7 thoughts on “Policy Options Brief-Rape Culture and Sexual Assault Investigations on U.S. College Campuses”
Keri, Shareny and Kristia,
Your policy memo is well written and you clearly demonstrate the seriousness of the problem of rape culture on college campuses. The options presented approach the problem from different angles — through bystander education, reporting guidelines for access to victim support and prevention education through changing social norms. The first two aid the victim either in prevention or after the fact. The third, changing social norms, has the potential for direct impact on stopping the perpetrators themselves. The message that rape is criminal and that severe consequences to violators and their protectors will result needs to be sent to fraternities, athletics departments and school administrators.
One detail, you have a lot of statistics about assaults at universities in general but no numbers on the incidence at fraternities specifically. It would be interesting to know them or if they are not available to know why not — perhaps evidence that they are being suppressed.
All of your options are existing policies and each is necessary in combatting the problem of rape culture — preventing assaults, aiding victims, and prosecuting crime. Cultural change will happen only with the continuance of policy changes in all three avenues.
The stats provided by the writers are very detailed and plentiful. The reason sexual assault is such an issue is because of the affect it can have on the person. Whether it is 2 months, 5 years, or 20 years down the line, the emotional toll it can take on victims can be devastating, and sometimes life threatening. To help make the argument stronger, I would have added some more statistics on the number of suicides, murders, hospitalizations of victims of sexual assault. When an incident like this occurs at what is supposed to be one of the best times of your life, it is terrible. But what makes it tragic is that an experience like this can cripple a person’s success and future contributions to the world. It can make them develop into a fraction of the person they were supposed to be. That is one of the true crimes caused by sexual assault on college campuses.
Education is the first step. As much as the author argues that we need to educate people not to rape – we do need to enforce that bad things can happen to you as a result of your choices. For the attackers, the fear of being incarcerated, expelled, and fined should be enough to make you examine how much you consume. And for the victim, you cannot control anyone else. Well, parties, alcohol and drugs are a part of college. If you sign up to go to college and you go to parties, you can control how much alcohol goes into your system. When you drink to the point of intoxication, you are giving up that control.
I agree that this issue has been receiving a lot more attention in recent years and the reporting of incidents, punishments, and education need to continue to develop so we can one day remove this issue from college campuses entirely.
The group effectively address a serious problem of rape culture that exist in colleges and universities. I was astonished by the type of questions that were asked by those who were victims of assault. Are these questions asked by the colleagues or administrators investigating the case?
The policy options aims to increase awareness, use prevention methods, and educate students more about sexual assault. It would of been great to include more details on changing the cultural environment. For example, colleges or universities that uses ads or fliers aggressively to show zero tolerance for sexual assault can be an influence of the environment. Also, harsher penalties for those who are sex offenders can make students more hesitate to act in such fashion. Nevertheless, the group did a great job in identifying the problem and providing policy options that will challenge rape cultures that exist in universities and colleges.
This is a well-developed and thoughtful topic that was articulated in a clear and comprehensive manner. Your team addressed the gravity of this issue using a structured and coherent method and effectively demonstrated the seriousness of the problem. The subject headers used to break up the brief helped to highlight the many different layers that lend themselves to the issue of rape culture, and they flowed together seamlessly.
Of the options presented, Prevention Education can be the strongest weapon in the fight against rape culture by educating youth and challenging the social norms that protect assailants and vilify their victims. Increasing awareness and changing the way students perceive rape culture will have a tremendous impact on reducing silence and acceptance of these violent acts as well as the number of bystanders that enable and encourage sexual assault. I think another option that may help to address this issue on college campuses and increase the number of offenders who are brought to justice could be the investigation process that is often handled internally by campus administrators rather than through police involvement. Campuses should have their investigations conducted by independent third parties who would investigate allegations of rape and sexual assault in a fair and transparent manner. It is a major conflict of interest for college administrators to internally conduct investigations which could negatively impact the reputation of their institution or jeopardize their major revenue producers, such as their student athletes who are highly protected, since their ultimate goal is to protect the institution. By enforcing a policy that mandates external investigations, it could help to increase accountability by perpetrators, which would serve as a deterrent that may decrease the number of assaults that occur and, ultimately, help to eradicate the rape culture that has become so unfortunately prevalent across our colleges.
