Campus Assault Case Study

Sexual assault is defined by the department of justice as: any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. Women aged 18-24, in college, are three times greater at risk than the average woman any age. (RAINN). The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has 246 ongoing investigations into how 195 colleges and universities handled sexual assault under Title IX. (Huffington Post). Many ask, Why on college campuses? Why have these statistics been rising? For a rapist or an assaulter, college is

Date rapes, hate crimes and theft have become an apparent concern on college campuses. The most disturbing crime on a college campus is a school shooting. Being a victim of any crime is the last thing any student or parent thinks of when choosing a college or university. The possibilities of danger on a college campus have been increasing over the years due to the reported crimes ranging from theft to murder. Because of the recent years of college campus reported shootings, both student and parent have become alarmingly concerned about

It would be wrong to say violence ends when you turn the television off or act as if injustice didn’t exist anymore, but if you reflect back on 2016 so far, one of the biggest topics that often dominates the news and blogosphere concerned the high frequency of assaults on college campuses around the country. In the place where many young adults begin to learn who they are and who they want to be while enjoying a comfortable freedom and safety among their peers discovered freedom and safety could not always be guaranteed.

“Among undergraduate students, 23.1% of females and 5.4% of males experience rape or sexual assault” (RAINN). Rape is a threat virtually anywhere people go, but no place has a higher risk for sexual assault than college campuses. However, many of these occurrences go without penalties against the attacker, and even more are not reported at all. The lack of consequences for the accused indirectly suggests that rape and other forms of sexual assault are allowable and create further problems for the victims of the horrendous actions. Harsher punishments need to be given out for sexual assault on campus, as the current rulings are biased and immoral.

Over the past decade, sexual assault on college campuses has been overlooked due to failed communication from the victims of the attack, which also allowed many schools around the world to become oblivious to the epidemic. A survey commissioned by the “Association of American Universities” brought forth results which were released in September 2015, stating that more than 27.2 % of female college seniors reported having experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact entering college. The dynamics of college life seems to fuel the problem; many are abused while they are under the influence of drugs or otherwise incapacitated. Most victims are assaulted

In 2016, The United States Department of Justice released this chilling fact: one out of every four female undergraduates will be victim to some form of sexual assault before graduation. Even more terrifying, the American Civil Liberties Union estimates that at least 95 percent of sexual assaults on college campuses in the United States go unreported. These striking statistics resonate a dire call for increased prevention of sexual assault on campuses across the nation. With the passing of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators in 1994, many universities and colleges began to enact sexual assault protection programs (Breitenbecher Hanson). However, as proven by the recent statistics presented earlier, these programs are

Though most college campuses are statistically safer than the surrounding communities as a whole, college campuses do occasionally host to every type of violent crime found in the rest of society, from murder to assault to rape. Although social education is the best way to deal with a problem like this, under the threatening situations of campus violence, armed police campus should be done as prevention.

A late arrangement of profoundly exposed campus sexual assaults and the flawed reactions by the scholastic organizations where they happened, has driven some policymakers and academic administrators to call for administrative and institutional change. For such changes to be powerful, academic administrators and officials need arrangements that successfully secure victims, discipline culprits, and inspire institutional compliance with appropriate legislation. Moreover, there has been huge level headed discussion about how much the criminal justice system can and ought to be included when sexual assaults happen on school grounds. To address these inquiries, there should be a more intensive comprehension of existing state sexual assault laws and their ability to handle sexual assault that happen on school grounds.

The focus of my paper is to explore what kind of services and programs, are offered to victims of sexual assault. The research question that will be focused throughout this paper is: In what ways do Universities and Colleges assist victims of Sexual Assault? According to the United States Department of Justice (2017), sexual assault is defined as "any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape" (DOJ 2017). As you can see sexual assault has various situations that could cause some situations to be sexual assault. Statistics show how 95% of campus sexual assault is unreported, 90% of women know who sexually assaulted them, 50% of sexual assaults on campus are alcohol related, 80% of rape victims suffer chronic physical and psychological problems over time (PACT5:2017).

