Sexual Assault Victims Need to be Further Encouraged to Report Crimes

The problem of sexual assault urgently demands more of the right kind of media attention and publicity. There needs to be more emphasis on providing support that encourages victims to testify, rather than portraying them, as the RSO did, as disempowered and helpless. Campus campaigns need to confront the social pressures and gendered attitudes responsible for the extent of this problem.

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence survey conducted by the government in 2010 revealed that nearly one in five women say they have been raped, or have experienced an attempted rape. The skepticism at the I-House meeting could be explained by ignorance of the problem’s gravity despite its extraordinary prevalence. This is partly due to the large amount of unreported cases and lack of publicity when cases are reported. Kari Mansager, director of the violence prevention program at UC Merced, released a statement in 2011 stating that the national average of victims who report to law enforcement is as low as 5 percent. According to the UCSD Annual Crime Report, there have been zero cases of non-forcible sexual assault reported at UCSD in the past four years. That number is potentially encouraging, but arguably attests more to the amount of cases that must slip under the radar due to the victim’s failure to testify. If for nothing else, the RSO should be applauded for refusing to comply with the detrimental hush-hush attitude often adopted by colleges in a shameful attempt to avoid bad press.

Sexual assault is not confined to cold, dark alleyways. Some surveys suggest that in nine out of 10 cases, the victim of sexual assault knows her assailant. Its prevalence is a symptom of a wider social problem concerning the sexual objectification of women, and it is this that needs to be addressed within the context of college culture.

Fraternity exchanges are a cause for concern because they combine two factors shown to increase the likelihood of sexual assault: large quantities of alcohol and a male peer support group. In their book Sexual Assault on the College Campus, sociologists Walter S. DeKeseredy and Martin D. Schwartz argue that when grouped exclusively together, males begin to increasingly view women as an overly sexualized “other,” developing a “male mentality” that validates and sustains male dominance and the degradation of women. Drunk fraternity boys’ frustration and embarrassment from being rejected can be dangerous. Deconstructing this male mentality needs to become a priority.

The crux of the problem is that girls don’t necessarily want to feel “empowered” because they can find it alienating. Moreover they don’t always categorize their sexual victimization or objectification as a crime. It is time women realized their prerogative to identify and report all cases of sexual assault. Women need to develop a sense of female entitlement that demands they are treated as objects of desire and respect simultaneously. They must respect themselves independently of male opinion and must understand their rights and duties to criminalize those who assault them.

Now that we have been confronted by the statistics, it is time we understand the extent to which we all engage in the social discourse and dynamic at the heart of this problem.

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