Sexual assault, trauma issues go under-reported on campus

In the past three years, five rapes on campus have been reported to Public Safety, two of which occurred in the 2010-11 academic year.

“As any sex crimes that occur, probably what actually gets reported is only a third. You’re lucky if it’s a half,” Public Safety Major Joe Grant said. “There’s two thirds that don’t get reported.”

Prevalence on campus

Sexual assaults aren’t the only thing being reported on campus.

Statistics from Counseling Services show that the number of occurrences of trauma have been increasing over the past few years.

“In 2008 about two percent of our students coming in said they had experienced some trauma, and in 2009, 22 percent were reporting that,” said Director of Counseling Services Mary Jane Phillips. “It doesn’t all relate to (sexual trauma), but some sort of trauma experience in their lives.”

But she points out these statistics may be increasing because more students feel comfortable reporting trauma than in the past.

“Statistically one in four college women is going to be victimized during her time in college.”

Jennifer Graham-Stephens, Director of the Women’s Resource Center

Of the students surveyed by Counseling Services in 2011, 16 percent have reported experiencing sexual violence, whether it be rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, stalking or abuse by an intimate partner. In addition, 10.5 percent reported having experienced some form of childhood sexual abuse. This data was accrued from a survey most students take before appointments at Counseling Services.

The director of the Women’s Resource Center, Jennifer Graham-Stephens, is on the front lines for aiding students who have suffered from sexual trauma.

“This semester I’ve had a couple (of students). Last semester I had a couple, but there’s lots more (students) that I hear about things happening to, but they don’t necessarily come see me,” Graham-Stephens said. “So I know that a whole lot more is happening than just what people come and tell me.”

Specifics

“Statistically one in four college women is going to be victimized during her time in college and I would say that probably holds true on our campus,” Graham-Stephens said. “And when we talk about sexual assault and that one in four statistic, it’s not just one in four women will be raped; it’s one in four will be sexually assaulted.”

Sexual assault can include anything from rape, to unwanted touching, to being kissed when it is not wanted.

“Just because you were sexually assaulted but it wasn’t a rape, doesn’t make it any less traumatizing to that person,” Graham-Stephens said. “They still will feel a lot of the same feelings, shame, embarrassment and not knowing what to do about it or who to go talk to.”

Typically, a victim of sexual trauma or assault goes through phases including denial and trying to return to normalcy. The event usually resurfaces before they can deal with the full repercussions of the trauma.

“It’s almost universal for people to report that the most dominant aspect of the experience for them was the terror,” Phillips said.

Every person’s struggle is different and understanding where he or she is in the recovery process is extremely important, according to Phillips.

Side effects of this trauma can include shame, embarrassment, misplaced guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

“In sexual assault victims we see an increase in drug and alcohol abuse and usage, it causes things like academic life to falter, they may have a hard time focusing or studying,” Graham-Stephens said.

Despite the severity of the side effects to this kind of abuse, statistically less than one percent of rapes end in the perpetrator facing a day of jail time, according to Graham-Stephens.

Students who’ve experienced this kind of thing can choose many courses of action to prosecute the perpetrator including reporting it to the Milledgeville Police Department, Public Safety or the Student Judicial Board.

Prevention

The university has programs in place to prevent sexual assault crimes on campus.

“We have (sex crimes) here, and it happens some, but our numbers here I don’t think are going to be that high,” Grant said.

Policies like requiring a Bobcat Card to access the Residence Halls, having panic buttons in every room in University Housing, call boxes on campus and the S.N.A.P. program help avoid higher crime rates on campus, according to Phillips.

“It’s a campus culture here, that I think for a lot of people, is small enough to where people look out for each other to a large extent,” Phillips said. “So just people who go to a party and don’t let a friend who’s maybe had a little too much to drink leave with someone she doesn’t know. That person could very well have prevented a crime from being committed in that situation. This community does a lot of stuff.”

Recently, the Board of Regents has been trying to more actively combat issues with women on Georgia campuses. From March 8 to 10, they sponsored two Public Safety officers to go to a Rape Aggression Defense course. In addition, on March 29, they are funding a program on campus that will cover how to avoid being a victim of a stalking crime.

“If someone is stalking somebody, it’s going to lead up to a sexual crime, most likely,” Grant said.

The Women’s Resource Center brings in Mike Domitz each year to speak to the freshman class about how to prevent crimes like sexual assault from happening on campus. He does a program called “Can I kiss you?” which addresses things like watching out for a friend at a party, which is known as bystander intervention.

“That’s actually the best form of prevention of sexual assault,” Graham-Stephens said. “It’s other people looking out for their friends in situations and stepping in and saying ‘hey, it’s not cool if you talk to that person that way,’ and that kind of thing.”

Bystander intervention is important, but there are many other things students can do for prevention as well.

“Know your limits with alcohol, I would say a lot of the assaults that take place on campus, alcohol is involved in them in some way shape or form, one or both parties have been drinking a least some,” Graham-Stephens said.

Graham-Stephens also encourages students to practice the buddy system and bystander intervention, as well as constantly being aware of surroundings.

Students who have not been victims can also help those students who have suffered from this type of crime.

“Combating rape myths is really important, just because you were drinking doesn’t mean it was ok for somebody to rape you, just because you were dressed a little bit skanky doesn’t mean it was ok for somebody to rape you,” Phillips said. “There are people who will support and help you figure out what you want to do in various situations and getting that sense of control back.”

One of the most influential things all students can do is offer support, especially if they think someone may be a victim of a sexual crime, Graham-Stephens said.

“People don’t make up raped or being assaulted any more than people make up being robbed or murdered. The false reports for rape and sexual assault are on the same level as all other violent crimes,” Graham-Stephens said. “So it’s really important for people to believe them.”

Posted by Katelyn Hebert on Apr 2 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.