This article discusses the recent case on campus of sexual assaults and sexual abuse. It also mentions helpful resources for survivors and supporters on campus. This article cites credible sources like, the Journal of American College Health and A report on the Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct National Crime Victimization Survey published by the Justice Department. The studies mentioned in the article are very credible and hyperlinks to the studies are linked throughout the article. Not only does this article give background knowledge on the problems with campus safety through statistics, but it also reports on the latest incidents at the university this year. This article is a good base source for understanding my research question.

With the majority of assaults being committed, are in a sexual manor, the Safety Response Team will direct it focus on sexual assaults. According to a 2016 study released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), “an average of approximately 21% of undergraduate women across the nine schools participating in the study reported experiencing sexual assault since entering college. Non-heterosexual college females reported significantly higher rates than their heterosexual female peers. The majority of rape and sexual assault victims reported being victimized by someone they knew ("Protecting Students from Sexual Assault", 2016). With the numbers reaching close to twenty-five percent there must be strategic action that will manage, cope and adapt to this need for reformation in the Colleges issue on

Statistics show that 15% of student populations are prone to campus violence if they have been conflicted with any type of harassment. (Bleau, Hannah) In the past few years’ campus violence has been a pressing issue in the United States, and in many instances it has been the front -page news. Campus violence is defined as, any act or threat of physical aggression or obliteration of property by any individual on school grounds. Though threats can vary and could include provisional or direct threats in oral or written forms, harassment, harm or endangerment of property or person, intimidation and other disruptive behavior performed at an educational institution; each can create substantial harm if not death. There have been multiple controversial arguments throughout the United States considering campus violence as the subject matter, and almost each case deals with the death of innocent people. If a new law is not passed to create a stable environment through tightened security for public and private institutes then massacres such as the Virginia Tech Massacre, Columbine Massacre and the most recent, Umpqua Community College shooting will continue to drive other’s to replicate such ruthless behavior.

Sexual assault has been a huge issue for many years on college campuses and universities nation wide. As society has evolved, thoughts on sexual assault have also evolved, becoming more focused on the details of victim treatment than ever before. The topic of sexual assault is debatable and sparks many opinions on weather sexual assault on college campuses is becoming more frequent, or if there is just heightened awareness. Sexual assault can happen to anybody no matter the gender, race, religion, or age. Recently there have been many studies conducted on sexual violence on college campuses and universities producing ample amounts of statistics. One may argue that sexual assault rates are the same, but there are simply more studies and attention on sexual assault in the past 20 years. Gender roles have played a huge part in sexual assault on college campuses. Women and men have different expectations when it comes to roles in the relationship, men are often expected to make the first move. One may ask what causes a perpetrator to sexually harass somebody and think it is acceptable. There are various reasons as to why perpetrators do what they do, and may vary from person to person. Although sexual violence is a large problem for many colleges and universities, there is a surprising shortage of federal laws/rules and regulations regarding sexual assault. Colleges are able to develop their own personal policies and procedures for how they will prevent and deal with sexual

The second way in which colleges can significantly reduce sexual assaults on campus is through increased security protocols. These protocols can be implemented by increased lighting in poorly lit areas, placement of closed circuit television cameras in blind spot areas, and areas less traveled by students and staff and through additional security or police officers. Many education sources encourage people to avoid poorly lit areas to avoid crime, therefore the same should be utilized on campus. Increased lighting on the campus should be a top priority for the college. Increased visibility encourages more people to take the route, which also assists in deterring crime. Within every community and on every campus are blind spots, or areas that are less frequently traveled. These areas a prime locations to increase the number and orientation of security cameras, to ensure visibility in all areas of the campus. An increased number of security or patrol officers will assist in deterring not only sexual assaults, but other crimes as well. Reduced overall crime results in an overall safer campus. While each of these suggestions can come at a significant cost, proactive security is substantially less expensive that an assault or other crime. Additionally, the United States Department of Justice offers Grants to Reduce Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating

Before exploring the process of constructing campus crime as a social issue, Sloan III and Fisher (2011) found it necessary to report on the history of campus crime in American universities as the majority of the public assumes that campus crime is a relatively new phenomenon when in fact, campus crimes has been a prominent (yet not very visible) issue since the founding of the