Currently, sexual assault victims have to continue studying in the same environment as the person accused of assaulting them, and this causes a strain on their activities. In the Johnson case, she had to stop visiting the gym and running in order to avoid bumping in on Eric. This affected her normal routine and resulted in her anxiety increasing. Studying and participating in the same activities as your accuser will have a negative effect on the victim because they feel ashamed and they are blaming themselves for the sexual assault. Classes have to progress as normal, and victims of sexual assault find it hard to cope with the assault and their normal classes. Research has shown that a majority of sexual assault victims will drop their grades and most of them do not recover (The American Association of University Professors, 2012). There are many reasons that are associated with the drop in academic performance, but the main one might be that the victim is trying to avoid the perpetrator of the assault.
The campus finds it hard to investigate and prosecute a majority of the rape cases because of the presence of alcohol. Alcohol makes it hard for the college to establish for sure if the incident happened and if what the victim says is true. There is need to have a better management of sexual assault within the college. The current policy that demands that a victim report and undertakes necessary medical procedures do not offer the victims much satisfaction. Instead, a majority of the victims feel betrayed and more vulnerable.
In order to ensure that a victim of sexual assault is able to recover and continue with their college life, there is need to have a change in policy to ensure that the perpetrator and the victim have separate classes, and facilities. There should be no contact between the two parties for as long as the case is ongoing. This would allow the victim to feel more secure and not have to face their perpetrator. The victim would also be better placed to continue with their studies, and their academic performance would not be affected. The college could also have a study break for the victims to enable them to recover from the assault. The study break should be optional and only offered together with counseling advice. As noted in the Johnson case, her academic performance was being affected in that she was not able to complete assignments on time and she was missing most of her classes (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2014). This clearly shows that the victim is not ready to continue studying and until she has fully recovered she might not be able to concentrate on her studies.
Investigating of sexual assault cases should be conducted thoroughly even when their alcohol involved. This is because the college has a clear policy that states consent must be sought, and it can only be given by a person who is not incapacitated in any way. Therefore, any victim who reports sexual assault and admits they were intoxicated should be taken seriously. There should be avenues that could be used by the college to investigate and establish if the victim's accusations are correct or not. It is upon the college to determine this fact and not the victim to insist on being right. The victim should not be made to feel like they have done wrong and failure to take them seriously when they report the matter should be avoided.
The success of the policy changes could be evaluated by analyzing the grades of sexual assault victims after the implementation of the new policies. If the grades have improved, then it would indicate that the policy change is effective. The policy for investigating and not making the victim feel they are at fault would be gauged by the number of cases that result in convictions of the perpetrators. Currently, the number of cases solved and perpetrators convicted is too low, and this results in the victims finding it hard to believe there is need to report.
References
Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (2014). SESSIONS: Case Histories. from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/SOCW/MSWP/CH/mm/homepage/doc/msw_case_histories.pdf
The American Association of University Professors. (2012). Campus Sexual Assault: Suggested Policies and Procedures from https://www.aaup.org/report/campus-sexual-assault-suggested-policies-and-procedures
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