Literature Review #1

The Hunting Ground: The Inside Story of Sexual Assault on American College Campuses

Visual:

 

Citation:

Dick, Kirby, and Ziering, Amy. The Hunting Ground: The Inside Story of Sexual Assault on American College Campuses. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2016.

Summary:

The Hunting Ground tells the story of two sexual assault survivors and their experience of healing from those assaults and what problems they ran into with their universities when they reported it. The book also includes essays from experts on sexual assault, details about the Florida State University rape case, in which the university tried to cover up a gruesome rape and dropped the case because the rapist would not talk to them. The rapist is now a professional NFL football player so we know how serious this whole case was. The book also mentions other institutional cover-ups, fraternity culture, athlete protection, and the effects on victims and their families. 

Author: 

There are two authors; Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, who are both filmmakers known for their documentary "The Invisible War" which talks about rape and sexual assault in the military, and of course this documentary and book "The Hunting Ground". Just recently, they announced that they will release a documentary about rape and sexual assault in Hollywood, which has been talked about in the media a lot recently. They are both film directors who focus on taboo topics that sometimes expose large secrets. They have made documentaries about sexual abuse, institutions taking advantage of their power, homosexuality, etc. They are Academy-Award nominated and are well-known and respected in the documentary industry for their films and exposed information. 

Key terms:

Institutional cover-up: When institutions or organizations decide to ignore or undermine a serious issue in order to preserve the institution's reputation as a reputable and respectful place where nothing bad happens. They would rather be seen as an amazing school so more students will attend and bring in more money, rather than tell the truth and possibly lose prospective students and money.

Fraternity culture: The American fraternity industry is spread across the country throughout elite Ivy League institutions to small colleges with a well-funded network. They are organized groups that can provide protection and resources to a whole fraternity and/or an individual member. Fraternities are important for universities as they bring in money, attention, and more students, so they hold a high power within the university and are often protected by the university in some situations. Interesting fact; the second most common type of insurance claim against fraternities is for rape. 

Quotes:

"The fact is that higher education is big business: Total annual cost per student at many colleges now exceeds $60,000 a year. For institutions vying for the best and brightest students, sexual assault represents a public relations nightmare." (pg ix)

"He left as quickly as he could after the assault, and tried to put the incident out of his mind. 'For a while I just didn’t really acknowledge it,” Daniel said. 'I kind of thought of it as a bad hookup, because you’re taught that assault is something that happens to women.'" (pg 3).

"We cannot assume that there is a convenient profile of the college students committing sexual assault. It’s not just entitled athletes or fraternity members committing these crimes. It is students from all walks of life. We need to acknowledge that our culture is raising young men and women who have no understanding of consent. Our culture is raising young men and women who don’t step up and intervene when they see someone vulnerable being preyed upon." (p 84)

Value:

This book's overall theme is rape and sexual assault on college campuses which is a huge discussion in my paper on why rape culture is still on campuses. This book offers details into the Florida State University case that I can use in my paper as another case to back up my argument. It also offers many contributing essays by credible authors and professors who provide perspectives about other campus sexual assault topics. My paper will have subtopics focusing on Greek life specifically fraternities and this book mentions fraternities and even sororities several times. There are discussions with athletes as well which I will briefly bring up in my paper. I want to make it clear though that anyone is capable of sexually assaulting another person; man, woman, Greek life member, athlete, honor student, etc, which is why I added the last quote above from one of the contributing essays. And there are real sexual assault survivor's stories to help solidify that sexual assault is a real thing that college students and people in general experience. Their stories help remind us that rape happens to people and some can recall their experiences, awful details, and effects. 

