, especially in high school, understand the terms of consent and how it plays a huge role in sexual intercourse (Kilpatrick, 2000). Education to both men and women about what to do if one was in that situation, witnessing the situation and that it is okay to say no. Providing students with this information will allow for the hope that one does not fulfill these actions and if found in that situation they have the education behind them to help them through the process. This is very valuable because teaching students the seriousness of the crime will allow them to question future actions or something they witness. Expressing the heavy impact of that rape is a serious crime that ultimately ruins one’s life would help decrease rates for the crime in the future. Hopefully, if schools enforce a strong sexual education and safety program into schools it would add the support in trying to get the laws and system changed. The more people who are aware of the undermining of rape can untimely, help restore justice in the …show more content…
Protesting is a way for everyone to get involved no matter one's race, ethnicity, gender and be able to fight for what is right in terms of rape. The people's voice is more powerful than one would think and it is important that people get out and protest for equal rights. The situation stated before with Brock Turner and his short sentencing for his actions left people uproar. Many people tweeted about the situation and others hit the streets with signs emphasizing the unfair treatment of the sentence (Tiven, 2016). Student’s at the Stanford University even protested the sentencing for Brock and how it was not the right punishment for what he did to another student. The attitude people have will give a large contribution to the changes in the system and laws of punishment because the more people who express the problem the more they will have to start dealing with it. Responding to this issue with your voice is very powerful and is something anyone could do. It is the attitudes that will truly have the biggest impact on the issue of unfair treatment towards the victim in an act of rape and how the rapist may not even pay time for their actions. Many feel outraged when a rapist doesn’t receive the correct sentence and the best way to fight it is making yourself feel heard even if it to a small group of people, it still has a powerful
Rape is a virus that infects every nation, culture and society. It is constantly referred to as “the unfinished murder”, because of the deep state of despair the rapist leaves the victim in. There is no common identifiable trend that determines who will be a rape victim. Women are not assaulted because of their attitudes or actions, they are attacked simply because they are present. With rapists, just as with their victims, there is no identifiable trend. The old myth that only “sick, dirty, old, perverted men” commit rapes is a lie that society tells itself in order to sleep better at night. The startling truth is that most rapists work under a veil of normalcy. In order for the percentage of rapes to decrease, we have to change our ideas about rape and let go of the old myths of the past. And until this happens, rape will continue to plague our world at large.
Most schools report that they have implemented programs and are actively participating in anti-rape activities around campus but are only doing so to meet the standards and make the school seem safer and more actively against the crime. In a study published in the National Institute of Justice it is reported that “anonymous reporting, which encourages victims to come forward, is an option at only half of the nation's school…and fewer than half the schools inform students on how to file criminal charges.” Schools advertise that they are educating their students about how to report the crimes and the importance of being aware of the dangers of rape but only meet the bare minimum with online programs that students can simply click through to pass. Schools are not effectively communicating that students really need to take these programs seriously and are instead allowing them to have negative attitudes towards the minimal education programs that they have set
Nicole Johnson*, a 22-year-old senior at an area university looks back at her college experience as graduation approaches, generally happy with how everything turned out, however, a dark cloud still looms over her freshman year when she was raped.
“I felt his hands start to move down towards my shorts as if he was trying to unbutton them or pull them off. I was still crying at this point and felt so scared that I couldn’t move” (Henneberger, 2012). These are words written by a college freshman after she had been raped, but they are true for many others as well. According to the Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit Counties, “every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted” (Get the Facts). “Girls ages 16-19 are four times more likely than the than the general population to be victims of sexual assault” (Get the Facts). These women may be described as slut, cheap, or ready for action, rather than victim, sufferer, or survivor. Rape myths encourage these demeaning terms for women and conceal the reality of rape culture. I will describe the pervasiveness of sexual assault on college campuses as well as the systems and procedures in place to address it. Power plays a role in this issue, including the powerful men on campus such as athletes and fraternity members as well as the administrators in power who regulate the punishments and actions that are taken against the perpetrators. The influence of those in power often goes overlooked in our society because it has become so intertwined with our culture.
We all have the means and capability to make a change in this world for the better of sexual assault. Whether it be reporting the incident, the victim retelling his or her story to those who’ll listen, or forming groups against any mean of sexual assault. This would greatly help indeed, but take this into consideration; what will happen if such a thing were never to be done? That being the case, we would more than likely suffer in the long run for having much more campus attenders being violated and sexually assaulted. Especially for our known individuals who’re attending schools for semesters; we’re basically saying that we could care less about the wellbeing of our friends, family, and associates who are by themselves on campuses; that if they get sexually assaulted, it’ll be their own faults. In actuality, the fault will have been ours. We don’t want that, do
Gender inequality is defined as “unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender”. In our society there are a plethora of gender inequality related issues, and it is vastly important that these issues are brought to light, and ultimately resolved. In society today, the feminism movement is at an all-time high while lots of gender oriented issues are being questioned and analyzed. The portrayal of women in the media is a major issue in todays world. Various issues such as female athletes not being adequately compensated for their efforts, the media portraying a master image for all females to meet, as well as slut shaming are all vast issues in todays world that must be acknowledged. However, contrary to popular belief,
Rape and rape culture are very real and present problems with our post-secondary system. Not a day goes by without a new revelation, number or statistic coming to light. Not a day goes by without feminists screaming to “take back the night” and men’s rights advocates crying for sex. There probably isn’t a person in existence who doesn’t have an opinion on the issue. There is so much focus on it, millions of dollars going into solving it. So, now there is a question we must ask ourselves - why is none of it working? Why are rape numbers increasing, instead of the other way around? Rape numbers are not decreasing because no one wants to address the root causes of the issue. Universities and colleges don 't want to crack down on alcohol abuse
... stand up for their rights because there is no one to support them. Furthermore, police officers are being unresponsive when women are being a victim of rape. Therefore, laws oppress women by not punishing men when they commit rape or any other violent crime toward women.
