Campus sexual assault

People in Bangalore protesting outside Bangalore Town Hall on 30 December 2012 demanding justice for the 23-year-old college student following her death on 29 December 2012. (Delhi gang rape)

Campus rape is the rape of a student attending an institute of higher learning such as a college or university. The term references the campus where these institutes are, although not all reported incidents occur on campus property. The issue affects women, men, and transgender people seeking higher education throughout the world, even including many Western nations with de jure laws against forms of violence against women and violence against men.

Estimates vary greatly as to the number of women who experience a sexual assault during college, with surveys focused on the United States placing it as low as 1 in 50 (2%) to as high as 1 in 4 (25%). The rate of male victims may be as high as 1 in 7, making campus rape of men possibly a major issue. The nature of the surveys and the wording of the questions appears to be the largest factor in the variance of figures, with other estimates being in between.

Campus rape is a social problem that spans different ethnic groups, different social classes, different places on the gender spectrum, and more.

Prevalence

In 1985, Mary Koss, a professor of psychology at Kent State University, conducted a national rape survey on college campuses in the United States, sponsored by the National Institute of Health and with administrative support from Ms. Magazine. The survey, administered on 32 college campuses across the USA, asked 3,187 female and 2,872 male undergraduate students about their sexual experiences since age 14. The survey included ten questions related to sexual coercion. Out of the 3,187 undergraduate women Koss surveyed, 207, or 6%, had experienced completed rape within the past year. 15.4 percent of Koss' female respondents had experienced completed rape since age 14, an additional 12.1 percent of female respondents had experienced attempted rape since age 14, and 4.4 percent of college men reported perpetrating legal rape since age 14. The combined figure for rape and attempted rape of women since age 14, 27.5 percent, became known as the "one in four" statistic.

According to Christina Hoff Sommers, the Koss study and the oft-quoted "one in four" statistic is based upon flawed data. One of the three questions used by Koss to calculate completed rape prevalence was, "Have you had sexual intercourse when you didn't want to because a man gave you alcohol or drugs?" According to Sommers and professor Neil Gilbert, this left the door open for anyone who regretted a sexual liaison to consider their partner a rapist, even if neither partner thought of the situation as abusive. In 1999, researchers Martin Schwartz and Molly Leggett replicated Koss' survey, replacing the disputed question with "Have you engaged in sexual intercourse when you didn’t want to but were so intoxicated under the influence of alcohol or drugs that you could not stop it or object?" Rewording the question did not significantly change the results.

Other studies of the time, such as those by Margaret Gordon and Linda George, found much lower measured rape prevalence by simply asking women if they had been raped, rather than asking behaviorally specific questions. The use of multiple behaviorally specific questions in rape surveys has since become the accepted approach used by both academic researchers and multiple Federal government agencies.

In 1997, The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) conducted the National College Women Sexual Victimization (NCWSV) survey. 4,446 American college women were chosen randomly and surveyed. The survey consisted of behaviorally specific questions that describe an incident in graphic language and cover the elements of a criminal offense, such as "Did someone make you have sexual intercourse by using force or threatening to harm you?" According to that survey, 1.7% of women had experienced a complete rape and another 1.1% had experienced an attempted rape. The National Institute of Justice pointed out in a report that this estimate does not take into account variation between semesters and calculated that it can climb to between one-fifth and one-quarter over the course of a school career.

Research of American college students suggests that white women, prior victims, first-year students, and more sexually active women are the most vulnerable to sexual assault. Another study shows that white women are more likely than non-white women to experience rape while intoxicated, but less likely to experience other forms of rape. This high rate of rape while intoxicated accounts for a white women reporting a higher overall rate of sexual assault than non-white women, although further research is needed into racial differences and college party organization. Regardless of race, the majority of victims know the assailant. Black women in America are more likely to report sexual assault that has been perpetrated by a stranger. Teenage girls are more likely to think that stranger rape is more serious than other forms of rape. Victims of rape are mostly between 10 and 29 years old, while perpetrators are generally between 15 and 29 years old.

