Sexual Assault

So, I'm sitting here on my night off watching W Network, simply because there's nothing else on. The movie playing is called The Many Trials of One Jane Doe. It is all about the trials of a rape victim dealing with the Canadian judicial system looking for justice. This TV movie draws an interesting parallel to how actual rape victims are treated. Many of them are treated as suspects themselves. It doesn't seem as though rape is considered by police as a real crime. The traumatized victim is poked, prodded, and questions. "In rape, the Crown prosecutes on your behalf.. Your body is evidence, but you are not considered a participant in the crime".. What?? This makes no sense at all.

Read this article by Cosmo that I found. It's astounding:

Sexual violence on college campuses is not only incredibly widespread—roughly one in five women are the victims of completed or attempted rape while in college, according to the Department of Justice—but as a recent investigation discovered, academic institutions aren’t doing enough to protect students and punish criminals. That’s why Cosmo decided to take a stand and insist that schools treat sexual assault cases more seriously, by better supporting victims and taking a harder line against perpetrators. In our upcoming September issue, we’ll tell you about a huge new campaign we’re kicking off to fight sexual violence on campus and how you can get involved in the effort. In the meantime, read on to find out more about the terrifying issue—and the results of a revealing survey that will make you shudder.

A survey conducted by the Chicago Tribune found that of the sex crimes reported on college campuses in the past six years, only seven percent resulted in arrests and less than three percent resulted in convictions. That is well below the national average; about 25 percent of reported rapes result in arrests and about two-thirds of those arrests turn into convictions, according to the Tribune.

The newspaper looked at 171 cases that took place at a variety of Midwestern schools. Some of the schools they investigated, like Northwestern, had over 20 reports of sexual assault, but not a single arrest or conviction. Other colleges, such as Notre Dame, didn't have much better stats: they had 34 sex crimes and just four arrests and zero convictions. And Indiana University had a whopping 69 allegations of sexual violence and only one conviction.

And according to Russlynn Ali, the assistant secretary for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education, this isn't just happening in the midwest. She told the Tribune, "These kinds of data are illustrative of the disturbing and alarming trend we are seeing across this country."

This comes on the heels of another scary revelation that some campuses may be neglecting to correctly and completely report sex crime statistics. A few weeks ago Yale University was found to have omitted certain "forcible sex offenses in its report of annual crime statistics when the crimes occurred". The university claims that the mistake has been corrected, but they still stand to lose federal funding for student aid because of the violation.

One theory as to why universities are under-reporting occurrences of sexual violence or not following up on them is that it makes their campuses seem unsafe to prospective students and their parents. Therefore, they fudge the numbers or try to handle the crimes internally rather than share the stats and risk making the school look unsafe and in turn, experiencing a decreased number of applicants.

Part of what makes this phenomenon so dangerous is that it could discourage college women who are victims of assault on campus from going to the police. More than 95 percent of college rapes go unreported according to the Department of Justice. Kim Lonsway, the director of the non-profit group End Violence Against Women, told the Tribune: "Part of me wonders why someone would even bother making a report. What's the point in going to police if they don't do anything about it? It almost makes me feel worse.”

The Department of Education is currently investigating the trend and we'll keep you updated on any news. And be sure to pick up the September issue later this summer to learn more about Cosmo's campaign to end campus violence.

Read more: Sexual Assault on College Campuses - Reporting Rape Leads to Few Arrests - Cosmopolitan

Why is there not more awareness of this growing phenomenon? Young girls are always told to "be careful" when they go to university, or go out on their own. But, are they shown these types of articles, or the following websites? No. Young girls don't know what to "be careful" for. I mean, a friend of mine once explained her "first time" to our group and one of them said "Umm, that was rape".. I was shocked, and so was she. We had no idea because we weren't told. I always had guessed that rape was when someone forced themselves on you and was forceful. But, I guess getting you intoxicated to the point where you cannot make proper decisions and you black out several times during the act also counts. Women need to be educated about these types of things. Some women are convinced that if it's someone you know, it's not rape. But if it's not consensual, it's rape. If you aren't in the right frame of mind, it's rape (aka Date Rape). It's disgusting what these guys do, and it's sad that we don't report it to the police, and it's horrifying that the amount of women who do report it barely ever get justice!! After being poked, prodded, questioned, interrogated and treated like a suspect, she doesn't even get justice. It's tragic and horrible.

http://joyfulheartfoundation.org
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120195048055488
http://www.sacha.ca/home.php?sec=17&sub=43
http://www.rainn.org/statistics
http://www.sexassault.ca/statistics.htm

Writing Again

So, the transition from my own place to living in residence is going well. Well, the packing is anyway. I don't move until August 31st, which is a story all on it's own. I have nearly everything off of my walls, except a couple of hats (yes, I hang my hats on the wall), and a couple of corkboards and mirrors. But other than that, I have just about everything packed away in boxes. I know it seems a bit premature, but I like to be prepared the the least amount of stuff I have to do in the last week, the better.

So, in May, I asked my friend for a ride to New Brunswick for August 31st. She said sure, she should be able to. My mom kept telling me that I should get a backup ride just in case she bailed. I was like, Well, I asked her four months in advance, so why wouldn't she follow through. This proves that I do not understand the brain patterns of the common homo sapien. As of July 1st, I was abandoned. Her work schedule ended up that she was unable to assist me in my move. Although I would like to blame her work and not her, I did ask her four months in advance, so I suppose she could have booked it off. Hmm. I was in a pickle. In conversation with my good friend from New Brunswick, this came up. (He seems to be the only person I talk to about anything these days, so frustrations with friends, roommates and landlords do come up quite often when talking to him). He kindly offered to come and get me at the end of August. WHAT?? Is he serious?? He actually became my hero in that moment. So, we planned it out, he even talked to his boss within three hours of this conversation. He works overnights as well as me, so we talk a lot during the hours of 10pm and 6am. He decided to come up right after his night shift on the morning of the 31st and come get me, pack up the car and we can get a move on!
The next day, I messaged him to make sure he was true to his word. He assured me that he is so excited and that he will definitely drive me. He also invited me to his work Christmas party, and to be his roommate next summer. For real? This is so amazing!!! I love having a friend who loves planning as much as I do. Perhaps too much OCD is a problem in a friendship, but for now it seems to be working out pretty well.

So, tonight, I was clearing out under my bed and I found an old song I wrote in November. I told my friend about it. I told him that I usually write depressing songs; songs about abortion, loneliness, breakups and suicide, and he told me that I should write a script. I considered it, and I began writing again. I wrote about a page, then I realized that I have ADD and have written about twelve different "stories" that have been about a thousand words. I'm thinking, though, if I write a little bit a night, I might actually get somewhere with this story. It's a bit of a bleak storyline that I have in mind, but it should still be good. At least now I have something to do when I'm bored. Especially since now almost everything's packed, what else am I to do for the next month?