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Fraternity and College Rape

 

Overview:

Acquaintance Rape of College Students - Authoritative website on college issues.

http://www.popcenter.org/Problems/problem-acquaintance.htm

Rape is the most common violent crime on American college campuses today. This guide describes the problem of acquaintance rape of college students, addressing its scope, causes and contributing factors; methods for analyzing it on a particular campus; tested responses; and measures for assessing response effectiveness.

 

Fraternity Rape - Book

"The evidence reveals a common pattern; the "brothers" target a vulnerable "party girl" who wants acceptance or is high on alcohol (sometimes her drinks have been deliberately spiked); she is taken to a room in the fraternity house where she may or may not agree to have sex with one man; she then generally passes out, and a "train" of men have sex with her. Such incidents of gang rape are rarely prosecuted or even labeled rape, reflecting an institutional attitude that grants men sexual privileges and accepts sexually aggressive behavior." (Sanday, 1990)

 

Online resources

 

Sexual Violence and Alcohol and Other Drug Use on Campus US Dept. of Education

http://www.edc.org/hec/pubs/factsheets/fact_sheet1.html

"This Infofacts/Resources describes the scope of the problem of sexual assault on campus, perpetrator characteristics and situational circumstances that may make assaults more likely to happen, and the role alcohol and other drugs, including rape-facilitating drugs, play in sexual assault. This publication also provides an overview of sexual harassment and a sidebar on stalking on campus. While these are complex problems, campuses fortunately can take positive steps to address these issues. This publication outlines a set of principles and processes that institutions of higher education can implement to prevent and mitigate sexual violence on campus."

 

Acquaintance Rape of College Students, COPS, March 2002, NCJ 195868. (61 pages- full version).

"Rape is the most common violent crime on American
college campuses today.1 This guide describes the problem
of acquaintance rape of college students, addressing its
scope, causes and contributing factors; methods for
analyzing it on a particular campus; tested responses; and
measures for assessing response effectiveness. With this
information, police and public safety officers can more
effectively prevent the problem.

The Problem-Oriented Guides for Police series is very much a
collaborative effort. While each guide has a primary
author, other project team members, COPS Office staff
and anonymous peer reviewers contributed to each guide."

 

World Health Organization

Gang rape, page 14
"Some forms of sexual violence, such as gang rape, are predominantly committed by young men ( 129). Sexual aggression is often a defining characteristic of manhood in the group and is significantly related to the wish to be held in high esteem ( 130). Sexually aggressive behaviouramong
young men has been linked with gang membership and having delinquent peers ( 126, 131). Research also suggests that men with sexually aggressive
peers are also much more likely to report coercive or enforced intercourse outside the gang context than men lacking sexually aggressive peers ( 132).
Gang rape is often viewed by the men involved, and sometimes by others too, as legitimate, in that it is seen to discourage or punish perceived ‘‘immoral’’ behaviour among woman – such as wearing short skirts or frequenting bars. For this reason, it may not be equated by the perpetrators
with the idea of a crime. In several areas in Papua New Guinea, women can be punished by public gang rape, often sanctioned by elders ( 133)."

 

Longitudinal Study of Violence Against Women: Victimization and Perpetration Among College Students in a State-Supported University in the United States, 1990-1995

This data collection consists of two data files, a PDF user guide, codebooks and data collection instruments in separate PDF files, and SAS and SPSS setup files. This is raw data you can plug into SPSS and process.

 

Current Events

College culture - "how-to" guide to date rape in college paper

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=30167

It was headlined "Diary of a drug rapist -- no means no, but if they can’t talk, they can't turn you down."

 

'They don't see it as rape. They just see it as pleasure for them' This is a current events newspaper article. It is a popular (rather than scholarly) resource but has a good perspective on the issues. If you are looking for research resources please see the journal articles below.

"What the five boys had done to this one girl was nothing unusual. What the girl did, or rather didn't do, was not unusual, either. 'What could she do, man? She was scared,' says Tamika. 'You know that if you talk about it, they can do it again. If they want you to be quiet, that's all you gotta do, just bite your tongue and continue. It's a sad thing but it's reality. Hard reality."

 

Date Rape: College's Dirty Secret - Opinion piece from a college newspaper. The author is a student. This is not an authoritative resource but it is a good student perspective.

Online resource

http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/journalism/magazine/4-97/features/articles/f-daterape.html

"Three years ago, Heather* remembers how hard it was to leave behind her family and friends. She remembers having to face the fact that she was once again a freshman. She remembers wanting so badly to be well-liked. But there is one thing that Heather does not remember at all - the night she was raped by two freshman males in a room full of people."

 

Campus Rape Ignored . . . Even When There's a Videotape National Organization for Women

http://www.now.org/nnt/fall-99/campus.html

"The general public may believe their local campus is a safe place, but in reality many young men have been sent the message that they can rape without consequence. Administrators often convince sexual assault victims to utilize the college's disciplinary system by promising that the matter will be handled quietly, an inducement not offered by civil authorities...Woman Arrested After Reporting Rape.

 

Our Guys

Lesson plan based on a published book - Find this book in a library

http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/ourguys/

"Thirteen teenage boys lured a retarded girl into a basement where four of them gang-raped her while several others looked on. The boys were the most popular athletes in high school. And although rumors of the rape began quickly circulating through the town, it was weeks before anyone reported it to the police and years before the boys finally went to trial.... Why did the town's supposedly responsible adults--including teachers, coaches, parents, and law-enforcement officers--turn a blind eye to the increasingly violent and aberrant behavior of Glen Ridge's golden boys? The expertly told story of the rape and the subsequent trial makes a compelling national drama of conscience and morality, charged with a significance that reaches far beyond one town and its criminal justice system."

