As freshman go off to college each fall, they are hit with a barrage of information pertaining to the prevalence of sexual assault on campuses,  how to protect yourself, what complete consent actually means, and what to do if you are a victim. Sexual assault is defined as "any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient, including forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape" (U.S. Department of Justice). In addition to an increase in sexual assaults on campuses, the "hook up" culture has also increased over the years on college campuses. The sexual revolution was a time in the 1960s when men but especially women gained power over her body and expressed herself in liberality. 

I am interested in this research topic for a few reasons. First, because I am a college student constantly being immersed into the college ways of life, I have experienced many challenging scenarios revolving around sexual abuse and all things about the "hook up" culture. One week ago, a USC student was sexually assaulted that lead to a hunt around Columbia for the perpetrator. After this incident, I began to ask many questions such as: What propelled the man to sexually assault this girl?, Is that appropriate behavior from his background?, What is the cultural psychology behind sexual assaults? Second, before the 1960s when the sexual revolution took place, did America place greater value on people's sexuality? When you look at the state of our country from statistics, including divorce rates, rape, lowering of interest in religions, does it seem like the United States has lost the values that it was founded upon. I want to discover the decrease of America's morality, specifically on college campuses, through sexual assaults, the "hook up" culture, and people's religious beliefs. This question affects me because I am a college student and am constantly affected by the environment around me. Hearing unpleasant stories and witnessing destructive events affects me as a person. This question affects my values as I am constantly learning and growing about whom I am and my purpose on this campus. I want to learn more about college campus's values and how they directly affect me and others around me as people. Personally, I have friends involved in the "hook up" culture and have heard stories about sexual assaults on the USC campus. For example, the assault that occurred last weekend on campus passionately provoked me to wonder why these evil acts occur and how they can be stopped. 

The first source named "The Sexual Revolution gave us the Rape Culture" makes the central claim that following the Kinseyan liberating ideals of the 1960's during the sexual revolution led to the culture today where rape is common. Through multiple sources, he gives a timeline of the attitudes of sex through history. His evidence uses Tim Tebow and Russell Wilson as examples to explain the big questions he will attempt to answer later in his article such as "Does this contempt for virginity reflect somehow a kind of "sexual exploitation pedagogy" of esteemed professors and administrators? And how have these prestigious graduates of a sexploitive pedagogy affected society?" (McAlister). Another major claim says that sex became increasingly permissive as sex was taught to children in schools, was found on online and in books, and people carefreely spoke about it. At the end of the article, he blames America's schools and leaders for bringing us into this culture and then letting us deal with the negative effect of rape. One of his largest claims states that America's courts loosened state laws that favored women and also reduced criminal punishments for sex offenders. This led to the allowance of a "rape culture." Throughout the whole article, the authors make many broad claims that numerous pieces of historical evidence led to the "rape culture." Some stakeholders could be Ivy League Universities that have refused to comment about rapes occurring on their campuses, as well as legislature and courts who have passed laws that lowered penalties for sex offenders. Dr. Reisman is a credible source because she is a research professor, the director at Liberty Child Protection Center, and has a background at the Liberty University School of Law. Mrs. McAlister is credible due to the fact that she is on the Senior Litigation Council and the Liberty Council and therefore is familiar with the in's and out's of the law system. These authors could be biased because they were trained as lawyers in Ivy League schools that are now being accused of promoting a rape culture on campuses. Also, a bias could be present because they themselves grew up in this sex revolution environment and were heavily affected by it. 

The second source is "How the Sexual Revolution Changed America Forever." This articles main claim is that "the pill" dramatically coerced America's women population out of a double standard perspective. One her major pieces of evidence claims that "the pill" made it possible for women to take sexuality into their own hands and with determined minds fought for liberality. She also claimed that "the pill" changed the old-time view of double standards for men and women. The entire article challenges the previous values that men and specifically women hold about their sexuality. The major values held by the author are the role of women in America and in their households; therefore, revealing how "the pill" radically changed women's roles in life. Nancy Cohen is a historian, author of the book "The Reconstruction of American Liberalism", and contributor to the Huffington Post. Obviously, Cohen is a stakeholder in the argument as she has participated in an enormous amount of research on this topic. She could hold a bias because she is a woman and her article reflects her bias as she speaks constantly about a woman's power through "the pill." It has been three and a half years since this article was written and women's rights continually change rapidly in this day and age so some of the information may have changed since the time it was written. 

The author's central claim in "Why We Can't Blame Sexual Assault on the Sexual Revolution," is that the "hook-up" culture on college campuses cannot be blamed on the sexual revolution. In her first piece of evidence, she disputed the fact that "consent is the only form on non-conduct," saying that rape and assault are not sex. She then goes on to disprove that "hook-up" culture is morally deficient because forceful sex inside marriage is also possible. Another one of her main arguments states that treating sexual assault as an offense against chastity needs to be above treating sexual assault as an offense against individuality. One of the main values that seem to be at stake is the idea of a Catholic view of sexual assault. Another interest at stake is that a student is arguing against a teacher over natural law theories, sexual assaults, and the meaning of sexuality. I believe the main value at stake are the morality questions. Erik Campano is the author of the website "Accurate and Courageous Journalism of Religion" as well as this article titled, "Why We Can't Blame Sexual Assault on the Sexual Revolution." His credibility lies in pathos-through the personal stories that people have related back to him. He has a major bias from a religious point of view and also because he is connected to the Swarthmore University. Because of his religious bias, he clearly argues from a religious point of view and this could make it hard for some people to connect with his morality ideas. 

This research question is arguable because it connects the sexual revolution with the decline in America's moral values. There are numerous negative statistics that have been surfacing over the past years that I believe show a correlation between these two topics. Overall, the biggest agreement between all three sources was that "the pill" has dramatically changed the sexual revolution, whether it be through women, men, changes in lifestyles, or sexual assault. The sources disagreed on religious and moral standpoints of sexual assault and what it can cause in a society. For example, in "How the Sexual Revolution Changed America Forever," "the pill" and rape do not seem to be of moral concern. The differing opinions affect my own opinions because they give me a greater amount of knowledge to base my arguments off of and let me know what arguments I need to dispute in order that I do not fight against a "straw-man" argument. I need to further revise my argument to somehow more deeply connect sexual assault and the decline of American moral values. I still think that my argument is too broad in a sense and I need to narrow in on what exactly I am arguing for. 