The National Institute for Mental Health and Ms. Magazine study also found a 1 in 7 sexual assault rate for men, indicating that violence against men was also a significant problem.

Influence of alcohol

Alcohol consumption is known to have effects on sexual behavior and aggression. During social interactions, alcohol consumption also encourages biased appraisal of a partner’s sexual motives, impairs communication about sexual intentions, and enhances misperception of sexual intent, effects exacerbated by peer influence about how to act when drinking. The effects of alcohol at point of forced sex are likely to impair ability to rectify misperceptions, diminish ability to resist sexual advancements, and justifies aggressive behavior. Alcohol provides justification for engaging in behaviors that are usually considered inappropriate. Studies have shown consistent alcohol use in reported cases of sexual and non-sexual violence. The increase of assaults on college campuses can be attributed to the social expectation that students participate in alcohol consumption. The peer norms on American college campuses are to drink heavily, to act in an uninhibited manner and to engage in casual sex.

Various studies have concluded the following results:

• On average, at least 50% of college students’ sexual assaults are associated with alcohol use
• 74% of perpetrators and 55% of victims of rape of a nationally representative sample of college students had been drinking alcohol
• Women whose partners abuse alcohol are 3.6 times more likely than other women to be assaulted by their partners
• In 2002, more than 70,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 were victims of alcohol-related sexual assault in the U.S.
• In those violent incidents recorded by the police in which alcohol was a factor, about 9% of the offenders and nearly 14% of the victims were under age 21

However, the method for obtaining these numbers has come under criticism. Professor Neil Gilbert pointed out the ambiguity of the role of alcohol in answering whether or not a sexual encounter was consensual:

"What does having sex 'because' a man gives you drugs or alcohol signify? A positive response does not indicate whether duress, intoxication, force, or the threat of force were present; whether the woman's judgment or control were substantially impaired; or whether the man purposefully got the woman drunk in order to prevent her resistance to sexual advances.... While the item could have been clearly worded to denote "intentional incapacitation of the victim," as the question stands it would require a mind reader to detect whether any affirmative response corresponds to this legal definition of rape."

The Blade released a special report, "The Making of an Epidemic", criticizing the "Koss" study (which concluded that 55% of rape victims have been intoxicated). According to The Blade, Koss specifically ignored an Ohio statute that excluded "...situations where a person plies his intended partner with drink or drugs in hopes that lowered inhibition might lead to a liaison." Koss later admitted that the wording of the survey had been ambiguous.

Variation

Acquaintance rape

Acquaintance rape is the most common form of rape. Victims between 18 and 29 years old are the highest risk group for acquaintance rape. In half of acquaintance rape cases the victim and rapist are somewhat familiar with one another, while 40% accounts for casual acquaintances. Acquaintance rape, which includes date rape, may also include party and gang rape. Sexual assault has become a predictable outcome resulting from synergistic relationship of processes that operate at individual, organizational, and interactional levels.

Date rape

Date rape, a form of acquaintance rape, is a non-domestic rape committed by someone who knows the victim. This constitutes the vast majority of rapes reported. It can occur between two people who know one another usually in social situations, between people who are dating as a couple and have had consensual sex in the past, between two people who are starting to date, between people who are just friends, and between acquaintances. It includes rape of co-workers, schoolmates, friends, and other acquaintances, providing they are dating. Date rape is considered the most unreported crime on college campuses. The term date rape is often referred to as ‘acquaintance rape’ or ‘hidden rape’ and has been identified as a growing problem in western society. College and university campuses are prime locations for date rape to occur due to the high volume of students’ interest in romantic relationships. A college survey conducted by the National Victim Center reported that one in four college women have been raped or experienced attempted rape. This report indicates that young women are at considerable risk of becoming victims of date rape while in college.

Statistics (according to a National College Women Sexual Victimization study, related to American colleges):

• 1 in every 36 women will experience a complete or attempted rape by the end of a college school year
• 9 out of 10 women raped know their attacker
• The majority of students raped are proven to have been using alcohol or drugs
• Intimate partner violence is the leading cause of injury to women.

