In the United States, rape and sexual assault are the two most underreported crimes. Approximately 63% of sexual assaults go unreported to police or anyone of authority. However, sexual assault on college campuses proves to be even worse. Recent statistics show that one in five women are sexually assaulted within their four years in college. Among college campuses, over 90% of sexual assault victims do not report being assaulted. Furthermore, around 65% of the men who confessed to sexually assaulting a female, admitted that they have committed acts of rape more than once. With these statistics gathered through thousands of studies, the question raised specifically revolves around why it continues to happen, specifically on college campuses, and what correlation there may be between college students, sexual assault, and superiority. One proposed correlation suggests that being apart of Greek life promotes a greater chance of committing sexual assault or being assaulted. With evidence supporting that, one could draw the conclusion that fraternity men are more likely to rape or attending a greek event will raise the risks of being sexually assaulted. A recent study stated fraternity men are 300% more likely to commit acts of sexual assault and sorority woman are 73% more likely to be raped. Again, the question of why that is, continues to be asked among thousands of people trying uncover the main reasons for sexual assault, and among the ones doing every thing they can to decrease the amount of assaults from occurring. Not only are the victims not reporting being assaulted, but thousands of colleges and universities nationwide fail to report sexual assaults in hope of keeping their schools name in tact. In fact, approximately 90% of schools underreport sexual assault and rape on their campuses, and therefore add to the reasons why rape remains a problem among colleges and universities. Dating back to the 19th century, sexual assault has remained an ongoing problem on college campuses. However, with an endless amount of drugs and alcohol supplied at Greek events, the exertion of male dominance, and the lack of response and punishment, the occurrence of sexual assault and rape has only increased. 

One of the ongoing reasons why sexual assault remains a problem on college campuses, is due to the fact that the victims and universities fail to report the majority of attacks. Even when schools report assaults, the majority of the attackers never face jail time, let alone expulsion. Back in 2001, at the University of Virginia, former student Annie Hylton was sexually assaulted by another former student, Matthew Hamilton. Hylton went to dinner with Hamilton, and eventually ended up back at the fraternity house, where she became ill. When she woke up, she said that “Hamilton was on top of her engaging in sexual intercourse. She says she asked him to stop and held her down and continued” (Tolentino). The following morning she went to the hospital to receive the Physical Evidence Recovery Kit procedure, and she informed the university of the assault. During the time of the assault, UVA dealt with these allegations through a committee known as the Sexual Assault Board. The board found Hamilton guilty of violating the schools code of conduct, which meant he had to attend counseling and was restricted from seeing or contacting the victim. However, Hamilton never faced any sort of expulsion or suspension for committing an act that is considered a criminal offense. Furthermore, the punishment for students who are caught cheating, lying, or stealing face automatic expulsion, even though the acts they are committing are much more harmless. During the time of Hylton’s allegation, she was told that if she spoke to anyone publicly regarding her case, she would face expulsion; the U.S. Department of Education later wrote a letter to the university president saying that her actions could be in violation of federal law. Following the years of Hylton’s case, more and more students came forward saying they had also been raped at UVA. For instance, the mother of Kathryn Russell, a student who was sexually assaulted at UVA back in 2004, “founded a website after university officials dissuaded her daughter from reporting the crime, she told The Hook. She said that more than 100 women who said they were raped at UVA contacted her through the site” (McNair, 2015). Following the opening of Russell’s site, the current president of UVA, gave a speech saying that the men on campus need to respect their sisters, which ultimately had little to no effect on the student body. From 2009 to 2014, the University of Virginia received over 120 reports of sexual assault, but only 14 cases ever made it to a hearing. Cases and assaults that remain unheard do not just occur at the University of Virginia, it happens at nearly every university and college in the nation. Many reasons why the public do not often hear about the majority of rapes revolve around the school doing its best to keep quiet in order to protect the universities name; however, there are numerous other reasons to explain why many girls are unable to share their story and receive justice. 

