For the average college student, life is already stressful as it is; with having to focus on homework, additional jobs, papers, personal issues and taking tests. The last thing anyone would want to worry about is being sexually assaulted.
The Department of Justice describes sexual assault as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient; forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape/rape.”
Compared to other crimes, sexual assault is more prevalent. This means that when compared to crimes such as robbery, sexual assault occurs more often. The scary thing is, is that sexual assault can happen to anyone. The reason that this occurs is because the people who usually commit the act, are people that the victim knows. College-age women between the ages of 18 to 24 are the average demographic of victims. On college campuses, 11.2 percent of the students are victims of sexual assault, with 8.8 percent being females and 2.2 percent being males.
If it is such a heavy topic, why isn’t it talked about?
Sometimes after a person has been assaulted, they feel as though it is their fault. They feel immediate grief and begin to blame themselves, this can cause a person to want to shut down and separate themselves from their friends and family. But often, after the act has taken place, assaults are not reported to the police. In fact, 60 percent of assaults are not reported. Some reasons as to why these cases are not reported are because they are scared, afraid, feel shunned, felt as if it was their faults, didn’t want the perpetrator to get in trouble and they believed that the police wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Why is it that these victims are the ones who feel ashamed, not their perpetrators?
This is because people are attacking the victims, they believe that it was the victims responsibility to “not get raped,” or to “not dressed so suggestively.” Why? Because it’s just so much easier to blame the victim than the person who actually committed the crime. Society often plans to locate the “easy way out,” in many situations. Since blaming the weaker party is easier most people veer towards that option. Another reason is that the people who are doing the raping or sexual assault, are usually well treated members of the college campus. By this, I mean that these individuals were seen as having high positions of “power.” For example, on May 3rd, 2016, a young woman attending Spelman College attended a party where she got intoxicated and was raped by four young men from the “Brother school” Morehouse. When the young woman had gone to talk to school authorities and school officials, they told her that there was nothing that they could do because she was underaged and drunk at a party. The dean of the school also told the young woman that because her rapists were from the “Brother school,” and that they needed to protect the “namesake,” of the institution. Why is it that the integrity of the young men was to be protected, but the young woman who was raped/assaulted was not? Was it because she was underaged? Was is because of what she was wearing? Why is it that a young woman who was once the victim is now being attacked?
Why is it that the assaulter(s) are not being attacked?
Why is it that their convictions, compared to more heinous crimes are being tossed out and they are being let off during their cases? Why should people who are victims of crime be forced to walk around and see their rapists outside walking around and feel threatened or scared?
Two very important documentaries have taken the initiative to talk about these issues. "Audrie & Daisy" is about two high school students who were raped and became victims of harassment from their entire schools. Similarly, "The Hunting Ground" which follows the stories of college students who were raped on their campuses and dealt with the retaliation and harassment of their peers as they fought to get justice from their assaults.
What needs to happen is that society as a whole needs to stop attacking the victim and start attacking the rapist. This is where we as a society, need to see a change. We need to break any stigma in regards to how rape culture is handled and take care/stop blaming of the victims.
