The Issue of Rape Culture - Essay Example

Rape in College Rape is forcibly engaging in a sexual act with a character against their will. Sexual assault is contacting anotherperson body sexually without his or her consent. It is also evident that not all rape cases are genuine; there are some cases where you may find a victim of false rape. False rape is reporting or attempting to report a rape to an alleged individual where it never happened. College rape has been a real problem and not taken seriously in higher learning institutions. Statistics in 2011 done by the campus assault (CSA) have proven that 19 percent of women and 1.6 percent of men have been victims of rape since they joined college. Most people believe there is a rape culture today on campuses and other higher learning institutions. This paper has put out some views to support the argument for existence of college rape It is projected that the degree of false rape ranges between two to ten percent. Victims should report such cases. Other individuals may also report cases of another person rape case whereas it never occurred, for instance, a mother may falsely report a child rape or a boyfriend may falsely report a girlfriend’s rape. False rape victims provide false evidence like giving bloodied clothes, disarranging the room to indicate that there was a struggle. The existence of false rape is real. Psychologists and counselors argue that false rape signals different kind of problem. These problems mostly are psychological and may require quick intervention (John, 2008). The alleged victim should go through thorough counseling before any other action. The argument about false discussed some of the causes. Some of the cause includes attention seeking, revenge, psychological distress, and greed for power and or money. Some victims may attempt to report a false rape out of curiosity. They may be interested to know what will happen to people around him or her. Distraction is another cause for one to report a false rape. They may want to distract the police, family, or even friend from a particular occurrence. False rape in colleges and universities is mainly for attention seeking. A victim may falsely claim rape in order to seek attention from the individuals he or she is interested in. for instance a woman may falsely accuse a boyfriend of rape in order to get his attention. Students also may report false rape to seek their parent’s attention. Parents may neglect their children while in colleges and universities (John, 2008). This may affect the child psychologically leading him or her to reporting false rape. Revenge is also another cause that leads victims to report false rape. The victim may have come to bad terms with an individual. In order to revenge, he or she may report that the person has assaulted or raped them. They may intend to see the person suffer just like him or her or even more. In colleges and universities, students report false rape in order to revenge against a fellow classmate, lecturer, or any other person within the institution. Most common and most thought of the cause of false rape is psychological distress. Students face psychological problems while in colleges and universities. These psychological problems may be brought by; academic performance, isolation and family, drugs and alcohol. When students are not performing in class as expected, they are bound to face psychological distresses. Drugs and alcoholic substances may lead one to report a false rape in a case where he or she was too drunk to realize who performed the act. Greed for power and or money is another cause that can lead one to report a false rape. Students tend to compete with fellow students. In a situation where a student is, losing to another provokes the other and may end up claiming that he or she was raped. Other students report false rape in order to acquire money or be the other person’s position. Some strict measures to prevent cases of false rape in colleges and universities need revision (John, 2008). A Students is required to provide sufficient evidence when reporting a rape case. Provision of insufficient evidence will hinder the investigation and thus be considered a false rape case. Bloody clothes and tore clothes should be providing if available. Other stuff available, when the act occurred, should also be provide to aid in the investigation. Physical injuries need assessing in order to determine whether they are really because of rape. Students in colleges and universities should report rape cases immediately. Once a student fails to report, a rape or an assault then there is no case (John, 2008). Victims of rape should cooperate with investigators in order to find the perpetrators of the act. Any failure to cooperate will make it difficult for investigators to align anyone in court or tribunal. These victims should give consistency statements to further the investigations. Rape culture continues since victims, mostly of the female; do not report their victimization to local authorities or medical experts. They tend to keep to themselves. The victims keep it to themselves to avoid stigmatization from their society, family, and friends. Stigmatization is a situation where the society brands a person names or act in profanity in regards to the situation or condition of an individual. Privatization of reporting these incidents is mostly by victims who come from families with cultures that have strong customs. The victims decide to isolate themselves since most of them from their families or society will disown them. These victims still experience mental stigmatization by keeping it to themselves and end up deteriorating in their studies and killing their social life as time passes by. Stigmatization is a major problem facing all victims of rape. Psychological effects also affect the victims as keep the incident to their selves. Most of them end up blaming themselves. Self-blame can be because of how the victim was dressed on the day of rape (John, 2008). Self-blame can be short or long term. Some of the rape victims feel they should have done something differently and, therefore, feel at fault for being raped. Some of them feel that something is wrong with them, and that must have led to the assault. Embarrassment also makes the victims go silent about the event. Some of the victims say it claims innocent victims, undermines social trust and distracts attention from studies and schoolwork. Rape culture continues since the victims keep quiet about it, and they do it to avoid embarrassment from their schoolmates and the society. As the victims keep these to themselves, rape culture continues among the other students. Some students even tend to commit suicide after being a victim of rape. There has been a rape culture on college campuses since when rape cases are reported, the school fraternity does not take the issue seriously. The assailants are not punished profoundly or in a way that will serve as an example to other rapists. This has made the rape culture to deepen its roots in college campuses today. Racism has also made rape culture deepen its roots in colleges. Black women are more likely to report cases of sexual assault to authorities. Regardless of the race, the majority of the victims know the assailants and are more likely to report that a stranger to cover for the real rapist has perpetrated the assault. This has mad the assailants to continue the rape culture in campus colleges today. Some are rape happen on the relationship. This happens when the students in a relationship go on a date, and one is under the influence of drugs hence she is raped by the partner. Gang rape is the main form of rape in the campus colleges today. It is a rape perpetrated by multiple offenders at once. The bureau of justice statistics reports that only 5 percent of all rape cases involve more than one offender. Incidents of gang rape within fraternities in campus colleges are likely to happen for many reasons including peer pressure and alcohol use gang rape. Friends may discuss their rape encounters and those who have not done it gets motivated to do it. They go ahead to rape in order to please their friends and accept theyre superior in their campus colleges. Gang rapes mostly occur during parties, and the offenders are under the influence of drugs especially alcohol. Alcohol provides justifications for engaging in behaviors that are considered inappropriate. Peer norms in college campuses is to get heavily drunk, to act in an inhibited manner and engage in casual sex, this has made the rape culture continue in colleges, since alcohol causes impaired judgment and can lead to sexual assault. Reference John, K., & Philip R., (2008). Rape cases in university and colleges. Kansas University. Kansas Read More