Urban Legend about College Students

1088 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of violence on campus

Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On the Lights?

College campuses have been known to be popular breeding grounds for rumors. Ask any college student walking around a typical campus for the latest gossip, and they may flood you with more stories, quips, and anecdotes than you may have ever asked for. Some of these stories lead to codes and rules for living safely on campus, as urban legends about campus-related murders and crimes begin to circulate more frequently. In addition, these stories may deal with some supernatural elements. With the increased security alerts nationwide, caution is exercised in all circumstances and a bit of the anxiety and security alerts have spread to American colleges as well.

One of these urban legends deals with what happened to “two girls at some college.” A college student from University of Maryland, Baltimore County recites his tale about the murder of a young girl at an unnamed college. The storyteller is twenty, and currently lives in Rockville, Maryland. A Chinese-American student, he is majoring in the mechanical engineering field and “considers [himself] to be a normal guy.” Both his parents work in the restaurant industry. He told me the following story in a face-to-face interview:

I heard this from my friend about two girls at some college. I think they were like freshmen or something. But they lived together, I think in a dorm room together and one of them left the room, and the other one was sleeping. The girl who left, had left their door unlocked, and the lights off, and when she came back from the party she went straight to sleep in the dark. (Thinks to himself.) When she woke up, her friend was murdered and there was blood everywhere. I think later on they said t...

... middle of paper ...

... female victims in mind to raise safety awareness among female students living on college campuses. Women are primary victims of crimes more strongly influenced by the gender factor; they have been known to be easily overpowered by men (assuming the attacker is male!). A male victim may be able to fight back his attacker, but for a female it seems that their best line of defense is simply locking the door.

Works Cited

“Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On the Light?” Urban Legends & Superstitions. http://urbanlegendsonline.com/lightsoff.html

Dazey, Josh. “Campus puts students at undue risk: while restricting “basic natural rights”. Ifeminists. Feb 12, 2002. http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2002/0212b.html

Emery, David. “Halloween Campus Massacre ’98.” About. Oct 28, 1998. http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa102898.htm

Show More
Related

  • Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture" Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade analyze the social perspective of the gendered relations in male fraternities that add to the high rate of violence against women on many college campuses. They list a host of factors that distinguish higher-risk from lower-risk atmospheres discussing the rates of rape in colleges and state how "1 out of 4 college women say they were raped or experienced an attempted rape" (217). Additionally, "1 out of 12 college men say they forced a woman to have sexual intercourse against her will" (Boswell, Spade 217). In other words Boswell and Spade indicated that the rates were high when it came down to women getting raped in colleges by men who also attended those colleges. In addition, Boswell and Spade specify in how most people are aware of rape but know very little about rape culture (Boswell, Spade 217).

    Read More

  • Understanding College Life: A Bittersweet Transition

    1408 Words  | 3 Pages

    With one in five college students experiencing sexual assault during their college career who wouldn’t be afraid? This remains especially true for young women between the ages of 18-24 (“The Realities of Sexual Assault”). While a woman’s freshman and sophomore year of college are when she is at a most risk for assault, it can happen at any time. According to Robin Gray in the article on sexual assault statistics, “between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career,” (Gray). At Northwest Missouri State University for the 2016-2017 academic year there are 5,618 undergraduate students enrolled. With the ratio of male to female students being 44% to 56%, there are about 3,147 female students. In terms of the statistics estimated by Gray, 630-787 of the female student population at Northwest Missouri State will experience rape during their college career (“Northwest Missouri State University”). This is a disturbingly large figure. Women are not the only ones susceptible to these acts, but men are too. It is said about “10%” of all sexual assault cases involve male victims (“The Realities of Sexual Assault”). While this number is slightly lower for men it is often believed that male victims of sexual assault do not often report their crime due to the social stigma surrounding their assault. Men may feel

    Read More

  • Book Review: Carry That Weight: Case Review

    1512 Words  | 4 Pages

    A young Emma Sulkowicz was starting her second year as a Columbia art major, was raped in her dorm room. Emma didn 't report the incident at first, but when hearing about two other classmates who told her the same rapist was abusing them too, she pressed charges with the administration. Students tend to be uneasy reporting rape because the police aren 't always great with rape charges. After six months of Columbia not hearing Emma 's charges, they found the rapist in favor, (Grigoradis Vanessa, The Cut). Among college women, nine in ten victims of rape and sexual assault knew their offender, (Fisher, National institute of Justice). Emma falls under that nine, knowing the rapist, Paul, very well. At the end of their freshman year, they both signed up to help lead the next year’s outdoor-orientation program. During the training trip to the Delaware River they had sex

    Read More

  • A Call To Action Against Campus Rape And Sexual Assault

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    What many need to be vigilant of is that not just campus students are in jeopardy when it comes to ravish and sexual assault, but additionally people with disabilities , children and elders, the homeless, prison inmates and immigrants that do not have licit documentation and that many times are put in positions of sexual coercion.