#9: Argument and Counter Argument

I am arguing that college campuses help normalize and encourage rape culture on a collegiate level and then a national level. My research questions are how does rape culture exist on college campuses and does it contribute to rape culture nationally and/or globally? And where did rape culture derive from? I believe that rape culture still continues to thrive on the idea of victim blaming, hookup culture, Greek life, and social media. I intend to answer my initial research question using statistics, articles, cases, and studies based on those four categories to prove that college campuses are environments where rape culture is commonly seen. Rape culture is a widely known concept but that does not mean everyone agrees that it exists to the extent that I and many others do. An article called It's Time to End 'Rape Culture' Hysteria from Time's opinion section where the author thinks rape is not a cultural norm so rape culture doesn't exist. She writes that activists demand we need to teach men not to rape but claims that we've already been doing this because boys have been getting prevention messages all their life (Kitchens). I disagree with her overall article that rape culture isn't as a big a problem and especially with this claim. If boys have been getting prevention messages their whole life, why are they still raping and sexually assaulting women? I don't know what prevention messages they've been receiving but "boys will be boys", boys are mean to girls that they have crushes on, sexualizing young girls in front of them or in the media, "what did you do to make him hit you", women should be nice and submissive, boys shouldn't show emotions, "you throw like a girl", etc are indeed contributing to rape culture. Most people might argue that some of these examples are completely harmless, such as "boys will be boys", that boys have a crush on a girl they pick on, and "what did you do to make him hit you", but they give subtle messages about sex and consent. Boys will be boys is a phrase used to excuse boys' behavior and blame it on the fact that he is a boy. But boys are definitely capable of respecting peoples rules, bodies, and possessions. When boys hear this phrase, they believe that their bad behavior is okay, that they are above the rules, and that they simply cannot control it because they are boys. It is not okay to teach young children that when a boy is mean to a girl, it means he likes her. We should not be teaching kids that love and affection are related to suffering and pain because they might equate the two when they get older and enter into the dating world. Pain does not equal love and that message gives both young boys and girls the wrong idea about what love and affection should look like. Lastly, "what did you do to make him hit you" introduces children into a victim-blaming ideology; it teaches them that a person can force someone else to make a bad choice and potentially harm the said person.  No matter what that person has said, violence is never an appropriate response. Asking that question to the person who got hit reinforces the idea that it was his/her fault she got hit, which can later translate into blaming the victim of a sexual assault from his/her alcohol intake, outfit, whether they were alone or not. etc. I personally don't feel that many young children are being taught effective prevention messages, and especially since the author did not provide any examples of those prevention messages to back up the claim. Many similar articles brought up how many rape reports are false accusations yet statistics show that less than 8% of charges are false, which means the other 92% were found to be true. Rape culture is real and continues to be normalized throughout college campuses, and the world and my paper will show why that is.

Works Cited 

Kitchens, Caroline. It's Time to End 'Rape Culture' Hysteria. Time: Opinion. March 20, 2014. http://time.com/30545/its-time-to-end-rape-culture-hysteria/

https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/rape_culture_means/#

#8: Case

The main case I am using in my argument is the well known case People V Turner that took place in 2015. Brock Turner, a male undergraduate student who was a member of a fraternity at Stanford University was arrested and tried for sexually penetrating an intoxicated and unconscious woman. He was charged with five counts of sexual assault, and only found guilty on three felony sexual assault charges. Although he could have received fourteen years in prison, the prosecutors instead recommended six years, yet he was sentenced to six months, and only served three months. It relates to my paper because this sexual assault happened on a college campus during a party and the perpetrator was a male college student also in a fraternity, and he got a slap on the wrist as punishment when he should have gotten something much worse. Victims of sexual assault often don't report their assault in fear of not being believed, getting blamed, and their case not getting the justice it deserves. This is apparent in this case; some people blamed the victim because she was so drunk to the point she was unconscious so it was clearly "her fault" and she "wouldn't have gotten assaulted if she didn't drink so much". And the Turner only served three months in jail which is definitely not the justice that the victim should have got. The victim was asked many questions about that night not even related to the sexual assault such as "How much did you drink? What were you wearing? Why were you going to this party? Are you serious with your boyfriend? Are you sexually active with him? Do you have a history of cheating?" as if the answers would justify being sexually assaulted. When she couldn't remember the answers, they turned over to Turner to fill in the rest of the story meaning he could say whatever he wanted and since he wasn't the unconscious one, people would believe him more. After all was said and done, Turner's father wrote a letter explaining how his life has changed in so many ways from "20 minutes of action". He reduced a horrible sexual assault down to sexual action, which implies that consent was given from both people and it wasn't and even said his son has never been violent including this night. Sexual assault is considered sexual violence meaning what his son did was a violent act. This case exemplifies things that can go wrong when a victim actually goes through with reporting a sexual assault. This case will support my argument that rape culture is still very prevalent on college campuses, within fraternities and Greek life, as well as a national problem.  In Brock Turner’s case, he interpreted the evening as just another potential hookup whereas the victim experienced the evening as a traumatic event, which is where the idea of hookup culture relates to this.

