Sexual Assault Within American Culture - 2065 Words

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study Sexual assault within American culture has grown to epidemic proportions (Fisher, Worth, Garcia, Meredith, 2000; Tjaden Thoennes, 2000). Although recent studies have acknowledged the widespread prevalence of violence against an alarming number of female collegiate students, the vulnerable population remains â€Å"at substantial risk for being sexually assaulted, primarily by male acquaintances† (Senn et al., 2015, p. 2326). Studies have indicated that women living on college campuses fall within the highest risk group of the overall population for such assault. Moreover, assaults that are sexual in nature often precipitate sexual dysfunctions and can significantly impact a woman’s physical and mental†¦show more content†¦Further, despite the literature review, which indicated well-founded statistics that assault crimes are on the rise, there was a perplexing paucity of literature on studies that were efficacious in sexual assault reduction among college campu ses. College campuses are also commonly bereft of highly visible prevention and intervention provisions for students. The immensity of the crisis is worthy of attention for promotion of increased visibility of legitimate preparedness efforts for college students. Important questions to address include: Could students benefit from more warning from colleges on the staggering numbers of assaults and characteristic patterns of students victimized versus those who were not? Could they be positively affected to the extent that would limit their exposure to assault and/or increase their comfort level with reporting crimes? Although sexual assault events are complex, this researcher considered some of the common characteristics of these acts as determined through a statistical analysis of prevalent patterns of previous behavior associated with assault. Note that sexual assault occurs across all perpetrator and victim gender combinations, sexual orientations, and consumption or non-consumption of alcohol. The focus of the current analysis is by no means comprehensive, but it did examine statistically common elements among sexual and physical assault