    Read More

  • The Rape Culture of College Fraternities

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Also, the colleges that attempt to cover up the crime should be penalized by not our justice system but the media so the world can be better informed about the college they either go to or send their child to. First I summarized "Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why Are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?" written by A. Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Space. The. Then I used information from my criminology class to better define violent crime. Lastly, I explained how rape on campus is not a cultural component.

    Read More

  • College Women Stop Getting Drunk and College Men Stop Drinking

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hess, Amanda. "To Prevent Rape on College Campuses, Focus on the Rapists, Not the Victims." Slate Magazine. Slate Magazine, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Taking Women Students Seriously

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Women and men do not receive an equal education because outside of the classroom women are perceived not as sovereign beings but as prey” (Rich 446). Women already have this preconceived notion that they not only have to compete with men in school but the pressure that society puts on them to compete with other women every day. The body shaming epidemic going on now tells women that if they don’t have the right measurement then you are not considered attractive, it is another example of how women are viewed as a whole instead of as individuals. Adrienne Rich also discusses the obstacle that women face every day, but no one wants to talk about, rape. “How much of my working energy is drained by the subliminal knowledge that as a woman, I test my physical right to exist each time I go out alone?” What Rich is expressing is that women always have the unnecessary burden, of not only being considered the weaker sex in society but also physically being reminded that as women doing something as mundane as walking to your car you have to be conscious of the possibility of being raped. This is affecting women outside of the classroom setting, if women were represented more in mainstream curriculum there would not be such a conception about gender

    Read More

  • Men as Victims

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    As it is in the case of the majority of violent crimes, (Davies and Rogers, 2006) perpetrators of violent crimes, and especially sexual assault related crimes exert additional force by threatening the victim or their families. Male victims also must contend with an additional sense of shame and embarrassment in being identified with a crime that has been typically portrayed in the media as happening to women. This places men at a disadvantage in the reporting process, because their safety and the safety of others is compromised further if the crime is not reported. (Messerschmitt, 2009)

    Read More

  • Addressing Sexual Assault on College Campuses

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    “College life is an important social domain that provides lifelong experiences and memories for millions of students each year. As these results show, part of this experience involves college women experiencing forcible rape and/or alcohol-or-drug-induced rape” (Fisher, Daigle, & Cullen, 2010, p. 83).

    Read More

  • First Amendment and the Constitutional Freedoms in Amercan Schools

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    The First Amendment, usually equated with freedom of speech, affords five protections: Establishment Clause, Free exercise of religion, Freedom of speech, Freedom of press, and Freedom to peaceable assemble. Students (and student groups) in public colleges and universities enjoy full protection under the First Amendment; however, this right depends greatly on the context in which a student might raise a free speech claim. Once an institution creates a limited public forum for a student or group, administration cannot deny recognition to particular student or groups based on viewpoints. Given the great freedom students are afforded, the freedom is not absolute. The courts have allowed administrators to place reasonable restrictions on location, time, and manner of students and groups. In Tinker v. Des Moines, the court made it clear that, students do not “… shed their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse door." To strengthen the importance of free speech on campus the court said, in Shelton v. Tucker “The vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American Schools.” These rights allow students to be able to take courses in a wide variety of subject matter, which may include topics often considered controversial. Moreover, student must have the ability to explore and discuss those topics without fear censorship or retaliation.

    Read More

  • Pledge Of Allegiance Analysis

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    For instance, women were not afforded the right to vote until 1920 with the 19th Amendment – over 150 years since the creation of the United States ("19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution"). The women’s rights movement began with the country’s inception, but suppressive gender roles confined women in the home as wives and mothers. In spite of numerous developments over time, as a woman today, I have a fear of rape that hangs over me as I anticipate entering college. I am not alone in this fear, knowing that one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college (The Hunting Ground). The problems caused by sexual assault are violations of Title IX, as the lack of safety inhibits a woman’s participation in her education (“Title IX and Sex Discrimination”). When over half of America feels – and has always felt – that they have less freedom due to their gender, there cannot be

    Read More

  • Sexual Victimization of Women

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    College campuses are one of the most popular scenes for crimes of rape to occur. A disturbing statistic resea...

    Read More

  • Drinking and Sexual Assault

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Sexual Assault and College Campuses - Statistics." Statistics about Sexual Assault. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Rape and Sexual Violence

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women are more likely to be victims of rape or sexual violence than men. Seventy-eight percent of victims of women and twenty-two percent are men. Women who are raped before the age of eighteen are twice as likely to be raped again as adults. Victims are at greater risk of rape or sexual assault while intoxicated. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sh...

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment and Rape

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cheryl, sixteen, trainer for her high-school girl's volleyball team and photographer for the school newspaper, arrived at the gym at about 9:00 Saturday for a volleyball tournament. She left her purse and equipment with friends while she went to the restroom. When the game started and she hadn't returned to the team's bench, her friends went to look for her. Her raped body was found behind some stage backdrops on the balcony of the school auditorium(Booher 12). Sexual harassment and rape are prevalent in all aspects of society.

    Read More

More about Urban Legend about College Students

Open Document