Some links I've found:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brock-turner-dad-letter-is-rape-culture-in-a-nutshell_us_57555bace4b0ed593f14cb30

https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.jhgpbRrzP8#.qsWY5loDAX

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/us/brock-turner-blamed-drinking-and-promiscuity-in-sexual-assault-at-stanford.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/father-stanford-university-student-brock-turner-sexual-assault-statement

#7: Frame

One theory I will use is the Self Control Theory of Crime which explains how an individual lacking self-control may be the main reason as to why they commit criminal behavior, such as rape or sexual assault. This theory may be used to explain how and why the statistics of rape are high on college campuses and why the rape culture continues to thrive. I think it will play a big role in analyzing the victim blaming that occurs.

Some academic terms I will use are:

Rape Culture - The acceptance and normalization of rape and sexual assault from attitudes about gender and sexuality.

Victim Blaming - When the victim of a crime (rape or sexual assault in this case) is entirely or partially for the harm that they experienced. 

Victim Advocate - Professionals who support the victims by providing information, emotional support, resources, and even court assistance. 

Hookup Culture - The acceptance and encouragement of casual sexual encounters, including one-night stands and other related activity, that focuses on physical pleasure instead of focus on emotional or long-term commitment. 

Greek life - The culture of fraternities and sororities on college campuses. 

These terms will help me explain and analyze why and how rape culture is still thriving on college campuses. These terms either contribute to or help rape culture. Rape culture needs to be defined as it is the main topic of my entire paper so I need to state exactly what that is for people who might not know. Victim blaming is something that rape victims often experience after being raped or sexually assaulted, which might be the reason why victims don't come forward and report their assault or the perpetrator in fear of being blamed. Some colleges, Rutgers specifically, have victim assistance departments that act as support and a resource for victims in times of need. They help the victim heal and get justice in anyway the victim prefers, so more college campuses need offices like this. Hookup culture can help explain why rapes are happening and aren't seen as rape because they two people are friends and/or hookup often. Greek life, particularly fraternities, play a big role in rape culture through parties, jokes, attitudes, etc. 

#6: Visual

This pyramid shows the various levels of rape culture that we see in our society. The first level is the normalization of it, which may not seem like serious problems but they are as they lead to worse things. In this level, we see rape jokes, the phrase "boys will be boys", "girls should stay home", victim blaming, "locker room banter", unequal pay, and sexist attitudes. The one we see often is victim blaming where rape victims are blamed for the rape when we should be blaming the rapists. The next level is degradation where people, usually women, are humiliated by various acts such as cat-calling/whistling, non-consensual photos, stalking/following, and "revenge porn". The next level is the removal of autonomy where the victim's freedom is taken from them through sexual coercion, threats, groping, covert condom removal, etc. The top level is explicit violence which includes rape, gang rape, murder, molestation, and just any form of violence.  Rape culture is the acceptance of all the lower levels where it then leads to rape. This is significant to my paper because I will be talking about the ways rape culture is accepted and normalized on college campuses. The subtopics in each of these levels occur often on college campuses so it is important to look at how the three lowest levels contribute to the highest level which is rape and other forms of sexual violence.