College hearings for rape and sexual assault often face many obstacles and complications, which is why many of the attackers face little punishment or jail time. For college disciplinary hearings, other advocates cannot attend unless they are serving as an advisor for the students involved. Board members and administrators are the only people who are aware of a current hearing, which is why, many times, these hearings remain a secret from the public. One of the reasons why these hearings remain closed, is due to the fact that the school would have to give access to private educational records, which would be in violation of FERPA. The reason why this causes confusion, is because the public feels as if the administrators are hiding it from the student body and the public, which does also happen. However, the administrators view it as protecting the confidentiality of a student pressing or facing charges. The complications that occur in college sexual assault hearings, are the main reasons why a student must go to the police as soon as they are sexually assaulted. The obstacles faced throughout the entire process of telling an administrator or an advisor and the secrecy behind the hearings, are some of the many reasons why victims are never able to take their assaulter to court in order to achieve justice. 

In order to gain an understanding of why the number of sexual assaults have only increased over the past decade, one has to uncover the sociological and psychological reasons why men assault women. There are numerous contributing factors to why assault occurs but one of the most prominent in our era is male superiority to not only females, but to the law as well. In our generation, the nation has watched thousands of criminals face little to no repercussions when breaking the law. Furthermore, the news has covered hundreds of sexual assaults stories, nearly every year, that capture the events of a male college student getting away with sexually assaulting a female student. For instance, Brock Turner, from Stanford University faced less than a year in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious female in an alleyway, after a party. Turner is one of many who faced barely any jail time for his actions. The lessoning amount of punishments the attackers face, leads to an increase of assaults, because men who do sexually assault women feel as if they can get away with it. This belief was explored in a book written by two former sociology professors, who wanted to uncover the reasons why sexual assault occurs so often on campus. One of the authors Martin D. Schwartz introduces the rational choice theory which “generally proposes that criminals are able to rationally weigh the benefits and risks of committing a crime” (7). For students on college campuses, this theory seems much more prevalent than to those who are “less educated street - criminals” (Schwartz 7). This is because, the charges that these males have faced for a crime that could put one in jail for life, often remains minimal. In addition to feeling more powerful than the law, men also feel superior to females when they the sex is not consensual.

Nationwide, males and females involve themselves in Greek Life at their University, where they become life-long members of an organization. For men, they join a brotherhood unlike any other, where they meet their best friends who they think of as brothers for life. To join a fraternity, one chooses the best chapter that fits their personality and character, which is why the men in these organizations tend to be so close. Because of that, the men are heavily influenced by each other, and in many cases they are often influenced by alcohol and drugs. Prior to being initiated into any sorority or fraternity, there are secret rituals, meetings or often times with fraternities, hazing. During this process, which is referred to as pledging, each new member of the fraternity will most likely experience hazing, which is defined as “any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule and risks emotion and/or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate” (n.d., para.1). During the process of hazing, the group of males who experience it together, tend to grow closer, but are also influenced into thinking that hazing is an okay process of pledging. However, that does not necessarily mean that all will agree with some of things done while being hazed; but, it does represent how easy it is for one brothers mindset to shift another brothers differing mindset. This does not necessarily entail that since one member committed an act of rape, that another brother will do the same, but it shows a correlation. In fact, “fraternity members are three times more likely to rape, according to a 2007 study, which notes that fraternity culture reinforces within-group attitudes that perpetuate sexual coercion” (Bennett 2014). During the process of joining a fraternity, men form a bond solely based off of trust and brotherhood. If one brother were to sexually assault a female student, it would be assumed that the brothers would cover for him, which also contributes to the reasons why some girls do not report being assaulted. Not only does being in a fraternity give them a life-long brotherhood, but it gives them power and dominance. The social life at most universities is mainly based off greek life, more specifically the fraternities who “exert huge social control: providing the alcohol, hosting the parties, policing who may enter - based on whatever criteria they choose” (Bennett 2014). For females in sororities, they are prohibited from serving alcohol and are unable to host their own parties, which is a prime example of gender inequality. Because of the imbalance in equality, Greek life has recently faced a lot of scrutiny. However, this not does not target all fraternities who actually involve themselves in important philanthropic events or other outside organizations, but the target on the Greek System in recent years, mainly relates to the amount of deaths and assaults there have been within the last decade. Many fraternities are not just about partying and girls, but according to Jeff Bucholtz a co-founder of the organization We End Violence, who has studied this subject for years, believes that “there are many, many fraternities across this country where the recruitment process and the idea of what the fraternity provides is access to brotherhood and camaraderie centered around partying and, really, access to women and sex” (Carone 2014). Bucholtz describes the parties hosted by fraternities as being dark, with loud noise, lots of people and a lot of alcohol and drugs, which he describes as the perfect place for a female to be assaulted. Since more attention has been given to these fraternity events, schools have been shutting down events and coming up with new regulations and rules for Greek hosted events. The U.S. Department of Education has also gotten involved, and are currently investigating over 80 different universities in order to prevent more assaults from occurring. 