What do you think and feel when you hear the word rape? Do you feel uncomfortable? Maybe even angry? Your certain feelings and emotions towards this word is a result of rape culture. Rape culture, essentially, is how a society as a whole sees and reacts towards rape or instances of rape. In 2013 rape was defined by the FBI as, “Penetration… of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” (Division’s Crime Statistics Management Unit 1). The definition was finally changed after the old definition deemed inappropriate by today’s standards, which beforehand, stated that physical force needed to be used for rape to be considered rape. This is good news for men and women who have been fighting for the definition to be changed, but unfortunately this does not mean that state laws are being changed the same way. Even though the FBI may acknowledge the older inappropriate definition, most states do not. Sexual assault is a commonly unreported crime, where only an average of 36% of sexual abuse is actually reported to the authorities (Planty 7). Some forms of rape can include physical harm, threats, and even death of the victim, and most victims do not want to tell others for fear of criticism, self-blame, or even the fear that their attackers will carry out on their threats. In many cases, victims do have a reason to be afraid. When someone is brave enough to come forward and say they were sexually assaulted, they are putting themselves in the position of being in not only a long legal process, but also having their motives questioned and misunderstood, which is the last thing they want after their experience. The legal system in the United States...
Several changes can be made in every dimension of oppression in order to try eliminate rape culture from our society. The easiest way to have a wider impact on extinguishing rape is at an institutional level. Some measures can be implemented at an institutional level. The first one, government has the power to make punishment for rape more drastic. For example, sentences with longer time in jail. Education institutions are also a strong place to start a rape-free culture. High schools and colleges should have required courses to educate both young men and women of how to be respectful in a sexual way. Also in the workplace, meetings about sexual respect should be held at least once a year. Eliminating rape in symbolic and individual dimensions is a little bit more complex. For the symbolic dimension, a change of society’s stereotypes would be required. We live in a society where a man, in order to be considered masculine, need to be seen as strong, powerful, leader and even aggressive. This is one of the main reasons why rape is still present nowadays. Man want to be powerful and strong, and when they can get that by being nice, they get into a frustration stage that makes them reach the worse ways in order to achieve those qualities. By telling men they need to be strong and powerful, we are creating a justification of every action in order to accomplish those attributes. Finally, in order to make some adjustments to try erase rape from our society in an individual dimension, it is extremely necessary to start since we are children. We need to raise our children with a completely understanding that respect in essential in human relationships and that rape is not an option. Also, as mentioned before, the individual dimension is focused on the way both institutional and symbolic dimensions affect our personal life, so I believe
It is very troubling to hear that 1 in 5 women in University will be victims of sexual assault, and even more so that less than 60% of cases get reported. The purpose of my paper is to put emphasis on how important it is that more people be informed about rape culture, but to also explain how men are just as important in working towards prevention as are women.
Rape and sexual violence is a very serious problem that affects millions of people each year. Rape is someone taking advantage of another person sexually. Sexual assault can be verbal, physical, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. ("Sexual Assault.") Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. In 2002, only thirty-nine percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law officials. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet.") Victims sometimes do not report that they have raped because of shame or feeling that it was their fault. It is never the victim's fault. "Victim blaming" is holding the victim of a crime to be in a whole or in partly responsible for what had happened to them. Most victims believe this. ("Myths and Facts about Sexual Violence.")
Did you know that ninety-seven percent of rapists will never spend a day in jail? (RAINN) This fact is depressing considering the large percentage of rape victims. Things like rape and violence have a severe impact on the mentality level of people. Their lives will change forever after going through an intense situation such as being molested, beaten, or anything along those lines. It has caused people to commit the same crime, become severely depressed and suicidal, as well as many other unfortunate events. People look down on those who have gone through such events, some may say things such as, "you probably deserved it”, “you were dressed provocatively" or "how did you not enjoy that?” As such, rape is an underexplored
According to rain.org 44 percent of rape victims are under the age of 18 and 80 percent are under the age of 30 years old. Every 2 minutes an American is a victim of rape and about 240,000 of them are reported each year. Only 60 percent of assaults are not reported to the police renders that 97 percent of the perpetrators never spend a day in jail. The less the people report the crime the less they are likely to catch the perpetrator. Sadly 23 of the victims know the person whole is assaulting them. Almost 40 percent of the rapist know their victim. This is a very uns...
Children is an early age needs to be informed of the dangers that come with life in regards to sexuality. Some students have never learned about the diseases that are possible by not being safe about sexual activity. That’s why it is important that they find out about it at an early age. It is important to know about the consequences of not being safe. Another reason, what if a teen has a disease? Sexual education will hopefully help the individual with seeking treatment.