Sara Rufael

Mrs. Mcmennamy
Capstone-6
17 November 2016
Timed Writing #1
Cases of Sexual Assault on College Campuses, Military Bases and their Aftermath
The prosecution of rape is often considered just as much, if not more, of an ordeal as the incident
itself. Victims are put through an intense period of increased scrutiny and emotional pressure;
however, this plays out somewhat differently in military versus civilian courts. In the past
century, certain laws and programs have been put in place for service members and the general
public to ensure the safety and comfort of victims. Despite this, not all judicial, police, and
military procedures for processing and prosecuting rape cases have caught up with modern times.
This legal neglect of survivors translates into a society that normalizes sexual assault, with one of
the biggest examples being the role that fraternities and hyper-masculine culture play in
facilitating sexual assault/rape and silencing victims on college campuses.
Although it is an uncomfortable subject, sexual assault on campus is becoming a national
issue and fraternities are at the forefront of this dialogue. Despite the efforts of individual
chapters, frat culture continues to promote ideas of female objectification and sexual aggression
that leads to sexual assault. It is telling that the likelihood of being a victim of sexual assault is
four times greater for a female college student than for any other age group (Burnett). Not
women age 19-22, but female college students specifically are faced with higher chances of
sexual assault. And when we analyze the tactics used by fraternities, its quite easy to see why. A
common staple of greek life is Little Sister Programs, unofficial fraternity programs which enroll

underclassmen in a manner similar to fraternity rushing. However, instead of becoming official

members of the fraternity, they are kept as unofficial servers, entertainers, and baitfor the rush
week parties and other social events (Martin). A university official at Florida State University
even said that the idea behind Little Sisters was to attract frat members by saying, "we have the
best looking women. Join us and you can have them too"(Martin). By establishing establishing
patriarchal roles from the very start and capitalizing off of the commodification of female bodies,
fraternities set a terrifying precedent for their members and the respect they have for women.
Additionally, Alcohol is used as a weapon to disarm women and take the blame for sexual
assault off of the perpetrator. Drinking is as interwoven into college and frat lifestyles as rape
culture is. According to a poll of 1,053 current and recent college students, excessive drinking is
an important predictor of sexual assault (Brown). This idea is not limited to college students
either. Stuart Dunnings, a county prosecutor who presides over the Lansing, Michigan area
believes that alcohol is the date-rape drug(Brown). However, the fact that alcohol
consumption and sexual assault frequently co-occur does not demonstrate that alcohol causes
sexual assault (Abbey). Even though anyone would receive a punishment for driving or
committing vandalism or theft while drunk, alcohol is still used as a scapegoat for sexual assault.
In more malicious scenarios, victims themselves are blamed for drinking too much and being
unable to prevent their attack, rather than their attackers for committing it. Blaming their actions
on alcohol, or worse yet the alcohol consumption of the victim is yet another way Fraternities
avoid responsibility for rape on campus.
After the assault, Hyper-masculine societal standards excuse rapists, shame and silence
survivors and campus administration rarely takes action. Perhaps the fraternities biggest show of
unity in these horrific incidents is their commitment to silence. After a highly controversial rape

case involving multiple members of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity at the University of Virginia
(UVA) in 2014, the Inter-fraternal Council of UVA forbade any fraternity member on campus
from speaking to anyone about the incident (Driver). This is an almost automatic maneuver for
most fraternities and points to their commitment to cover up any faults in their organization. No
matter what a brother is accused of, Members are reminded constantly to be loyal to the
fraternity and to their brothers The fraternity must be shielded from criticism (Martin). This
Code of Silence is key in putting pressure on the victim to keep quiet and keeping the rapist from
seeing any actual punishment.
The actions and methods described here do not attempt to describe every fraternity on
every college campus in America. Rather they attempt to pinpoint the over-arching themes of
fraternity culture and how they connect to sexual assault on campus. While fraternity members
and individual college students arent necessarily responsible for these crimes, they all have a
role in changing the culture that makes campuses into dangerous situations.
These overarching themes of mistrust and silencing also persist within our police forces
and court rooms and many are trying to solve this issue the reforming legislation on victim
interaction with the law. Initial encounters with police officers and nurses can greatly affect the
likelihood of a civilian survivor to continue their case. Most survivors are first taken to a medical
facility for a rape kit. One of the most recent protocols for the increased comfort of women are
SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) programs. SANE programs focus on providing
compassionate and expert medical treatment to victims of rape, including encouraging women to
obtain kits for DNA analysis (Telsavaara, Arrigo). This goes a step beyond normal medical
procedure as it is aimed to provide survivors with both medical treatments and emotional
support. The SANE nurses are also a key measure in getting victims to report and prosecute. Two

National Institute of Justice studies have found that the prosecution rates of communities have
increased drastically after the implementation of SANE programs (Campbell, et al.). However,
problems persist on the side of law enforcement. Many believe that officers often allow personal
bias to disrupt how they handle a case. The findings of several studies conducted on East German
officers suggested that characteristics of the victim help define what officers consider to be
rape (Campbell, Johnson). Women who wear revealing clothing or do not appear visibly shaken
often lose credibility with officers who subscribe to dated ideas of how a rape victim should look
and act. These findings are so troubling because the initial doubt of an officer can immediately
dissuade a victim from pursuing justice. And as survivors have more experiences with police,
their trust in the justice system begins to fade dramatically. Often law enforcement officers find
complainants who have already experienced another incident of sexual assault to be particularly
suspicious, despite the fact that Such deductions fly in the face of an accumulating body of
research evidence that documents high incidences of repeat rape victimization (Jordan). Despite
our expectation of objective professionalism from our police officers, undeniable bias persists the
same as in any other career field.
Another problem in the litigation of civilian rape cases is the backlog of rape kits piling
in storage facilities across the nation. Rape kits are contaminated and lost every day while their
cases may remain open. However, many of the problems created by the backlog of rape kits are
not just caused by stalling prosecution. SANE workers are now facing difficulties in convincing
women to pursue cases because they are aware of the probability of their kit actually being
processed. Another discouraging complication for victims stems from the fact that some believe
Crime labs today are an arm of law enforcement (DiFonzo). This means that if the police have
doubts about the validity of a rape case, whether based or not, they can choose not to press the

