For many college students, college brings more freedom and fewer restrictions than they may have been accustomed to during their high school years. Many college students are naive about the consequences that can arise from certain social situations.
The Crisis Connection reports the following statistics about rape on campus
60% of male college students “indicated some likelihood of raping or using force in certain circumstances.”
- Men in fraternities appear to engage in more non-physical coercion and use of drugs and alcohol as a sexual strategy than do independents.
- Every 21 hours there is another rape on an American college campus.
- 90% of all campus rapes occur under the influence of alcohol.
- Men are more likely than women to assume that a woman who drinks alcohol on a date is a willing sex partner. 40% of men who think this way also believe it is acceptable to force sex on an intoxicated woman.
- Alcohol use at the time of the attack was found to be one of the four strongest predictors of a college woman being raped.
- 43% of college men admit using coercive behavior to have sex, including ignoring a woman’s protest; using physical aggression; and forcing intercourse; 15% acknowledged they had committed acquaintance rape; 11% acknowledged using physical restraint to force a woman to have sex.
- College rape victims receive external physical injuries in over 47% of all rapes.
- Of the college woman who are raped, only 25% describe it as rape.
- Of the college women who are raped, only 10% report the rape.
- College women are most vulnerable to rape during the first few weeks of the freshman and sophomore years.
- One in twelve college-age men admit having fulfilled the prevailing definition of rape or attempted rape, yet virtually none of these men identify themselves as rapists.
- 34% of completed rapes and 45% of attempted rapes take place on campus. Almost 60% of the completed campus rapes that take place on campus occur in the victim’s residence, 31% occur in another residence, and 10% occur in a fraternity.
- 3/4 of off-campus rapes and 7/8 of on-campus rapes involved perpetrators who were known to the victims.
- 78% of the men identified (as rapists) were an acquaintance, friend or boyfriend of the victims.
- Most rapes occur on the weekend.
A key factor in many college rapes and sexual assaults is the involvement of alcohol and the fact that the victim may be intoxicated or possibly drugged.
Justin Pope of AP has a provocative article, For colleges, rape cases a legal minefield:
A closed- door encounter between two college acquaintances. Both have been drinking. One says she was raped; the other insists it was consensual. There are no other witnesses.
It’s a common scenario in college sexual assault cases, and a potential nightmare to resolve. But under the 40-year-old federal gender equity law Title IX — and guidance handed down last year by the Obama administration on how to apply it — colleges can’t just turn such cases over to criminal prosecutors, who often won’t touch them anyway. Instead, they must investigate, and in campus proceedings do their best to balance the accused’s due process rights with the civil right of the victim to a safe education.
Lately, though, the legal ramifications of such cases are spilling off campus, with schools caught in the middle.
Colleges that do too little about sexual assault could lose federal funds. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is currently investigating a dozen colleges and universities over their response to sexual violence (documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show schools that have recently agreed to take steps to resolve OCR complaints over Title IX policies include universities such as Notre Dame, Northwestern and George Washington).
Meanwhile, judgments in Title IX lawsuits against colleges, usually brought by accusers, are soaring. Compounding the fear: In some such cases, college administrators may be found personally liable.
But when colleges do take action against accused students, those students are increasingly lawyering up themselves, suing for breach of contract and negligence. And in at least two recent cases, in Tennessee and Massachusetts, male students have tread novel legal ground by alleging violations of their own Title IX protections against gender discrimination, arguing a college’s sexual assault policies or procedures were unfairly stacked against men.http://news.yahoo.com/colleges-rape-cases-legal-minefield-160157309.html;_ylc=X3oDMTNuY2dpcDJmBF9TAzIxNDYzNzIyODQEYWN0A21haWxfY2IEY3QDYQRpbnRsA3VzBGxhbmcDZW4tVVMEcGtnAzdlYmE1MjVmLTFjNGEtM2RmNi04MDg1LWU3MjNmMjA0OWNmNQRzZWMDbWl0X3NoYXJlBHNsawNtYWlsBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3
Quite often sexual assaults occur in connection with alcohol use and binge drinking. Womens Health has some good information about date rape drugs
What are date rape drugs?
These are drugs that are sometimes used to assist a sexual assault. Sexual assault is any type of sexual activity that a person does not agree to. It can include touching that is not okay; putting something into the vagina; sexual intercourse; rape; and attempted rape. These drugs are powerful and dangerous. They can be slipped into your drink when you are not looking. The drugs often have no color, smell, or taste, so you can’t tell if you are being drugged. The drugs can make you become weak and confused — or even pass out — so that you are unable to refuse sex or defend yourself. If you are drugged, you might not remember what happened while you were drugged. Date rape drugs are used on both females and males.
