The Importance Of Rape In Colleges

How would you feel if you were being sexually assaulted? One in four women are sexually assaulted in college. The definition of rape from The Free Dictionary is, “The crime using force or the threat of force to compel a person to submit to sexual intercourse, sexual penetration, or any other unlawful sexual intercourse or penetration, as with an unconscious person, or a person below the age or incapable of consent.” (The Free Dictionary.) People need to realize that their actions have reactions. Democratic Assemblyman, Das Williams stated, “I think when there is more accountability, there will be more thought by the perpetrators about whether they are going to endanger their education by engaging in this brutal behavior.” Colleges and universities …show more content…
Colleges should not be handling rape cases, however. Rape is something that nobody should have to experience, so if somebody does have the misfortune of going through that, they should get the best trial and treatment. Many important figures, past and present, have spoken out against rape. For example Kurt Cobain stated, “Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.” Lady Gaga also spoke out about her own rape, “It is something that changed me forever, and it made me question everything about what I had done to be where I am today. I thought to myself, 'Did I do something wrong to bring this on myself? What did I do? '” And finally, President Barack Obama stated, “It is on us to reject the quiet tolerance of sexual assault and to refuse to accept what is unacceptable…” To restate the major details of this paper, colleges are doing all that they can to convince rape victims not to go to the police. There are many more advantages of going through the police. Colleges are treating rape as a student issue, not as the real issue that is at hand. Rape is a much more common crime than people think, even though more people are speaking out about it. Finally, a list of fifty-five schools that were under investigation for possibly violating federal rules aimed at stopping sexual harassment were released. If colleges do not change how they are handling rape cases, then people should realize that no means no, and it is never okay to sexually engage yourself with someone else when they say no or are incoherent and incapable of