During this semester of university I participated in a class that covers topics such as morality and current issues. This post is for part of my final project.
So , what is sexual assault? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary it is:
Illegal sexual contact that usually involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent.
In an article written in The New York Times, Jenny Wilkinson writes about her experience with sexual assault during her college career. Most importantly, how there was no or very little consequences for her attacker.
She stated in her opening paragraph, "At a closed hearing, the university's committee on sexual assault found him [her attacker] responsible. His punishment? A letter in his file."
The only punishment this young man faced for attacking and sexual assaulting this young woman, was a letter in his school file, that essentially had no effect on his academic career. Wilkinson questions this compared to other issues on college campuses. "Compare this with the fates of the dozens of students, perhaps hundreds, who violated the school's honor code, which deals with lying, cheating, and stealing, during the same period. If you are found guilty of violating the honor code, there is only in sanction: expulsion."
What is this telling the college going generation? It is not only encouraging such sexually abusive acts, but it is also telling the victims, that there is no support for them and that it is better to just stay quiet about the situation. It is telling those young minds that it is worse to cheat or lie than it is to sexually assault another human being.
In many of these cases, the victims are often left in a worse position than before they reported their assault. In Wilkinson's case she "could have faced charges from the university if [she] had talked about [the proceedings of her case]."
It has now been twenty years since Wilkinson's assault and students are still being assaulted at shocking rates. In Wilkinson's article, she lists several statistics about sexual assault and college campuses. "According to a study conducted for the Department of Justice in 2007, about one (1) in seven (7) undergraduate women is sexually assaulted during college. A report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that nationally 35 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to the police in 2010; on college campuses, this number drops to 5 percent."
35 percent dropping to 5 percent is extremely alarming. Why is this happening? As Wilkinson's says, "I followed the rules, spoke up and fought for a place within both the criminal and university systems, but found no justice in either." The victims are afraid of the injustice in the systems and thus are not reporting their attacks.
"The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual
Assault released their first report in April 2014, leading with a chilling
statistic: one in five college students experiences sexual
assault during their college career."
(http://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/preventing-sexual-assault/)
In my family there are four daughters and our mother. Taking this statistic would mean that either me, one of my three younger sisters, or mother, would have been raped or sexually assaulted in some way.
The scary thing about rape and sexual assault is that many of the victims know their attacker.
"Approximately two out of three sexual assaults are committed by an attacker that the victim knows, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN). About 38% of rape incidents are committed by a friend or acquaintance of the victim."
(http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2013/11/03/sexual-assault-remains-under-reported-on-campus-despite-growing-awareness)
As a young college going women I am faced with the possibility that I may be sexually assaulted. However, attending a Mormon University does not protect me from sexual assault. In an article written for Brigham Young University-Idaho's newspaper The Scroll, it talks about the many cases of sexual assault that go unreported at BYU-Idaho because the victims don't believe that they are that serious or that they are worried about ruining the attacker's life. A young women in the article (her name has been changed) stated,
"Smith said she feels the reason that she did not report the incident before was because she was more naive. Now she said she realizes the importance of reporting these incidents, even if it was not rape, and hopes that other victims will realize the same thing."
Looking up these facts also brought up many articles on how to "avoid rape and sexual assault". Included in these articles are many self defense techniques and tips on how to behave at parties or other social functions. The real "how to avoid rape or sexual assault" should be, DO NOT DO IT. Respect your fellow human beings. As a feminist and human, I strongly believe that Colleges are moving in the right direction with their support groups and harsher punishments, however there are still many leaps and bounds that we should be accomplishing in regards to how we confront sexual assault.
If interested you can donate to this project to help stop sexual assault:
Public Integrity
NPR also has some very interesting radio shows discussing sexual assault. If you are interest here is the link to the archives of the shows regarding sexual assault. NPR Radio Show discusses Sexual Assault
Works used in this article:
http://byuiscroll.org/2015/02/27/byu-idaho-not-immune-to-sexual-assault/
No comments:
Post a Comment