Examining Sexual Aggression and Fraternity Rape in Colleges

Examining Sexual Aggression and Fraternity Rape in Colleges

Fraternity Rapes Motivating and Contributing Factors

“Drinking and drugs and stress are such problems here and girls who don’t have self-respect for themselves are vulnerable and susceptible to violence and I’m not saying it’s their fault, but there’s such a small support system for women on this campus that they feel belittled by the institution and the men to begin with, so they don’t realize that they deserve more than being harassed or assaulted. This is a large university which is high stress, and oppressive people take out their frustration by controlling others. Every week or two, a new friend, tells me of their experience. Most incidents go unreported because of shame, no one wants to deal with it, some people are afraid to admit that they were actually abused. . . . One-fourth of my friends have been raped, assaulted, violated in some way. I think there’s a stigma in society towards therapy and I don’t think people are aware of the resources at the Penn women’s center.”-White female junior (Sanday, 2007, p. 213)

College rape is a present day problem which is projected in the media, news, and newspapers throughout the United States. “The 1995 NCVS reported nearly 355,000 rape/sexual assaults while less than 125,000 were reported by the UCR for the same time period. The discrepancy of approximately 230,000 incidents between these two sources is typical of the under-reporting of rape and sexual violence to police agencies. In fact, a comparison between the two reporting agencies demonstrates that rape is the most under-reported of violent crimes.” (Champion, p.2) “Research to date indicates that college is a high-risk period of sexual assault for women (Patton & Mannison, 1995; Sorenson, Stein, Siegel, Golding & Burnam, 1987; Ward, Chapman, Cohn, White, & Williams, 1991). College women are at roughly three times greater risk for sexual victimization than are women in the general population...