WASHINGTON- The Brock Turner case was just the beginning. When the Stanford swimmer was sentenced six months in a federal prison for raping an unconscious woman on Thursday, June 2, millions of people were outraged. “It’s disgusting. It really shows how important it is that more people are educated about [sexual assault],” said Julienne DeVita, a graphics major at American University.
It’s not just the Stanford case. Sexual assault cases have been a nationwide problem for decades. According a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey titled “Rape and Sexual Assault Among College- Age Females, 1995-2013,” the highest rate of surveyed sexual assault cases per 1,000 female students and non students ages 18-24 existed in the early 2000s.
While the rate of sexual assault cases was higher for non students 76.4% of the time, the difference was 0.1 between students and non students in 2013. Even with the 0.1 in 2013, colleges are trying to provide more services to help victims of sexual assault.
Figure 1: Rate of Rape Cases Between Female Students and Non Students Ages 18-24 from 1997-2013 (Courtesy of the Bureau of Justice Statistics) http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rsavcaf9513.pdf
At American University, programs such the Office of Advocacy Services for Interpersonal and Sexual Violence (OASIS) have been designed to spread awareness about sexual assault, as well as to provide services to help victims of this nationwide epidemic. “I think that they’re [organizations for sexual assault victims] are advertised on campus, especially in the bathrooms,” DeVita said.
The OASIS bathroom initiative consisted of placing signs on the back of stalls in every women’s bathroom on campus. Each sign reads, “Sexual Violence is never the survivor’s fault!” Besides this slogan, the sign explains actions and support services for victims of sexual assault. Such resources include the American University Counseling Center, the Washington Hospital’s center DC SANE center, and the DC Sexual Assault Hotline.
Even with programs like OASIS, sexual assault still exists on campus. While DeVita did not have a personal experience with sexual assault, she acknowledged the existence of a rape culture. “It’s hard to stop because it’s under the radar. Victims should be treated with respect because when you’re put in that situation you don’t know how to act,” DeVita said.