A review of a scenario given in class regarding a rape

1. HaroldSowardsII
CJ 440
4/6/16
From the scenarios described by Angie, Sarah, Kylie and Erica they were all victims of
acquaintance rape. Angie fell asleep and the guy woke up on top of him. Sarah was a member of
the Vanderbilt bowling team and when her friend group went out to parties, they all had to keep
up with football players. She was told that everyone does it and then one of her “friends” took
her home after the party and that “friend” raped her. Erica went out with a “friend” and ended up
having a drug slipped into her drink and then she was raped after that. Kylie had no tolerance for
alcohol, she drank a little bit and then ended up somewhere with one of the lacrosse players from
UConn. During this incident she kept repeating the words, “No” and “It’s too rough”, but was
forced into the nonconsensual sex.
They mentioned the following symptoms occurred afterwards: felt violated, repressed
memories, nausea, panic and anxiety attacks, they don’t feel good about themselves, they can’t
focus, trouble sleeping, suicidal thoughts and loss of friends. Most victims refuse to report
because they feel no comfort in the reporting process and according to the movie, less than 20%
of rapes go unreported. Most people don’t want to accept that the rape happened.
I’m very disturbed by the fact that I heard one of the people said that the victims should
“Forgive and forget”. No, you never forgive the rapist, that is condoning the action and you can’t
forget a traumatic event unless you repress it and this is not the message to send to the victim. It
is insensitive and it disturbs me that this is the mindset of people.
I noticed a pattern from the movie about common things the rapist says to justify their
actions. These include: “They were asking for it”, “It was a drunken hookup”, “They were
drinking” and “What they were wearing”. Both of the victims from UConn were told that their
rapists weren’t going to be allowed back into the school, but that turned out to be a lie. The
police officers said that women should stop spreading their legs like peanut butter. This

2. HaroldSowardsII
CJ 440
4/6/16
statement to me is disgusting and those officers should be disbarred from being able to work on
the police force, because you should be representing the population you serve. Less than 1/3 of
rapists are actually expelled from school.
I also was not a fan of the Yale photo in front of the Women’s Center showing men
holding up a sign saying “We love Yale Sluts”. For one, it shows that you have absolutely no
respect for the women on campus. Also, it completely degrades the level of service that the
Women Center can offer their female victims who may be trying to go there for counseling,
because it could now be seen as a hostile environment that is insensitive to the issues. All the
students participating in that photo, should be punished accordingly.
The survey questions, “How to get away with rape? Who would you rape and why?” are
disgusting. Who condones this? Why is this even a thing? Stop promoting this behavior that is
why it happens.
Silence is the enemy of change is a very powerful way to start of an essay. I agree with this
statement because the less rapes that go unreported, the more the rapist feels like they have done
nothing wrong. As a society, the victims should start speaking out more, so the power tables turn
and they can finally get the justice they deserve, although the incident never will disappear.
The last thing I want to bring up is Title 9. Since these incidents can affect their federal
funding, it makes me think, that the fact the university will take a loss of revenue creates the rape
cover-ups by the university. Universities are a business and anything that causes them a loss in
revenue or their reputation, will cause them to fight that stipulation so they can stay in the green.
I consider this to be a disgusting business tactic that should disappear.
Q. How do other schools go about the reapplication process of a student who files a Title
9 claim against another school? Would there be any bias in this process?