- What do the drugs look like?
- What effects do these drugs have on the body?
- Are these drugs legal in the United States?
- Is alcohol a date rape drug? What about other drugs?
- How can I protect myself from being a victim?
- Are there ways to tell if I might have been drugged and raped?
- What should I do if I think I’ve been drugged and raped?
- For more information
If you are drinking, always keep your drink within view and if there is any question, don’t drink it. The “buddy system” or having friends go out with you is especially good for college freshman. Remember, better safe than sorry.
Cynthia Mc Fadden has an excellent Nightline report about college sexual assaults.
In Many Campus Victims Stay Quiet or Fail to Get Help Mc Fadden reports:
The Center for Public Integrity conducted a 12-month probe into sexual assault on college campuses that was completed earlier this year. The investigation found that students will often keep quiet when they are sexually assaulted because they blame themselves for what happened, don’t realize that what happened to them was a crime or fear that their assailants or others will strike again if they report them….
If you are a college student and you believe you have been a victim of rape on
campus, tell someone immediately.
Contact your local rape crisis center, victim advocacy legal organization or rape hotline to find out about your school’s procedures. Often these organizations can be found through your campus police department or health services. You should also go to the hospital or local health clinic and have a rape kit, through which physical evidence is gathered, performed.
Title IX of the Civil Rights Act grants the right to equal access to education. If you believe your school has violated Title IX, or has failed to offer “an equitable policy on sexual assault prevention and response,” you can file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education. The episode, Rape on Campus A Shocking Reality may be viewed at the Nightline site.
A Canadian web site has some really good advice in the article, Date Rape – NO Means NO!
Myths
Rape is committed by crazed strangers.
A woman that gets raped deserves it, especially if she agreed to go to the man’s house or a ride in his car.
Women who don’t fight back haven’t been raped.
If there is no gun or knife, you haven’t been raped.
It’s not really rape if the victim isn’t a virgin.
If a woman lets a man buy her dinner or pay for a movie or drinks, she owes him sex.
Agreeing to kiss or neck with a man means that a women has agreed to have sex with him.
When men are sexually aroused, they need to have sex or they will get “blue balls”.Reality
Most women are raped by “normal” acquaintances.
No one, male or female, deserves to be raped. Being in a man’s house or car does not mean a woman has agreed to have sex with him.
You have been raped when you are forced to have sex against your will, whether you fight back or not.
It’s rape whether there are weapons or not, you own diminished physical or mental state, the weight of his body to overcome you.
Rape is rape, even if the woman isn’t a virgin, even if she is willingly had sex with the same man before.
No one owes sex as a payment to anyone else, no matter how expensive the date.
Everyone has the right to say “no” to sexual activity, regardless of what has proceeded it and to have the “no” respected.
Men don’t physically need to have sex after becoming aroused anymore than women do. Men are still able to control themselves even after becoming sexually excitedWhat to look for and How to protect your self!!
- Keep your drink with you or with a good friend that you can trust.
- Watch how the people are acting around you – does any thing look specious.
- Don’t accept open drinks.
- Don’t party alone, have someone with you to make sure nothing happens.
- Have you heard street names of the drugs mentioned in other people’s conversations?
- There is a test strip like litmus paper, to test you drinks for date rape drugs.
You wake up not remembering the night before.
Here are some signs to look for:
- Bruises or soreness in the genital area, anal area, bruises on the inner and/or outer thighs,
- Defensive bruising on your wrists and forearms
- Used condoms, traces of semen or vaginal fluids on clothes, body or nearby furniture.
- Ask people about the night before, if you know you had little to drink were they saying that you were pretty hammered. This is a good indication that you were drugged.
- Do you feel that you had very real dreams?
What do you do now?
- Get help!
- Try not to urinate or wash or change your cloths before getting help, you might destroy evidence of your rape
- Being raped may mean that you could have gotten pregnant, a std or even aids,
- Go to your Dr. or clinic and get tested
- Get professional guidance to help you though any emotional or mental trauma that you may have.
http://teenadvice.about.com/library/weekly/aa062502a.htm
http://www.4woman.gov/faq/rohypnol.htm#6
Every one has different experiences after being raped:
- Emotional trauma is a very common result of being raped – please get help
- Fear -of being alone, of men
- Problems having a normal sexual relationship
- Depression
- Not being able to trust
- Diseases – stds, aids
- Physical symptoms of stress
- Embarrassed
- Guilt
- Denial
Dr. Wilda says this about that ©
drwilda 
such info should be circulated amongst students and the young generation