The legal and social connotations of rape, differ so broadly in definition, that it has become a problem publicly and nationally. The definition of rape states that any “unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse of another person, with or without force, without the consent of the victim” (Smith). However, each state has differing laws and regulations that classify as rape or sexual assault. For instance in the state of South Carolina, the law does not legally define rape; instead it classifies all forms of sexual penetration as the same crime. But in Pennsylvania, the law legally defines rape, but classifies other forms of sexual penetration as separate crimes. With differing terms, laws, and definitions of rape and sexual assault, it makes the process of prosecuting the accused much more difficult, which is another ongoing problem with the judicial system and sexual assault on college campuses. However, because of the feminist movement over the past 40 years, “rape law has undergone, substantial, positive change” (Anderson 2016). Because of the differing laws in each state, the universities also have to oblige to their states legal definition of assault and rape. In order to change that, Universities have applied Title IX to campus sexual assault. Title IX is a federal law that restricts gender discrimination in education. Colleges and universities nationwide have been using the applications of Title IX to respond to sexual assault on campus. With the application of Title IX, campuses have been able to respond to accusations of sexual assault more accordingly. Under Title IX, rape is defined as any sort of nonconsensual sexual intercourse or penetration. In addition to the incorporation of Title IX, in 2014, “President Barack Obama established a White House Task Force To Protect Students from Sexual Assault, which called for campuses across the country to conduct climate surveys to measure the incidence of sexual victimization on campuses” (Anderson 2016). Since this law was established, it has pushed colleges and universities to pay attention more to the accusations and events of sexual assault on their campus, shifting them towards creating more “progressive” forms and efforts to rid of “unequal hurdles in rape law.”

Dating back to the 19th century, sexual assault, has remained an ongoing problem on college campuses; however, with an endless amount of drugs and alcohol supplied at Greek events, the exertion of male dominance, and the lack of response and punishment, the occurrence of sexual assault and rape has only increased.

Since the 19th century, rape and sexual assault have become a problem nationally, but specifically on college campuses and within Greek Life. With limitless amounts of drugs and alcohol supplied at college parties, such as fraternity events, and the lack of response and punishment from the authority, sexual assault has become an ongoing problem to the public eye in recent years. However, with the application of old laws, such as Title IX, and new laws passed by former president Barack Obama, campuses nationwide have been cracking down on not only the Greek system, but the student body as a whole. Furthermore, with more research and information regarding the topic, people will be able to gain a better understanding of what causes sexual assault to happen so frequently on college campuses. With an additional amount of information and a better understanding, the authority figures involved in putting an end to assault on their campuses, will be able to think of new reform movements or even regulations that could ultimately decrease and hopefully put an end to rape on campus. Putting restrictions on fraternity events and even promoting gender equality within the greek system could potentially have a positive impact on the situation as well. Encouraging more victims to come forward to tell their story and assuring them that they have a backbone to rely on while fighting for justice, could also influence more girls to share what happened to them. 