This policy memo has a great organization throughout the paper. It focuses on seriousness of sexual assaults on college campuses. Although we live in the 21st century, many people are still hesitant to talk about sexual assaults widely. They try to hide in order to maintain their prestige in the society. This policy memo clearly shows how university politics, athletic departments, fraternity, victims blaming are increasing the sexual assault in the campus in the long run. They use good amount statistical data to make this issue very serious.
I really liked all the solution stated in this paper. I realize how guidelines can be a big asset in order to reduce this sexual assault. However, the policy I like the most is prevention education. The education can teach people on what are the consequences of raping and how a life can be totally changed after this significant affect. In this situation, I would like to recommend colleges put more focus on comprehensive social issue like sexual assault in the college campus. Colleges can provide a non-credit class to the student where student can learn about practical issues especially sexually assault, The class will be mandatory for graduation, however, it can only meet once or twice a month. In this way, student will be well informed on sexual assault along with other problematical practical issues along with other citizen’s.
The memo is well thought and organized, making clear separate sections for each topic.
Personally, I would explain in more detail the concepts of “rape culture” and “male supremacy” and their interaction with the following sections.
Additionally, I would focus too on the education of the public at large and the positive impact of receiving sexual education early in life. The arguments here being that rape culture potentially starts in childhood and adolescence, way before one is admitted to college; and that if most of the population understand the problem, one would know that the occurrence of sexual assaults in campus is not the sole responsibility of that specific university, but society as a whole.
I look forward to reading the final version of the project and hearing your presentation in class.
I think this policy brief was well written and put together. Your topic brings light to growing issue in American culture. This is indeed a serious problem anything involving causing harm to others is serious especially without ones will. Rape is a very important topic and is one that will never grow old we need to continue to educate each other on its vast changes over the course of time. As you mentioned it’s not the people you don’t know who you should fear it is the people who you welcome in your home; those are the ones you have to be cautions of now. I think breaking the paper down into subcategories was really a good idea and relating back to every day examples captures the reader. After reading this I walk away knowledgeable on the topic and can make an informed decision. I would like to see more stats on the areas higher reports of rape and demographic information.
Keri, Shareny and Kristia,
Your policy memo is well written and you clearly demonstrate the seriousness of the problem of rape culture on college campuses. The options presented approach the problem from different angles — through bystander education, reporting guidelines for access to victim support and prevention education through changing social norms. The first two aid the victim either in prevention or after the fact. The third, changing social norms, has the potential for direct impact on stopping the perpetrators themselves. The message that rape is criminal and that severe consequences to violators and their protectors will result needs to be sent to fraternities, athletics departments and school administrators.
One detail, you have a lot of statistics about assaults at universities in general but no numbers on the incidence at fraternities specifically. It would be interesting to know them or if they are not available to know why not — perhaps evidence that they are being suppressed.
All of your options are existing policies and each is necessary in combatting the problem of rape culture — preventing assaults, aiding victims, and prosecuting crime. Cultural change will happen only with the continuance of policy changes in all three avenues.
The stats provided by the writers are very detailed and plentiful. The reason sexual assault is such an issue is because of the affect it can have on the person. Whether it is 2 months, 5 years, or 20 years down the line, the emotional toll it can take on victims can be devastating, and sometimes life threatening. To help make the argument stronger, I would have added some more statistics on the number of suicides, murders, hospitalizations of victims of sexual assault. When an incident like this occurs at what is supposed to be one of the best times of your life, it is terrible. But what makes it tragic is that an experience like this can cripple a person’s success and future contributions to the world. It can make them develop into a fraction of the person they were supposed to be. That is one of the true crimes caused by sexual assault on college campuses.
Education is the first step. As much as the author argues that we need to educate people not to rape – we do need to enforce that bad things can happen to you as a result of your choices. For the attackers, the fear of being incarcerated, expelled, and fined should be enough to make you examine how much you consume. And for the victim, you cannot control anyone else. Well, parties, alcohol and drugs are a part of college. If you sign up to go to college and you go to parties, you can control how much alcohol goes into your system. When you drink to the point of intoxication, you are giving up that control.
