Sexual assault on campus Sexual assault is a crime; it is, specifically in your first 2 years of college. The result of being sexually assaulted can be physically, emotionally any sexual act that is perpetrated against someone’s will. Rape, sexual abuse, unwanted touching, or forceful sexual intercourse, are all considered sexual assault. Sexual assault takes place everywhere but mostly on campuses. Although men can also be sexually assaulted, statistics show 99% of men are the perpetrators (Campus Safety). Some of the major contributions of rape are alcohol and drug use, men that play aggressive sports are more likely to be sexually aggressive toward females and being sexually assaulted before increases your chances of being assaulted …show more content…
The mental effect for survivors can be severe. Students in college go to further their education and start their adult lives; nobody assumes they will be a victim of sexual assault. After being sexually assaulted it will take time for the victim to set apart assault and consensual sex. Post-traumatic stress such as depression, mood swings, sleepless nights and nervousness are common consequences for the victim. Depression can eventually develop into suicidal thoughts. Although that horrifying scene will never be permanently deleted from their lives; victims can recover with support from family and friends, by seeking justice and receiving …show more content…
Appetite loss, overeating, and not eating at all are consequences. Some survivors deal with the horrible tragedy by coping with food. Self-esteem, depression, feeling of lack of control in life, anger and difficulty with dealing are all factors that can advance to eating disorders. Anorexia is a disorder used to describe when an individual starves themselves, and has an unrealistic weight loss goal. It can be a deadly disorder if not resolved soon. Bulimia is also a general cause of sexual assault. Bulimia just like anorexia is life threatening; except bulimia is when a person overeats and cannot stop. There are successful treatments and therapy to improve this behavior. Psychological counseling and hospital care are provided. Rape and assault leave physical results on the victim. Severe pain and injury are common, physical and emotional bruises can be extremely damaging. Beating the victim and being violent are common in rape cases. The physical damage left on the victim can be short-term or long term depending on the circumstances. Long term damage can include difficulties as the victim gets older such as heart disease, chronic pain, and arthritis. Sexually transmitted diseases is also a long term
Right after the attack, individuals experience a sense of shock, which has a powerful effect on their emotions and reactions. They go in an emotional state from being confused as they are unable to recognize and accept on what just happened. Victims will ask themselves “why me?”, and find that it will takes a lot of time to re-adjust after. The physical, mental, and spiritual pain can pervade the everyday lives of the survivors. Many college students that go through short- term effects, can prolong into long-term, depending how affective the sexual assault was. Some of these individuals will develop depression, or even post-traumatic stress disorder. Victims may engage in heavy drinking or even abuse drugs to get over their overwhelming feelings, but that can just cause more issues for them in the future. Colleges should be more involved in helping out the survivors of rape. Getting a deep understanding on how difficult this experience is, there should be more help in guiding to heal each individuals path for the better. College initially puts a lot of pressure on students and this experience will only increase their anxiety and
In a study done by The Journal of Clinical Psychology, “the primary reason for not reporting seemed to combine a type of guilt with embarrassment.” With the help of utilizing support groups, clubs, and other programs among college campuses that are designed to make the victim’s experience a little easier, the victims may not feel as embarrassed to come out and may feel safer in their decision to move forward with their case. One of the most notable effects of rape is the psychological impact that it has on the victim immediately as well as long-term. Many victims feel depression, anxiety, and other sudden onset mental illnesses as a result of their attack and can last for years post-attack. The Journal of Interpersonal Violence reported that in their study of 95 victims over a 12 week long period, “by 3 months post-crime 47% still met the full criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” This prolonged experience of emotional trauma can weaken the person’s overall mental wellbeing and cause the trauma to stick with them for the rest of their lives, especially if there are no support resources around them. As cited in the Journal of Clinical Psychology study previously, the number one reason for not reporting is the feeling of embarrassment which causes the victims to not talk about their experience and to shut out those around
According to Campus Sexual Assault: Suggested Policies and Procedures “the consequences of sexual assault can be very serious.” This means that it can lead to many outcomes which one could be hospitalization. The effects on sexual assault on a person can be very traumatic and it can be difficult for some people to overcome it. Another concern that they have stated is pregnancy, STD’s and HIV. The reason they are concerned about this which could certainties be a consequence of sexual assault is because not many girls want to go through with this because they were violated and they might not be able to take care of this child well. They might have to worry if they got an STD’s from them because they might as well have a sexual transmitted disease and who knows where this person went. HIV is the biggest consequences because as yet they couldn’t have found a cure and it is not curable at all so they are stuck with HIV for rest of their
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
A. Background Information: The next four years of the students’ lives after high school mark the moment they become independent. Because of the freedom, college students are more susceptible to careless actions like drinking, doing drugs, and even committing sexualt assualt. Sexual assault has been around for years and the actions to prevent this heinous crime has been minimal, especially in colleges and universities. In 2015, Brock Turner, a student from Stanford, sexually assaulted a young woman on campus. Turner claimed that because he was drinking, was with friends, and saw a “promiscuous” female student, that pressured him into committing such a heinous crime. This was because Stanford University didn’t teach its students sexual assault prevention which caused the victim to be harm and violated. By teaching college students about sexual assault prevention, it decreases the number of sexual assault cases on campus, prevents psychological damage to the victim’s mental state, and educates other students to know the signs
Sexual Assault on College Campus Cause and Effect Essay In general, rape means force or threatening to use force against a potential victim. It includes vaginal but doesn’t exclude other forms such as, anal and oral penetration. Rape tends to get grouped with women, but, there are also men who get victimized as well. It’s not limited to heterosexuals either, there’s also homosexual offenders (“Sexual Assault”).
