Sexual assault on campus is a public health epidemic
On Oct. 15, the Association of American Universities released the results of a national survey looking at campus climate around sexual assault and sexual misconduct among 33 member universities. The results show that approximately one-third of undergraduate women at USC have experienced at least one incident of nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or inability to consent since starting school. On college campuses, sexual assault and sexual misconduct is not just a problem — it is a public health epidemic.
To better understand the crisis at hand, it is essential to first know the discrepancies among the definitions of sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual violence. Incidents of sexual assault and sexual violence involve a person not consenting or being unable to consent to physical sexual activities. However, sexual assault is more likely to be used to discuss individual cases of misconduct, while sexual violence implies a more global scale.
Sexual harassment can fall under the umbrella of sexual assault, as it can involve unwanted sexual advances or sexual requests in addition to verbal or physical conduct of sexual nature. Lastly, sexual misconduct is an overarching term that refers to any form of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual violence and stalking.
It is important to note that these terms are not synonymous to each other. Sexual assault, sexual harrassment, sexual miconduct and sexual violence are nuanced terms that are distinctive within their usage.
According to an analysis piece by The Washington Post, USC has the highest rates of female undergraduates experiencing nonconsensual sexual touching and nonconsensual sexual contact of any of the 33 universities that participated in the survey. Approximately 25% of female undergraduates report nonconsensual sexual touching, and 31% report nonconsensual sexual contact — and these statistics are from only those who chose to report the incidents. The Department of Justice indicates that the underreporting rate of sexual assault on college campuses is about 90%.
Although USC reports some of the highest rates of sexual assault on campuses, universities around the country are all struggling with sexual assault on campuses as well.
Because of the nature of this crisis on college campuses, it is time to shift the way people talk about sexual assault. Similarly to a wide-reaching outbreak of a disease, acts of sexual assault have physical, financial and emotional costs. For instance, a study on the effects of sexual victimization on suicidal ideation shows that one in four rape victims, compared to one in 20 non-victim women, have engaged in a suicidal act.
Moreover, 94% of women experience symptoms of PTSD after an assault, and 30% of all cases of PTSD in the United States are caused by sexual assault. Suicide and PTSD are only two of the many consequences of sexual assault, and the impacts of sexual abuse on survivors vary on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, it is time to stop calling acts of sexual assault on college campuses a problem and instead approach them as part of an urgent public health epidemic.
On the bright side, USC is aware of the gravity of the crisis and is responding to areas in which the University showed deficits in the survey results. For instance, the number of students who are “very knowledgeable” of campus resources to help victims of sexual assault has decreased substantially from 2015 to 2019.
In an NPR interview, Chief Health Officer Sarah Van Orman at USC Student Health acknowledges this decline and introduces a newly established, in-person component of the University’s sexual assault training program for incoming first-year students. According to Van Orman, the addition aims to increase overall knowledge of campus resources among students.
All first-year students at USC are now required to participate in a workshop called Trojans Respect Consent. The session takes place during their first semester in groups of about 15 students. The interactive worshop extends the sexual assault education curriculum into the academic year and helps sustain the conversation around safe practices. In addition to starting the discussion around sexual assault, the workshop exposes students to the different on-campus resources available in the cases that they or someone they know has been sexually assaulted.
It is important to remember that sexual assault on college campuses in not an isolated issue — it is intrinsically linked to other crises in the world today, such as the revelations of Harvey Weinstein’s behavior that launched the #MeToo movement online.
If changes on campus are not made, acts of sexual violence may continue to permeate throughout society and lead to other issues, such as increased sexual violence in the workplace. Therefore, by addressing the problem at the university level, USC is creating and offering comprehensive resources that teach students to recognize and potentially stop dangerous situations in their tracks.
The University is pioneering new ways to educate students on this multifaceted issue, and other universities should change their sexual assault education programs to meet their own specific campuses’ needs as well. Although the results of the survey are upsetting, they are facilitating a much-needed dialogue around this public health crisis and will hopefully lead to institutional change to create a safer society for people in college, the workplace and beyond.