I agree that this issue has been receiving a lot more attention in recent years and the reporting of incidents, punishments, and education need to continue to develop so we can one day remove this issue from college campuses entirely.
The group effectively address a serious problem of rape culture that exist in colleges and universities. I was astonished by the type of questions that were asked by those who were victims of assault. Are these questions asked by the colleagues or administrators investigating the case?
The policy options aims to increase awareness, use prevention methods, and educate students more about sexual assault. It would of been great to include more details on changing the cultural environment. For example, colleges or universities that uses ads or fliers aggressively to show zero tolerance for sexual assault can be an influence of the environment. Also, harsher penalties for those who are sex offenders can make students more hesitate to act in such fashion. Nevertheless, the group did a great job in identifying the problem and providing policy options that will challenge rape cultures that exist in universities and colleges.
This is a well-developed and thoughtful topic that was articulated in a clear and comprehensive manner. Your team addressed the gravity of this issue using a structured and coherent method and effectively demonstrated the seriousness of the problem. The subject headers used to break up the brief helped to highlight the many different layers that lend themselves to the issue of rape culture, and they flowed together seamlessly.
Of the options presented, Prevention Education can be the strongest weapon in the fight against rape culture by educating youth and challenging the social norms that protect assailants and vilify their victims. Increasing awareness and changing the way students perceive rape culture will have a tremendous impact on reducing silence and acceptance of these violent acts as well as the number of bystanders that enable and encourage sexual assault. I think another option that may help to address this issue on college campuses and increase the number of offenders who are brought to justice could be the investigation process that is often handled internally by campus administrators rather than through police involvement. Campuses should have their investigations conducted by independent third parties who would investigate allegations of rape and sexual assault in a fair and transparent manner. It is a major conflict of interest for college administrators to internally conduct investigations which could negatively impact the reputation of their institution or jeopardize their major revenue producers, such as their student athletes who are highly protected, since their ultimate goal is to protect the institution. By enforcing a policy that mandates external investigations, it could help to increase accountability by perpetrators, which would serve as a deterrent that may decrease the number of assaults that occur and, ultimately, help to eradicate the rape culture that has become so unfortunately prevalent across our colleges.
This policy memo has a great organization throughout the paper. It focuses on seriousness of sexual assaults on college campuses. Although we live in the 21st century, many people are still hesitant to talk about sexual assaults widely. They try to hide in order to maintain their prestige in the society. This policy memo clearly shows how university politics, athletic departments, fraternity, victims blaming are increasing the sexual assault in the campus in the long run. They use good amount statistical data to make this issue very serious.
I really liked all the solution stated in this paper. I realize how guidelines can be a big asset in order to reduce this sexual assault. However, the policy I like the most is prevention education. The education can teach people on what are the consequences of raping and how a life can be totally changed after this significant affect. In this situation, I would like to recommend colleges put more focus on comprehensive social issue like sexual assault in the college campus. Colleges can provide a non-credit class to the student where student can learn about practical issues especially sexually assault, The class will be mandatory for graduation, however, it can only meet once or twice a month. In this way, student will be well informed on sexual assault along with other problematical practical issues along with other citizen’s.
The memo is well thought and organized, making clear separate sections for each topic.
Personally, I would explain in more detail the concepts of “rape culture” and “male supremacy” and their interaction with the following sections.
Additionally, I would focus too on the education of the public at large and the positive impact of receiving sexual education early in life. The arguments here being that rape culture potentially starts in childhood and adolescence, way before one is admitted to college; and that if most of the population understand the problem, one would know that the occurrence of sexual assaults in campus is not the sole responsibility of that specific university, but society as a whole.
I look forward to reading the final version of the project and hearing your presentation in class.
I think this policy brief was well written and put together. Your topic brings light to growing issue in American culture. This is indeed a serious problem anything involving causing harm to others is serious especially without ones will. Rape is a very important topic and is one that will never grow old we need to continue to educate each other on its vast changes over the course of time. As you mentioned it’s not the people you don’t know who you should fear it is the people who you welcome in your home; those are the ones you have to be cautions of now. I think breaking the paper down into subcategories was really a good idea and relating back to every day examples captures the reader. After reading this I walk away knowledgeable on the topic and can make an informed decision. I would like to see more stats on the areas higher reports of rape and demographic information.