Gang rape

Gang rape is a rape perpetrated by multiple offenders at once. The Bureau of Justice Statistics report that 15% of all rape cases involve more than one offender. Between one and two percent of college women are victims of rape. "Overall on college campuses, 16 percent of all rapes and 10 percent of all attempted rapes engage multiple perpetrators" (Neaumann,398). Fifty-five to seventy percent of gang rape perpetrators belong to fraternities. Eighty-six percent of off-campus attempted rape or sexual assaults are at fraternity houses. College gang rape tends to be perpetrated by middle- to upper-class men.

There are higher incidents of gang rape within fraternities for many reasons: peer acceptance, alcohol use, the acceptance of rape myths and viewing women as sexualized objects, as well as the highly masculinized environment. The Neumann study found that fraternity members are more likely than other college students to engage in rape. Part of the prevalence of fraternity rape may be due to the fact that some colleges do not have complete control over the privately owned fraternity houses. Although gang rape on college campuses is an issue, however, date, acquaintance, and party rape are more likely to happen.

Perpetuation by college fraternities

Anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday attributes the perpetuation of rape culture to fraternity environments within North America. Sanday's article “Rape Prone versus Rape Free Campus Cultures” explains that young fraternity members who create their sense of belonging through homophobia and expressing their masculinity through sexual intercourse contribute to rape prone environments. Commodification of women is dominant in rape-prone discourses, as men share “ridiculously exaggerated sexual boasting” in order to feel accepted and included by their brothers. Exaggerated sexual boasting is also attributed by Sanday to obtaining information about sex and women through pornography. Men watching gang banging pornography together as male bonding, she illustrates, desensitizes aspects of rape culture as it becomes viewed as a normative sexual experience. As an example, Sanday explains the ritual of “beaching” or “whaling”. This refers to a practice where fraternity members target a woman at a party and have sex with her in an area that is visible to others, without her consent, so the viewers can have a live pornographic show.

College campus reactions

Some colleges have come under federal investigation for their handling of sexual assault cases, described by civil rights groups as discriminatory and inappropriate. College campuses can be described as either "rape-free" or "rape-prone". Rape-free campuses are those that seriously deal with incidents of rape, and do not condone alcohol use, while rape-prone campuses do neither.

According to sociologist Michael Kimmel, rape-prone campus environments exist throughout several university and college campuses in North America. Kimmel defines these environments as “…one in which the incidence of rape is reported by observers to be high, or rape is excused as a ceremonial expression of masculinity, or rape as an act by which men are allowed to punish or threaten women.”

Prevention

The Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights was a 1992 amendment to the 1990 act. It requires that schools have prevention policies and provide care for victims. Some universities have taken additional steps to reduce the amount of rape on their campuses. Schools now celebrate Rape Awareness week, which is devoted to educating the students about the rape epidemic. There are also other educational opportunities, with experts on the subject speaking at mandatory dorm meetings where students get reading material about safety and information about people who work at the women’s center so that if something happens, a victim would know who to call and what to do. Other options to promote a safe campus environment are to sell pepper-spray at discounted prices and offer self-defense workshops. To truly change the cycle of violence, perpetrators needs to be educated on how to understand when sex is inappropriate.

Related activism

Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights of 1992. This amendment to the 1990 act requires that schools develop prevention policies and pro­vide certain assurances to victims. The law was amended again in 1998 to expand requirements, including the crime categories that must be reported.

See also

• Bullying in academia
• Sexual harassment in education
• Rape culture
• Violence against men
• Violence against women

Further reading

• Bain, Kristen (September–October 2002). "Rape Culture on Campus". Off Our Backs, Vol. 32, No. 9/10. off our backs, inc. JSTOR 20837660.
• Armstrong, Elizabeth (2006). "Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach To Party Rape". Social Problems 53.4:483-499. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
• Fernandez, Sarah; Houlemarde, Mark (July 2012). "How to Progress From a Rape-Supportive Culture". Women in Higher Education. Retrieved 10 February 2013.