Case Background: In 1994 Christy Brzonkala, a student enrolled at Virginia Tech, alleged to have been raped by two Virginia Tech varsity football players, Antonio Morrison and James Crawford. In 1995 Brzonkala filed a complaint under the school’s sexual assault policy against the two football players and Morrison was suspended for two semesters while Crawford got off free. After Morrison was found guilty again at a second hearing, he appealed through the school’s administrative system and his punishment was set aside for being “excessive”. Brzonkala dropped out of the University and sued both Morrison, Crawford and Virginia Tech in Federal District Court alleging that the football player’s attack violated 42 USC Section 13981 of the Violence
In the book, Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in College Town, by Jon Krakauer, the reader delves into how rape and sexual assault are treated in the town of Missoula, and the University of Montana. As the reader, we are informed on how the university, the police department, the district attorney’s office, and the community reacted to these rape and sexual assault allegations. We see how the criminal justice system has failed the victims, and are forced to live with what happened to them, while their assailants are free of any burden. The law is set in place to protect people from victimization, but when the men, in this book, are not legally held accountable, then any woman, or man, is more susceptible to victimization. It is interesting
What is even more shocking being the number of women to this day that gets abused. "This ‘one in five’ statistic shouldn’t just be taken with a grain of salt but the entire shaker," said James Fox, professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University (Washington Post, 2014) The ‘one in five’ statistic he is speaking about is one in five women get sexually harassed in college (Obama, 2014). This small quote speaks humongous words. As it says in the quote, “one in five,” women get sexually harassed in college and that shows that women aren’t looked at as strong and agile people because
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town is a in-depth look at the issue of sexual assault on college campuses as told through the stories of students at the University of Montana in Missoula. Through the narratives, author Jon Krakauer ties in statistics and information creating an effective work that stands as emotionally compelling while remaining grounded and applying these stories to the greater problem of sexual assault. It tackles one of the biggest problems surrounding sexual assault in general, the treatment of the accused compared with the treatment of the accuser. Though Missoula focuses on the victims, it does provide much of the necessary background and possible motivations for the assaulters. These insights contribute
The documentary The Hunting Ground by Kirby Dick was created specifically to spread awareness of the vast problem of sexual assault on college campuses and to try to show that the problem needs to be solved. The creator wanted those struggling with their sexual assault and the unfair treatment they were exposed to, as well as anyone who may have to go through sexual assault in the future, to know that the problem of sexual assault that universities tried to hide in the dark is finally being given the spotlight they deserve. The spark of this idea of the documentary was the many stories of survivors across the nation from many different universities, specifically the story of Annie and Andrea who helped other survivors get the justice they deserve.
What is the Act about? The Act makes it illegal to sexually harass a women at the workplace. The law talks about different ways by which someone can be sexually harassed and how they can act against it. This act is just for women who are harassed sexually at the workplace.
The documentary called The Hunting Grounds, had multiple concepts that relate to sociology. Using a sociological perspective, it was very prevalent to see the ways college campuses use patriarchy and gender stratification to keep women who have been sexually assaulted on campus from disclosing information or even getting help about these issues. Through the discrimination against women at these gender institutions the women formed a Feminist movement to bring awareness and help to the victims on campuses all around the world and to stop the assaults from reoccurring. The Hunting Grounds is a documentary that reveals the untold stories of women on college campuses and how these women have fought to have their voice heard about sexual assault on campuses. Sexual assault and rape on campuses has always been a major problem for colleges all over the world yet very little has been done to protect the students.
In effect to conventional educational institutions such as universities, colleges, and secondary and elementary schools, Title IX correspondingly applies to any training program or education operated by a beneficiary of federal financial assistance. Various people have still never heard of Title IX even though it was passed in 1972, and it hold a major effect in our education system. Furthermost of the people who know/heard about Title IX believe that it only applies to sports, but the athletic equality is only 1 of the 10 main areas that is addressed by the law. The areas included are as followed: “Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing and Technology (http://www.titleix.info/).” Though Title IX is a short ruling, the Supreme Court conclusions and direction from the United States Department of Education, have provided a wide space covering sexual violence and sexual harassment.
Throughout this documentary, viewers learn that many sexual assault cases happen on college campuses. However, many of these cases are often ignored by college administrators because universities want to keep rape statistics low and they have an financial incentive to do so. In the film it states that there are less than 8% of men in college that commit more than 90% of sexual assaults. This indicates that because
Dorothy Siegel’s argument in the essay “What Is Behind the Growth of Violence on College Campuses?” is persuasive. Siegel persuades the reader by presenting her points and validating them with facts and statistics. One of the strongest aspects of the argument is that contrary to popular belief, students are committing a majority of the crimes that take place on college campuses; the students “themselves may become the assailants”, not persons from outside of the campus. She further supported this by pointing out that students tend to know their attackers. Another strong aspect of her argument is that campus violence is due to substance abuse.
Sexual assault is a major issue on college campuses and effects students both physically and mentally. The Associated Press found that there were 17,000 reports of sexual assault over a four-year period at schools across the United States. These reports include those from victims as young as five. Title IX protection does not only apply to female students, but prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) are at an increased risk of sexual assault, but are protected under Title IX.
As Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore put it memorably, “If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them. [Sexual] assaults... would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in the head.” Critics
I hope that during my undergraduate years at George Mason University I will be able to investigate the problem affecting many colleges that is date rape drugs. Rape on college campuses is a horrifying epidemic that our country is facing. According to healthresearchfunding.org “Up to 90% of college campus rapes occur through date rape incidents.” Almost every day on the news there is a new story about a woman who was a victim of rape or sexual assault, and most of the time the perpetrator gets away hands free. A major reason why date rape drugs are commonly used is because they are easily slipped in to drinks at college parties and are undetectable by the victim.
It looks scary how vulnerable the survivor can be at the time of assault. However, as long as the matter of violence is associated, the students at college campuses are safer than their non-college mates. Some training and education has been administrated to the students for awareness about the violence and sexual assaults. Even, with increased training and education, most of the college campuses have much longer way to go for decreasing the intensity and number of assaults and the incidents have immense negative impact on the society and people around us.
Ted Bundy is another famous sociopath. He was executed in 1989, but before his execution he admitted to killing at least 30 young women. “From birth Bundy was already in a category in which the FBI survey found 43 percent of sexual and serial killers: he had only one parent” (twisted minds). His early years were a little complicated because he kept changing his story. His mother left him in behind after he was born and he fell in love with a woman who left him as well.
