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Sexual Violence On College Campuses

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Sexual violence is a major social and public health problem on many college campuses across the United States and many other countries. Sexual violence encompasses many different aspects of sexual deviancy but sexual violence is typically considered to be sexual assault or rape. Sexual assault and rape have affected men and women alike. However, the vast majority of sexual violence victims are women with men being the perpetrators. Women on college campuses have a higher chance of becoming a victim of sexual assault then other women. Rape is defined as penetration or attempted penetration of sexual organs, but sexual assault is a much broader term. Sexual assault includes; completed or attempted penetration, abusive sexual contact without …show more content…
One study was done that show most college students do not fully understand the details or actions of sexual assault. In many cases sexual assault incidents went unreported because the victim did not believe they were a victim of sexual assault. This same study analyzed 494 sexual assault prevention tips from 15 schools. They looked for frequency, intended audience, and common themes. From the 494 tips studied 397 of the tips were directed towards women, 69 of the tips were directed towards men, 27 were considered gender neutral and one was unclear for targeting men or women. From these 15 schools analyzed there were 25 tips that were common among all the schools. From of those 25 tips only one was directed towards men while the other 24 were directed towards women. Out of the 397 tips for women there were four basic common themes for sexual assault prevention. Those themes were: there are no safe places, you can’t trust anyone, never be alone, and you are vulnerable (Bedera & Nordmeyer, …show more content…
Sexual assaults that were drug or alcohol related showed to occur five times more often than forcible sexual assaults. From the drug and alcohol related assaults the most frequent scenario for sexual assault occurred after the voluntary consumption of either alcohol alone or the consumption of alcohol and the use of marijuana. These results are consistent with research dealing with drinking patterns and increased risk for sexual assault. It also supports the claim that consumption of alcohol and drug use increases a woman’s risk of sexual assault (Lawyer, Resnick, Bakanic, Burkett, & Kilpatrick,

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