Sexual Assault College Campuses

Introduction

Sexual assault has become a norm on college campuses across the United States; so much so that college women are 3x more likely to be a victim of a sex crime Rainn (2017). It does not have to be this way, their are clear ways sexual assault in a college setting can be prevented. Unfortunately, colleges and universities are not taking the right steps in developing programs and safe spaces for sexual assault victims and prevention. Sexual assault prevention on college campuses is especially important for incoming college freshmen because, it helps students learn how they together can create a safer, happier and more stable college experience. This is relevant to society today because 23.1% percent of undergraduate females and
One of the most common causes of sexual assault according to Shields (2015) is alcohol: “alcohol depresses women’s ability to assess risk, it diminishes men’s ability to accurately perceive women’s interest in having sex with them.” Shields (2015) also shows in a study that “more than 1,300 colleges and universities and have found that far fewer accusations of sexual assault are levied at the schools that ban alcohol and prohibit opposite-sex overnight guests in residence halls.” This shows that if schools have stricter alcohol laws the sexual assault rate will decrease. This relates to a study done by U.S News and World Report (2015) where it is found that “assault rates have been 3.1 to 4.4 times higher at the most permissive colleges and universities than at their more restrictive counterparts.” Another predecessor of sexual assault is age, Finley’s (1993) study found the
Sexual assault prevention has to be spread out between each year of college. Based on the research the most plausible approach to sexual assault prevention is educating the students throughout their collegiate years. According to Southerland (2017) “If sexual assault awareness education is limited to the freshman year, college students may experience information overload, or they may not receive the appropriate information at all.” (P. 116) Not only do colleges need to provide specific programs to prevent sexual assault but, they need to have the courses spread out throughout their college careers. Spreading out prevention courses will cause the student to actually grasp and understand the prevalence and importance of sexual assault. Not only is education a factor but, alcohol abuse has a major correlation with sexual assault. Majority of campuses that ban alcohol have reported fewer instances of sexual assault. In a 1985 study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that some 76 percent of college rapists admitted to using alcohol to weaken their victims. (Shields 2015) With this statistic it is easy to infer that alcohol plays a major role in sexual assault. The remaining factor I believe pertains to the cause of sexual assault is the psychological pressure that is put on young women. According to Finely (2003) “majority of sexual assaults were due to psychological pressure-2l%o of