Sexual assault is defined as a type of behaviour that occurs without explicit consent from the recipient and under sexual assault come various categories such as sexual activities as forces sexual intercourse, incest, fondling, attempted rape and more (Justice.gov. 2017). People often become victims of sexual assault by someone they know and trust (Mason & Lodrick, 2013) which is conflicting to the public’s perception and beliefs that offenders are strangers. Women are the main victims for sexual assault and are 5 times more likely to have been a victim of sexual assault from a male (Wright, 2017, p. 93). Men are victims of sexual assault however only 0.7% of men, compared to 3.2% of women, experience some form of sexual assault which highlights how vulnerable women are compared to men. Sexual assault is publicised and exposed in the media, however is often
A strong incidence of long-term psychological problems exists for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. George (1996) found that adults who had experienced childhood sexual abuse were twice as likely to suffer from mental health disorder when compared to their counterparts who were nor abuse.
A survey from the Association of American Universities of 150,000 students found that more than one in four women experience sexual assault during their four years in college. Over the four year college period, 27.2% of female students are victims of unwanted sexual contact that ranges from touching to rape (6). Sexual assault is far too common and it is an epidemic that faces many students in college. Many students suffer from the consequences of sexual assault, which is a result of many social and cultural deficiencies, but it can be fixed through a multifaceted approach. The problem of sexual assault can be fixed through the education of the community, a positive and helpful school environment, and classes focused on prevention.
Rape can ruin lives. The sexually violent act is associated with a long list of public health concerns, including disease, unwanted pregnancy, physical trauma, mental and emotional suffering, and death. While rape can be simply defined as sex without consent, the impact rape has on society is complex. Victims are often stigmatized. They feel ashamed, weak and at fault. An estimated 18 percent of women in the US reported being raped at least once in their lifetimes, according to a 2007 study cited by the Center for Research on Violence Against Women. For college women, the numbers are slightly higher: 1 out of 5 women report being raped during their college years (as cited in Lawyer, Resnick, Von Bakanic, Burkett, Kilpatrick, 2010, p. 453). To better contextualize those numbers let’s look at SF State. A little more than 17,000 women went to school here in 2013, according to the demographics listed on the SF State website. If we were to follow those women over the entire span of their college years, we can assume that 2,400 of them would get raped. These are alarming statistics, especially since we know that rape is widely underreported, suggesting the percentages of rape might be even higher. College students drink more alcohol than the normal public (as cited in Gunby, Carline, Beynon, 2012, p. 88). This is troubling for women because alcohol is known to increase the risk of victimization. In most alcohol-involved rape situations, women voluntarily drank large amounts alcohol before being raped. It is more common for college women to be raped after being incapacitated by alcohol than it is for them to be raped by force (as cited in Messman-Moore, Ward, DeNard, 2013, p. 50). Alcohol intoxication often affects ...
The lasting effects of childhood sexual assault into adulthood can be debilitating is resiliency possible. I chose this topic because it is of great interest to me I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Upon starting the research, I had preconceived notions of what would be found. Lasting effects can be, low self-esteem, sexual promiscuity, sexual issues, attachment issues, suppression of the abuse, PTSD, grieving a lost childhood, and a feeling of always wanting to be in control of situations. In addition, I expected to find some might suffer from nightmares, eating disorders, poor academic achievement, OCD issues, a feeling of inferiority and not fitting in, as well as parental rejection. To coin a phrase from Friedrich Nietzsche, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” (Nietzsche, 2001-2011 ©) I believe with a proper support system of family, friends, and counseling resiliency can and will prevail.
Through the assessment of data, examiners reached a general conclusion regarding the permanent somatic and emotional effects of CSA. According to Irish et al. (2009), it was proved that victims of sexual assault undergo extreme depression, eating disorders, anxiety, and terror outbreaks. Likewise, the investigation indicated that these persons exhibited a conversion of their psychological trauma into somatic signs since they developed drastic health issues such as body aching, obesity, gastric complications, and heart and lung illnesses; as a result, victims of child sexual abuse usually get sick more often during middle and old age than other individuals.
Sexual Assault in Today’s World In today's world, sexual assault has become a “hot topic” in the media. Many of these cases are seen as popular and have a lot of impact, some involving well known celebrities. But even with their vast numbers, some largely numbered cases of assault go unnoticed. Sexual assault in places such as the military, on campuses, and in the workplace have less broadcasted attention.
Sexual assault is a term that is used interchangeably with the word rape. The decision on whether or not to use the term rape or sexual assault is made by a state’s jurisdiction. Sexual assault is more readily used in an attempt to be more gender neutral (National Victim Center). Sexual assault can be most easily described as forced or unconsentual sexual intercourse. The individual that is performing these acts on the victim may either be a stranger or an acquaintance. In 1994, 64.2 percent of all rapes were committed by someone the offender had previously known (Ringel, 1997). Regardless, this type of crime can have extreme effects on the victim.
Victim The effects of rape can include both the initial physical trauma as well as deep psychological trauma to the victim. Although rape victims commonly report injuries and issues with their reproductive health after the sexual assault, rape doesn't always involve physical force. The most common and lasting effects of rape involve mental health concerns and diminished social confidence.