{"id":456,"date":"2018-10-14T23:54:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T23:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/10\/14\/20181013climate-of-sexual-assault\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:42:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:42:03","slug":"20181013climate-of-sexual-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/10\/14\/20181013climate-of-sexual-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"The climate of sexual assault and why victims find it hard to report it"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aaliayah French and Randy Del Valle<\/p>\n

Quinnipiac University\u2019s most recent annual Clery report came out in the middle of the Kavanaugh hearings. The report documented two formal reports of rape on campus and one instance of fondling. But, the report doesn’t provide the full picture of sexual harassment and violence on campus.<\/p>\n

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The numbers documented in the Clery report are low, but there\u2019s a reason why they\u2019re are like that.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMore students deal with cases of sexual harassment and intimate partner violence, but don\u2019t formally report them to the school,\u201d according to Megan Buda, Quinnipiac\u2019s director of student conduct. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI think students are concerned about coming forward for sexual assault for obvious reasons,\u201d said Buda. \u201cSometimes we receive complaints about intimate partner violence maybe from their friend group or from their family and they\u2019re too concerned to come forward on their on own.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Senior Stephanie Martinez said going through the long, formal process is one of the reasons that stop people from reporting sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

“Sexual assault can sometimes be traumatizing so maybe somebody doesn’t want to go through that again, live through that again,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cGoing through that long process of being asked questions, ‘What happened?’ ‘Where did it happen?’ ‘What were you wearing?’ ‘What was he wearing?’ ‘What were you doing?’ It\u2019s just something that people don’t want to go through.”<\/p>\n

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Researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia<\/span><\/a> recently reported some of  the biggest barriers people face when it comes to reporting rape and sexual assault.<\/p>\n

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According to the research, \u201cStudents rated \u2018shame, guilt and embarrassment,\u2019 \u2018confidentiality concerns\u2019 and \u2018fear of not being believed\u2019 as the top three perceived barriers in reporting rape among both men and women. However, students rated shame, guilt and embarrassment as a much larger barrier for men than women.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Barriers that impact women than men were lack of resources to get help, language barriers to obtaining help and \u201cfinancial dependence on perpetrator\/perpetrator interference in seeking help.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In light of the recent Kavanaugh hearings and the latest verdict convicting Bill Cosby of sexual assault and rape charges, the \u201c#MeToo\u201d movement and #WhyIDidn\u2019tReport has given women the courage to come forward and speak out on their experiences, including women college campuses.<\/p>\n

While many Quinnipiac students have not wanted to publicly share their stories about being a victim of sexual assault, one staff member at Quinnipiac shared on Twitter why she didn\u2019t report her experience of being sexually assaulted in high school.<\/p>\n

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Courtney McKenna, Quinnipiac\u2019s director of student affairs, was in high school when her relationship became \u201cincreasingly violent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“For me, it’s hard a lot of times to separate out the difference between where were the pieces interpersonally, emotionally and sort of physically the violence were and then also some of the sexual violence that was in the relationship,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cI can remember sort of snapshot pieces of it, but it’s not this like chronological movie of memories of specific things, because a lot of it for me was all entangled together.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\u201cI think for me some of those pieces were not listening in terms of boundaries. I think then the other pieces were going along with things further in some places because of fear of the physical violence on the other side if I didn’t move forward with certain different things,” McKenna said.<\/p>\n

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Reporting her situation was never something McKenna thought to do as she was focused about her safety.<\/p>\n

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“In a partner violent relationship there’s this cycle. There is this part of the relationship where its really good and it\u2019s happy and then the tension builds and there’s some type of episode whether its some type of violence or emotional outburst,\u201d McKenna said. <\/p>\n

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\u201cOnce that happens there’s usually some type of ‘I’m sorry’ pieces in whatever that looks like and then its happy and then it cycles. Looking back for me I was really focused on ‘how do I stay in that like really good part\u2019 and \u2018how do I make sure that I can be as safe as possible in those bad parts.’\u201d <\/p>\n

Another reason why McKenna didn\u2019t report the behavior was because she wanted to keep what happened to her quiet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt because of that shame of disappointing others or not being the person who knew better,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cIt was even until probably years later that I recognized some of the sexual violence in the relationship as pieces because to me its all together. Even at the time I categorized all as dating violence.”<\/p>\n

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Kayla McQuade, an alumna of Quinnipiac, thinks reporting something so personal like being sexually harassed leads people to not want to report.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don’t want to relive it again. They might be embarrassed that it happened so they would rather just hold it in instead of telling people,\u201d McQuade said. \u201cThen there’s also the issue of sometimes when you’re a victim of an assault like that, there’s a lot more questioning going into, ‘Are you sure that really happened?’, there’s a lot of victim blaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of people are afraid of what people may say about them,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cEspecially women being told ‘oh you’re asking for it’ just because of what they’re wearing or of the way they’re acting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some organizations at Quinnipiac have been trying to educate their members by holding trainings, but also by making resources available to anyone who experiences an assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery organization goes through formal training where we have speakers come in, we have presentations,\u201d President of Alpha Sigma Phi, Robert Martinez said. \u201cA lot of it is the day- to- day interactions with your members on a personal basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen people talk about their private matters and things of this nature, I think it’s better to shut that down right away, because if you don’t tolerate it on a private basis then it\u2019s not going to be tolerated with anyone. I think it’s should be taken more away from the formal training and a lot more just personal you know bystander intervention, just don’t tolerate that personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Senior Kappa Alpha Theta member Hannah Meyer noted that her sorority has resources available to its members if something ever happened to them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI know that I have resources if a friend or I were to encounter a situation in which we needed help with an assault,\u201d said Meyer. \u201cMy sorority has a hotline and crisis text line that I can reach out to. My sorority has been through sexual assault prevention awareness education which is the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI do believe that the Kavanaugh hearing has struck a chord for many victims at Quinnipiac and in our community,\u201d said Meyer. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quinnipiac University\u2019s most recent annual Clery report came out in the middle of the Kavanaugh hearings. The report documented two formal reports of rape on campus and one instance of fondling. But, the report doesn’t provide the full picture of sexual harassment and violence on campus.<\/p>\n

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