Sexual assault is one of the major problems facing modern-day institutions for higher learning among them universities and colleges, following this, these violent incidents in recent years have drawn a great deal of attention from students, parents, as well as administrators, policy makers, as well as the general public. Concerning this, sexual assault or rather abuse is termed as any type of unwanted sexual behavior/activity whereby, the perpetrators either use force, threats, or take advantage of vulnerable victims when they are unable to give informed consent. Generally, sexual assault tends to cover a “wide range of unwanted sexually motivated behaviors” which in most instances are used by the perpetrator as a way of either asserting power or rather assert control over the victims (American Psychological Association). According to research statistics from a government report the total number of sexual assaults that occur in the US college campus has soared by approximately 50%; thus over the last decade.
However, despite this, the rise in reported cases involving sexual assaults to a great extent does not necessarily indicate an overall increases in assaults themselves, rather it can be due to an increase in the number of victims/survivors willing to come forward to report these crimes. This paper therefore argues that the increased cases of reported sexual assault is as a result of increased awareness among modern day students.
Brief History of Sexual Assault in US College Campuses
In the US, during the 1760’s up to early 70’s most of the colleges and universities began to eliminate “the rigid codes of conduct” which to a great extent had governed student’s life while in higher learning institutions for generally, following this, these codes of conduct were substituted with more general as well as permissive standards. Moreover, as the country’s mood shifted to conservatism; thus in the early 1980s, most of the US states reinstated the legal drinking age as 21 (Purdum). Following this, the country witnessed a significant rise in sexual assault cases in college campuses, concerning this, in 1980 more than 2,300 cases were reported in 300 campuses and approximately 2,400 in 1986 in 240 campuses.
Works Cited
American Psychological Association. “Sexual Abuse”. American Psychological Association, (2018). Retrieved from; https://www.apa.org/topics/sexual-abuse/index.aspx
Purdum, Todd. (1988). The Reality of Crime on Campus. New York Times. Retrieved from;https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/10/education/the-reality-of-crime-on-campus.html
Karasek, Sofie. (2018). I’m a Campus Sexual Assault Activist. It’s Time to Reimagine How We Punish Sex Crimes. New York Times. Retrieved from;https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/opinion/campus-sexual-assault-punitive-justive.html
