Scrutinizing how alienated survivors can feel by their communities after living through a sexual assault, one can see how education is not only necessary for potential victims to become aware of the risks of sexual assault, but also proves imperative for community members so that a more understanding and accepting climate for victims of attacks can be created. Justice systems are put in place so that criminals can fairly be punished. However, when there is mistrust in penal systems, survivors may feel discouraged from reporting sexual assault. Ergo, the offenders of sexual assaults will not be punished for the crimes they committed. Evan Zeldin served on a completely student-run honor court as an undergraduate student at the University of North
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On the topic of how victims who have gone public with their stories are treated, Zeldin discussed his personal experiences on college campuses, “Women are typically blamed due to their attire, alcohol intake, and perceived actions. Thus, they are reprimanded socially and are less likely to discuss the crime committed against them.” Although survivors of sexual assault are the victims of an attack, many community members may attempt to justify the crime by placing blame on the survivors. Not only can this make the survivors’ feelings of alienation grow stronger, but also it serves as another deterrent from reporting sexual assaults to appropriate authorities. This hostile climate seems especially likely on a college campus where students are in touch with current events unfolding on campus and are prone to gossip. A manifestation of the unsupportive communities often found on college campuses can be seen by comparing rates at which non-students reported sexual assaults and rapes to the rates of college students. Non-student victims in the age bracket of eighteen to twenty-four years old were twelve percent more likely to report rape and sexual assault than student victims in the same age group (Sinozich and Langton). Although other factors could play into this discrepancy in reporting rates, such as the aforementioned lack of faith in university penal systems, expected judgment and culpability from the community play into the victims’ decisions to stay quiet about the assault they experienced (Zeldin). If community members were better informed on sexual assault and specifically trained on how to react to a survivor’s account of the sexual assault, victims would feel greater support from others. In effect, a more amicable social climate would be present for victims post-assaults. The proportion of sexual assaults that were reported would be expected to increase while feelings of
On the topic of how victims who have gone public with their stories are treated, Zeldin discussed his personal experiences on college campuses, “Women are typically blamed due to their attire, alcohol intake, and perceived actions. Thus, they are reprimanded socially and are less likely to discuss the crime committed against them.” Although survivors of sexual assault are the victims of an attack, many community members may attempt to justify the crime by placing blame on the survivors. Not only can this make the survivors’ feelings of alienation grow stronger, but also it serves as another deterrent from reporting sexual assaults to appropriate authorities. This hostile climate seems especially likely on a college campus where students are in touch with current events unfolding on campus and are prone to gossip. A manifestation of the unsupportive communities often found on college campuses can be seen by comparing rates at which non-students reported sexual assaults and rapes to the rates of college students. Non-student victims in the age bracket of eighteen to twenty-four years old were twelve percent more likely to report rape and sexual assault than student victims in the same age group (Sinozich and Langton). Although other factors could play into this discrepancy in reporting rates, such as the aforementioned lack of faith in university penal systems, expected judgment and culpability from the community play into the victims’ decisions to stay quiet about the assault they experienced (Zeldin). If community members were better informed on sexual assault and specifically trained on how to react to a survivor’s account of the sexual assault, victims would feel greater support from others. In effect, a more amicable social climate would be present for victims post-assaults. The proportion of sexual assaults that were reported would be expected to increase while feelings of