When a survivor of campus sexual assault comes forward to his or her school, there will likely be weeks or months of skepticism, red tape, unwanted attention, and re-hashing of the story before the victim gets any sort of justice or closure. It’s no wonder as many as 80 percent of on-campus sexual assault cases go unreported, and it’s understandable – many victims of sexual assault just want to heal and move on, not deal with administration for months on end. Not to mention that in college, your life is so closely intertwined with those of your classmates that to report a sexual assault might feel like shouting it from the roof of the library. It’s scary.
However, unreported sexual assault cases are also scary. How are universities to gauge the prevalence of the issue and take appropriate action if 80 percent of the problem is being suppressed (again, understandably) by victims?
It’s clearly a conflict of interest between the schools and the victims, and the only way to solve such a conflict is for one party to rethink how they handle the problem. In short, schools need to come up with a better way of helping victims navigate the consequences of their brave decision to come forward about a sexual assault. Because right now in America, the whole ‘system’ is one big gray area.
As reported by the Huffington Post in September 2014, less than one-third of reported campus assault cases end in expulsion. This is due to a myriad of reasons – the lines surrounding this particular topic are blurred (especially with the prevalence of alcohol on college campuses), there is no effective federal legislation around the topic (Title IX hasn’t done much to solve the problem), and college administrators often do not give the crime of sexual assault the series consequences it warrants.
Why would someone want to report a sexual assault (and deal with all of the above) when there is such a small chance that justice will actually be served in the end?
It’s undeniable that there needs to be radical change in the way colleges deal with sexual assault. And a bit of good news: there are people voicing this opinion and being heard. Read about this girl who carried her mattress around Columbia campus (and onstage at graduation) in protest of the school’s lack of action against her rapist (http://time.com/3888116/columbia-university-student-mattress-graduation-rape/), and John Krakauer’s new book about how the University of Montata handled a series of assaults (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/books/review/jon-krakauers-missoula-about-rape-in-a-college-town.html?_r=0). The Columbia student has become a small celebrity, and “Missoula” is a bestseller. Clearly, the nationwide discourse on this topic is picking up speed, and it seems it will only continue to do so until schools have no choice but to take real, definitive action. In the not-too-far future, we can expect to see a system that allows victims to report their assaults without having to endure more unnecessary pain.