issue and allow the rape kit to lay untouched for years. Congress aimed to address this issue by
creating the Debbie Smith or Justice for All Act, passed in November 2004. The legislation
was created to cut through the mounting backlog of unexamined rape kits in crime labs around
the country (Telsavaara, Arrigo). The legislation was considered highly effective in its mission of
delivering monetary resources to jurisdictions in need of rape kit processing. However, many
critics are questioning the implementation of the program, due to the fact that it may require a
massive retraining lower officers and lower courts.
In cases where state and federal law has been reformed, practical application is the
biggest issue as local police and courts struggle to keep up. Even after we make large strides
toward justice in our legal codes, remnants of the past laws remain in the opinions and morals of
the individuals in our justice system. Wife rape, for example, was exempt from ordinary rape
laws until the 1970s, yet instances of marital rape are almost impossible to prosecute due to the
unwillingness of both law enforcement and the prosecuting attorneys to move forward with the
cases (Jordan). To combat this persistent prejudice, many states are mandating sexual assault
training for some higher levels of law enforcement. This measure would be more effective if
training expanded to lower officers, who are more likely to be interacting with victims on a case
basis. As reforms change the way our legal system views survivors and their cases, it is
important to ensure that the enforcers of these changes are adequately trained so they can be of
most help to victims. (Campbell, Johnson). We must understand the top-down nature of reform
and consider our effort to achieve justice for rape survivors a work in progress.
Survivors of rape in the military face very similar issues in reform implementation and inherent
bias in their legal system, which is compounded by the lack of awareness on military sexual
assault. While many Americans express a profound respect and support for those in our Armed

Services, many do not understand the additional risks that our military men and women face. The
complications of the military justice system and military culture obstruct justice for rape victims
and profoundly increase secondary victimization.
Current military protocol surrounding sexual assault prevention is rooted in victim
blaming. The military body in charge of handling abuse on military bases is the Sexual Assault
Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO). SAPRO has been notoriously ineffective and its
failure to address sexual assault in the military was detailed in the documentary Invisible War. A
month before the documentary was released, the director of SAPRO whose statements to the
documentarians had caused major controversy, was terminated (Biggs). It is easy to see why
there was such a harsh backlash. One service member said of the SAPRO educational videos,
The militarys campaign to prevent sexual assault largely centers on telling servicemen not to
have sex with women when theyre drunk (Gibbons-Neff). These campaigns discourage victim
outcry by placing blame on women who might be intoxicated. They also grossly misrepresent the
demographics of survivors in the military. Rape in the military is one of the least gendered
occurrences of any place in American society. By enforcing the idea that sexual assault only
happens to women, these failed programs silence male victims who fear even more blowback
because of the stigma surrounding rape and gender.
Beyond specified programs, the military justice system at large is riddled with conflicts
of interest and is ultimately abused to maintain spotless records over safe servicemen and
women. The military system encourages high-ranking officials to want to keep their records as
leaders spotless. Due to this idea, many consider those who report sexual assault trouble makers
and actively work to discredit them in ways that will reflect badly on the individual rather than
the base. Brian Lewis, one survivor of assault involved in the latest report on failures in the

pentagon said that, [ Personality disorder is] of the labels sexual assault victims receive in the
military, according to advocates who have worked with victims, along with discharges for
weight-control failure, or engaging in misconduct such as consuming alcohol, if the victim had
drinks before the assault; or committing adultery, if the victim is married (Childress). These
kind of minor infractions or moral code violations are what make the difference between a
service member being honorably discharged or receiving a general discharge. While it may
seem like semantics, not getting an honorable discharge means veterans cannot access the
Bureau of Veterans Affairs for assistance dealing with psychological trauma and receiving care.
This also means they do not have access to the G.I. Bill which guarantees many of the benefits
many vets need to reenter society (Childress). Through the manipulation of this unforgiving
system, general discharges have become a weapon to discredit and disenfranchise victims of
abuse.
However, in the face of this injustice, members of the government, non-profit
organizations, and private citizens are taking action to end the extreme abuses of power in the
military. One such organization, Protect Our Defenders, has been active in spreading awareness
on the issue of military sexual assault and helping victims take legal action against their rapists
and the system that enabled them. Politicians have been taking notice of these actions and many
have stepped in to address the concerns of the military men and women. The Military Justice
Improvement Act, spearheaded by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, has been one of the biggest
success for victims and advocates in the military (Gibbons-Neff, Whitlock). One of the key
elements of these successes is that they are managed mainly by survivor-run organizations
While the struggles and issues faced by civilian rape survivors, on campus and otherwise,
and survivors in the armed services may seem drastically different in degree and process, they

stem from the same root problems of antiquated social stigmas and the failure of a system to
react to the needs of its members. The fact that almost all effective lobbying and activism must
come from survivors organizations is an example of how victims, who already battle social
backlash and trauma, have to act as their own advocates in a system that refuses to fight for
them. Perhaps, however, efforts to recognize the common culture that lies behind injustice
towards military and civilian victims can turn a tide in our society, our justice systems, and enact
the reform that is so desperately needed.

Works Cited
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Brown, Emma, Steve Hendrix, and Susan Svrluga. "Drinking Is Central to College Culture and
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