[Photo courtesy to Paola Bailey]
Sex crimes on college campuses are an issue that do not get the attention that they deserve nor are they ever really dealt with properly. Not only are these crimes some of these most unreported due to the process and stigma surrounding sex crimes, according to the American Medical Association, but are even more underreported and under pursued on college campuses.
At the University of North Carolina, 64 students frustrated with the way the university was handling their reported cases went to the U.S. Department of education in retaliation. Their rights were violated by a university who was meant to protect them. Similar accusations have been made about other universities like the University of Notre Dame and the University of Montana.
However, the conversation over sexual assault and rape on college campuses really came to a head when Stanford Universities Brock Turner, a swimmer as the media often likes to point out, was accused by a fellow student of rape.
According to this young woman, Turner took advantage of her intoxicated state by forcibly raping her in an alley. The country watched the news closely in order to see where the courts would take this case. And a mass of young college women saw this as an opportunity to open a dialogue over the problem of sex crimes in college.
But this case took a different turn. Turner received an incredibly short sentence that he eventually was released early from for “good behavior.” So what does this tell young women in colleges today?
A judicial decision such as this tells women who are impacted by these crimes that they are better off keeping these offenses private. It tells them that these matters are not worth the judgment and stigma surrounding going public and seeking help for being wronged. Decisions like this imply that it is partially the women’s fault due to her level of intoxication during the offense or possibly from some other action she performed that invited the attack.
And these implications are dangerous, because not only do they teach women of all ages that they are not as valued and they will not be protected in cases like this, but it also allows men the opportunity to go on ignorantly believing that acts like this are okay.
At UNC Wilmington alone, we had only 15 reported instances of rape in the year of 2014, according to the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool from the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Now I cannot firmly say that there were more than 15 instances, but at a university of approximately 14,000 students this number seems rather low.
Cases like this are terrifying for the victim, but what is more terrifying is the implication that not reporting these crimes could allow a criminal freedom to assault more individuals.
So during this confusing time where a rapist is walking free from prison because of “20 minutes of action” as his father coined it in a letter to the judge during trial, remember that the more these cases are reported and the more that victims of all genders, sexual orientations, and races are vocal about policy change for these crimes, the more we stand a chance as a society to progress.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of a crime such as this, consider contacting campus police– the police chief is also the universities Title IX coordinator- or consider checking out UNCW’s CARE services if privacy over the situation is preferred.