One night of her freshman year, Alex went out to a party with her freshman floor mates. Caught up in the bustle of the party, her friends left to get drinks and never came back. A guy she barely knew began dancing with her, eventually walked her back to her dorm and forcefully raped her on the floor. She cried the entire time as he noticed and kissed the tears off her cheeks. She says "he left right afterwards" and she "laughed it off, downplayed it from the start, it wasn't so bad, I told myself, no bruises ... After all, I was drinking, and I never said no" (Arnold 1). Fortunately, she received counselling and now is an advocate for speaking out against sexual violence. 

This traumatizing story is only one of thousands that have plagued college campuses for many years. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey agreed that sexual violence is a major problem in the United States (1). Not only is sexual assault and rape an issue for all women, men and children in the United States, but women in college are specifically targeted. In the National Institute of Justice's research on the sexual victimization of college women, they found that women on college campuses "are at greater risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women in the general population or in a comparable age group" (Fisher, Cullen, Turner 1). In a study from years 1995-2013 by the Bureau of Justice named Rape and Sexual Assault Victimization Among College-Age Females, "females ages 18 to 25 had the highest rate of rape and sexual assault victimization compared to females in all other age groups" (1). Based on these statistics, women have the highest chance at being sexually assaulted or raped on campus. Therefore; I will be focusing on the effect of these atrocious actions on women during their college years and why sexual violence has become more prevalent in our society contributing to the decrease in Americans values. 

Sexual assault, sexual violence, and rape are able to be defined in various ways. Many people and victims also interpret these crimes differently. Rape could be defined as "any unwanted sexual encounter" or only include "forced penetration." For this discrepancy, it is important to define these terms. A reliable source, The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence, employs the system of using a sampling survey of Americans. Based on their research of American victim's point of view rape has been defined as "any completed or attempted unwanted vaginal (for women), oral, or anal penetration through the use of physical force (such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threats to physically harm and includes times when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent. Rape is separated into three types, completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, and completed alcohol or drug facilitated penetration" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 17). According to the Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, 17, 190 forcible rapes occurred in the year 1960, 37,990 occurred in 1970, and 84,376 rapes occurred in 2012 (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1). Obviously the rise in these statistics could be attributed to the fact that men and women have felt more comfortable reporting their stories to the police. Setting this aside though, why the continuous rise in rapes over the last 50 years? The most alarming statistic reveals that "one in 5 women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives" (Statistics About Sexual Violence 1). "Annually, rape costs the U.S. more than any other crime ($127 billion), followed by assault ($93 billion), murder ($71 billion), and drunk driving ($61 billion)" (Statistics About Sexual Violence 1). 

"Many survivors of these forms of violence can experience physical injury, mental health consequences such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and suicide attempts, and other health consequences such as gastrointestinal disorders, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and gynecological or pregnancy complications. These consequences can lead to hospitalization, disability, or death" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 7). These awful negative consequences of rape examine the need for sexual violence to end. In the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey of 2010, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention gets to the root of the problem: the importance of family relationships and values. They argue "Prevention efforts should start early by promoting healthy, respectful relationships in families by fostering healthy parent-child relationships and developing positive family dynamics and emotionally supportive environments" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey). This argument gets to the root of the sexual abuse that is plaguing our nation. Creating this type of healthy environment where relationships are healthy, respectful, and filled with trust teaches children to create strong and positive relationships. These types of respectful relationships, which begin within the home, are hard to find in today's world. "It is equally important to continue addressing the beliefs, attitudes and messages that are deeply embedded in our social structures and that create a climate that condones sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 4). On the Center for Disease and Control's website, http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf victims who reported rape prior to 18 years of age had a higher prevalence of subsequent victimization of rape as an adult" (83). This statement is saddening because of previous statements said by the CDC about the importance of family relationships when young. 

In 1960, the first birth control pill was released by the FDA to the public. After years of fighting for women's sexuality and freedom from being viewed by men as property: "The pill made it finally possible for American women to separate sexuality and childbearing" (U.S. History). This was the start of what is now known as the "Sexual Revolution." The pill spread rapidly throughout the U.S. and premarital sex dramatically rose (U.S. History). 

An article from Mail Online named "We Paid the Price for Free Love: the Flip Side of the Sexual Revolution," reveals an honest viewpoint of the 1960's from a young women's life back then. Being trailblazers for a new decade of defining sex through birth-control, she describes the rapid change in attitude from the 1950s to the 1960s as "horribly uncomfortable" in an "endless round of miserable promiscuity" as all teenagers were "ill-prepared" to be the first to deal with sex before marriage. She says, "Men now knew that you were armed with the pill" so "pregnancy was no longer a reason to say 'no' to sex." Her parent's morally sound generation did not have the phrase "one night stand" because for married couples in the 1950s, sex and love were connected. So she concludes by saying that "the result was that lots of us girls spent the entire 60s in tears, because however one tried to separate sex from love, we'd been brought up to associate the two; so every time we went to bed with someone, we'd hope it would lead to something more permanent ... and each time it never did." It is interesting that she realizes "how damaging our sexual behavior was both to our self-esteem and our souls" after she experimented with "the pill" (Ironside, Virginia).  

The Catholic Church's teaching on the true meaning of love, marriage, and sexuality is encapsulated in Pope Paul VI's Humane Vitae and Saint Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. Humane Vitae's main controversial message rejects the birth control pill in the late 1960's as well as stating the responsibilities of parenthood and the joy of love in marriage. In Section 17, Pope Paul VI lists the consequences of birth control in our society including "conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality." By relating the power of human weakness with the effortlessness of "the pill" he states: "Not much experience is needed in order to know human weakness, and to understand that men -- especially the young, who are so vulnerable on this point -- have need of encouragement to be faithful to the moral law." He fears that in the future men may lose respect for women by "considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment" instead of a "beloved companion" in life. This most certainly has come true in our society as women's bodies are used for pleasure through the selling of media products and pornography. He invited married couples into a total love, "it is a very special form of personal friendship ...  without undue reservations or selfish calculations" (Section 9). Sex is not just about gaining pleasure from another person but about loving who they are as a person. Just as Virginia Ironside said in her article that sex with random men felt empty and hedonistic, does the Catholic Church attempt to offer a different kind of "love." "'Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents'" (Section 9). If the purpose of sex is both "unitive and procreative" then it "preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its ordination towards man's most high calling to parenthood" (Section 12). A majority of people in the world desire to have a family; it is an innate desire within us. The respect of each other's bodies that a couple has for one another marriage "bestows upon family life fruits of serenity and peace ... it favors attention for one's partner, helps both parties to drive out selfishness, the enemy of true love; and deepens their sense of responsibility" (Section 21).

Overall, the "sexual revolution" from "the pill" led to a decline in morality just as Humane Vitae predicted. Sexual assault has escalated with the birth of "the pill" as well as a lack of respect for women's bodies. In conclusion, just as the sexual assault victim Alex Arnold said, "We may not be able to completely eradicate sexual violence  --  there will always be bad actors  --  but we can reduce it significantly and we can refrain from making it worse ...  We just have to want to" (Arnold 10). 

 
