Indiana (U-Wire) — Close to 200,000 rapes and attempted rapes occur each year. As the Take Back the Night march pointed out Sunday, this is one cause we have to do something about. There are programs to teach people how to try to avoid rape and what to do if you or a friend is raped, but in spite of these programs, most people do not even know what rape is.
Rape occurs if a person knowingly has sexual intercourse with a member of the opposite sex when the other person is compelled by force or threat of force, the other person is unaware that sexual intercourse is occurring, or the other person is so mentally deficient that consent to sexual intercourse cannot be given. Rape is not limited to intercourse, and there is another law that covers the other aspects of sexual assault. What this means to most college students is that if either partner has had any alcoholic beverage, consent cannot be given by that partner, and it is rape. Unfortunately, your average college freshman is not going to know this.
While there are many wonderful programs available to students, how many students have time to go to every different program offered? And how many realize how important these programs can be for their health and safety?
Eighty-four percent of rapes are acquaintance rapes. This is a scary statistic, as are the statistics that show one out of four women and one out of 10 men will be raped in their lifetime. Only one out of 10 women will even report it when they are raped. Doesn’t it strike you as strange that such a prevalent problem is hardly touched on by the university?
Sure, we see a video about campus safety during orientation, but most people at this point know better than to go walking alone late at night. It’s bothersome that until a few years ago IU did teach us about rape at orientation. Then IU decided academics were its responsibility and someone else should handle rape. If the greek system can have a speaker come to talk about rape, focusing on the male perspective, and require attendance, how can the university do any less? Not only does IU need to educate us about rape, the focus of rape talks need to change so that men are more involved.
This staff editorial appeared Friday in the Indiana Daily.