College Campus Rape Essay

In our society, the amount of coverage that is received of the rape culture among college campuses and universities continues to become more prevalent each and every day. Sexual assaults on university and college campuses are most likely to happen amidst the student population. According to Burnett, Mattern, Herakova, Kahl Jr, Tobola, and Bornsen (2009), every two minutes in the United States, someone is raped, and the chances of being that victim are four times greater for a college female student than for any other age group. Rape is described as being non-consensual vaginal, anal, or oral penetration by force or even threat of force. Twenty-five percent of women on college campuses have said that they have been raped or has experienced an

According to Richardson and Shields (2015), a 2004 study showed that 72 percent of rape victims were intoxicated at the time of their assault. Another study found that an astounding 76 percent of males who committed a sexual assault on a college campus used alcohol to weaken a women’s objection in order to have sex with them. Alcohol can also intensify aggressive and antisocial behavior in males. On college and university campuses, it has been found that fraternity men and sorority women are more likely to use alcohol before having sex than non-fraternity and non-sorority members. Students that attend parties at fraternity or sorority houses often times are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Unfortunately, it is not surprising that a sexual assault is more likely to occur when drugs and alcohol come into play. It also seems that alcohol is a contributing factor of the time that sexual assaults on campus are most likely to occur. Richardson and Shields (2015), states that of more than 5,000 undergraduate female students, 72 percent of assaults occurred late at night and 90 percent of female students who were incapacitated by drugs or alcohol reported late night assaults. An unfortunate reality is that alcohol can also prevent victims from speaking out on the crimes committed against them. The presence of alcohol can make victims of assault less likely to report

According to DeMatteo, Galloway, Arnold, and Patel (2015), roughly 75 percent of universities have policies that outline procedures in case of a sexual assault, but unfortunately only half of the universities provide students with a phone number to report an assault and less than half actually provide a phone number that can be used after hours. If universities provided effective measures to guarantee that a victim can report an assault, then less victims will feel like they do not have a voice or someone that they can turn to for help. A recent study found that a mere 50 percent of universities provide a hotline for victims of assault, 44 percent of universities allowed sexual assaults to be reported online, and 8 percent of universities provided anonymous reporting (DeMatteo et al, 2015). Another starting point would be if policies were put in place to protect victims of sexual assault rather than blame them. If university and college campuses could continue to implement preventative measures, then it is possible that more people will be educated on the occurrences of sexual assault on college and university