 

 

Journal articles

 

Martin, P. Y., & Hummer, R. A. (1989). Fraternities and rape on campus. Gender and Society, 3, 457-473. Find this journal in a library

Boswell, A. A., & Spade, J. Z. (1996). Fraternities and collegiate rape culture: Why are some fraternities more dangerous places for women? Gender and Society, 10, 133-147. Find this journal in a library

Sanday, P. R. (1996). Rape-prone versus rape-free campus cultures. Violence Against Women, 2, 191-208. Find this journal in a library

Fischer, B., & Cullen, F. (2001). Sexual Victimization of College Women. Retrieved Jan. 19, 2006, from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/svcw.htm

"Most of the sexually assaulted women knew the person who victimized them. For completed and attempted rapes, nearly 90 percent of the victims knew the offender, who was usually a classmate, friend, ex-boyfriend or acquaintance."

Copenhaver, S., and Grauerholz, E. (1991)Sexual Victimization among Sorority Women: Exploring the Link between Sexual Violence and Institutional Practices. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. 24(1-2): 31–42. Find this journal in a library

Schwartz, Martin D. and DeKeseredy, Walter S. (1997). Sexual Assault on the College Campus: The Role of Male Peer Support. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Find this journal in a library

Kalof, Linda (1993). Rape-Supportive Attitudes and Sexual Victimization Experiences of Sorority and Nonsorority Women. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Vol. 29. Find this journal in a library

"Others have drawn attention to the ways in which rape-supportive attitudes form part of a general cultural orientation toward sexual assault (Burt, 1980) and the institutional and organizational aspects of the culture that support and sustain sexual aggression and female victimization (Gwartney-Gibbs & Stockard, 1989; Martin & Hummer, 1989; O'Sullivan, 1991; Sanday, 1990). For example, fraternities have been described as organizations that provide a cultural context that generates and reinforces beliefs and values that subordinate women and encourage sexual aggression (Martin & Hummer, 1989; Sanday, 1990). Compared to other male students, fraternity men have been found to hold more stereotyped attitudes about gender roles (Kalof & Cargill, 1991)"

 

 

Books

Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus Find this book in a library

Sanday, Peggy Reeves. (1990) Fraternity gang rape : sex, brotherhood, and privilege on campus. New York : New York University Press, 203.

HV6561 .S25 1990

NCJ Number: 132833

ISBN 0-8147-7902-6

"This study documents how gang rape occurs with regularity in fraternities, athletic dorms, and other exclusively male enclaves. The book begins with one incident at a fraternity that involved one woman having sex with five or six fraternity members after a party. Perspectives on what happened were obtained through interviews with the victim, the participants, onlookers, and university administrators. As background for understanding the incident, the analysis reconstructs daily life in the fraternity as it identifies the roles played by pornography, male bonding, degrading jokes, and ritual dances in shaping the fraternity's attitude toward women and sexuality. Two fraternity members detail the degrading fraternity initiation rituals they were compelled to undergo. The discussion also covers gang rape on other campuses in other fraternities. The evidence reveals a common pattern; the "brothers" target a vulnerable "party girl" who wants acceptance or is high on alcohol (sometimes her drinks have been deliberately spiked); she is taken to a room in the fraternity house where she may or may not agree to have sex with one man; she then generally passes out, and a "train" of men have sex with her. Such incidents of gang rape are rarely prosecuted or even labeled rape, reflecting an institutional attitude that grants men sexual privileges and accepts sexually aggressive behavior. The book's analysis concludes that the subculture of many male groups on college campuses conditions men to view women as objects to be used for confirmation of their masculinity and as vehicles for acceptance into the male fraternity. Women, on the other hand, are manipulated and conditioned to accept this role as a means of attaching themselves to men of power in the male community. 53-item bibliography"

 

 

Bibliographies

Find more books and articles by searching for bibliographies on college and fraternity rape:

Groups, gangs, fraternities, and violence against women

http://mensbiblio.xyonline.net/violence.html#Gangs

 

Sexual Assault bibliography

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~casah/Bibliography.html

 

Resources to research this subject:

Journals and articles

Search the NCJRS Abstracts Database

Google scholar or Findarticles

Finding books at the library

Online Libraries on sexual assault

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Search terms: fraternity rape, college rape, rape on campus, sexual assault on campus, College students--United States--Sexual behavior--Case studies, Sexual harassment in universities and colleges--United States, Sexual harassment--United States--Prevention, Women college students--Crimes against--United States, Male college students--United States--Psychology, Rape ; Students ; Physically handicapped ; Higher education ; University or college dormitories ; Female victims ; Campus crime,

Related links: Victim blame, Womens week events, Secondary victimization, Lesson plans, Current events, Vocabulary, The effects of rape / psychology, Feminist sites on rape, Films and music

References:

Fischer, B., & Cullen, F. (2001). Sexual Victimization of College Women. Retrieved Jan. 19, 2006, from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/svcw.htm

Sanday, P. R . (1990). Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus. New York. New York University Press: 228p. NCJ Number: 132833

 

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