This year in my mass media and society class, we wrote papers every week over a certain subject. My subject was sexual assault specifically, but not limited to, on college campuses.

One of the biggest and most haunting things I learned over this semester is that one in five women is sexually assaulted. And it is estimated that 95% of assaults go unreported. This is according to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. Most sexual assaults happen in the victims own home by someone they trust. Coming from a small town where rarely anything bad happens these numbers and facts are insane.

Every state has their own rules on punishment of sexual assault. So very similar crimes can have very different punishments in different states. Everyone knows the case of Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer who only received a sentence of six months for sexually assaulting a woman after a party. Two former Vanderbilt football players, one of which was an African American, both received 15 year jail sentences. This is a huge difference, and deserves the question why there isn’t a national minimum sentence?

A meeting was held in California with the main focus being the victim of the Brock Turner case. Many elected officials were in attendance and heard a letter that she wrote about her experiences, and how hard it is to live with what she has gone through. Many believe this letter was the reason for the Governor to soon after chance the minimum sentence to be three years for sexual assault.

On the flip side false accusations are damaging real victims from coming forward in fear they will be made fun of or told they are lying to get their 15 minutes of fame. False accusations can ruin lives as well. Most people know of the Duke Lacrosse team, who had three members accused of raping a young woman. This was completely false, but the team was attacked from all sides. They were the number one team in the nation and heavy favorites to win the national championship, but were forced to forfeit the rest of the season. The coach was fired, but eventually all members were cleared of all charges. The damage had already been done on the team however.

Sexual assault is a huge problem in our country and it is only getting worse. False accusations have done nothing but further damage the chance victims will come forward. Colleges are trying to be better and help teach students the dangers that are out there. We as a country need to do more to protect these victims.