Sexual Assault: The Violence Against Women's Act

Literature Review

Sexual assault is a crisis in the United States. This crisis is perpetuated by the belief of rape myths, gender roles and victim shaming. If this epidemic continues at its current rate then the consequences will affect not just the victims but laws, colleges and families. Fortunately there has been significant effort put forth towards educating communities on sexual assault and in assisting victims. The consequences of sexual assault effect not just the victim but the whole community. The amount of victim alone effect the community. The U.S department of Justice found that there is about 293,066 victims of sexual assault (“Who are the Victims?” RAINN). That means there was a sexual assault victim about every two minutes
The Violence Against Women’s Act was established in 1994 (Wies, 2015). It allocates funds for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault (Wies, 2015). It also provides funds for training police about domestic violence. In 2013, the section 304 was added to the Violence Against Women’s Act (Wies, 2015). This section is known as the Save Act. Section 304 mandates that schools report, their statistics about crime, and the schools programs that focus on preventing intimate partner violence, sexual assault and stalking (Wies, 2015). This section also requires schools to report what policies the school has in regards to how the school investigates reports (Wies, 2015). The Violence Against Women’s Act also protects the rights of other victims, besides college students. One example of how Violence Against Women’s Act protects victims right is that it gives tribal courts authority to prosecute non-native offenders for sexual assault (“The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013: Safely and Effectively Meeting the Needs of More Victims”, n.d.). Before it was passed the tribal courts did not have the authority and some Native American victims could not seek justice (“The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013: Safely and Effectively Meeting the Needs of More Victims”, n.d.). Since VAWA was enacted domestic violence has decreased. More people are
The study had 372 participants in the treatment group and 422 participants in the control group. The participants were students at public high schools. The participants were between the ages of 15 to 17(Daigneault, I, et al., 2015). The treatment group attended an hour and 15 minute training on sexual assaults. When organizing the data, the researchers found that there was there was a difference between how men and women retained information about sexual assault resources (Daigneault, I. et al, 2015). The researchers noted this differences could be because they presented resources for female victims only (Daigneault, I. et al, 2015). Despite the differences between males and females recognizing resources, the study found that the trainings were effective, for all participants in the treatment group, in increasing the knowledge on sexual assault facts, improving the attitudes about sexual assault (Daigneault, I. et al,