Sexual assault has remained a major concern for female students among college campuses over the decades. As a female college student, this worries me because I fall into the category with the highest risk for being sexually assaulted (women between the ages of eighteen and twenty four) (Bedera, 2). Although there have been a number of preventative measures put in place to help inform people and try to avoid assault, the percentage of sexual assaults on college campus still is around the same as it was twenty and thirty years ago. With all of the new programs put in place and the raised awareness of the issue, why has this number remained constant over the years? 

The Article Sexual Assault on Campus, written by Elizabeth Armstrong, Laura Hamilton, and Brian Sweeney, examines why women fail to report an assault and the different services that are in place to help women who have been sexually assaulted. This source states that women are typically sexually assaulted by men who they are acquainted with. This also makes them far less likely to report the assault which allows the offender to go unpunished and likely to assault someone else. Another reason this source gives for sexual assault being underreported is the consumption of drugs and alcohol making the victim unable to remember what happened, so they are unsure if what happened was rape or not. The authors of this source, have PhD's in sociology and all specialize on sexuality. Many of them have written well known journals, articles and even books on this topic. Two of the authors are women which give it somewhat of a bias but the third author is a man which balances out the bias that could be added by the female authors.

Another  Journal Article, Sexual Assault Among College Students, written by Tara E. Sutton and Leslie Gordon Simmons,  addresses the effects of insecure adult attachment styles and the hook-up- culture associated with college. These authors are showing how to solve the problem of sexual assault at a young age, within the family. They state that young adults would benefit from relationship education programs. According to Sutton and Simmons, harsh parenting and aggressive behavior between caregivers teaches children coercive behaviors (Sutton). They claim that it will help lower the chance of the young adults being involved in a sexual assault in the future. The authors talk about how the policies and procedures among universities are ineffective and need to be revised so new better policies can be put in place. The authors of this article work in the department of sociology at the University of Georgia which give them credentials to speak on this topic. 

The Journal Article Never Go Out Alone examines the different rape prevention and risk reduction tips posted on forty different college's websites and analyzed them to find a common theme. The common theme was that most tips were directed towards women and suggest four main messages. Those messages are that there are no safe places for women, women can't trust anyone, women should never be alone, and women are vulnerable (Bedera,1). It shows that the trouble of college sexual assault prevention falls mainly on female students. Both authors, Kristjane Nordmeyer and Nicole Bedera, are females and have PhD's in Sociology. Nicole Bedera is involved in an activist movement for gender violence and sexuality which adds some bias to the journal article. Bedera is more biased towards women and thinks that people put the blame and the work for prevention on the women.

Some may argue that the colleges do enough to prevent sexual assault on college campuses, but if this were the truth then the number of sexual assaults should decrease over the years and studies show that this is not true. Others might say that the problem of sexual assault happens before the students go off to school due to the home environment of the student. The sources all agree that sexual assault is a problem that needs to be solved, but the difficulty is with where the problem starts. One source says that sexual assault starts in the younger years and could be easily prevented in the future by informing children about it at a young age and having them be involved in relationship education programs. Another source states that the amount of rape is so high since rapes go underreported because the victim is afraid or they don't remember if it was rape or not. And the last source says that all the work is placed on the women to prevent the rape. The perspectives in the articles do not affect my values and ideas, they just give more information to analyze and different perspectives to look at. I might need to revise my research question and make it more controversial and pick a specific way rape affects women, especially in college.

