When parents send their children off to college, they want to make sure that their children are in a safe environment and loving everything about the college that they are at. However, little did they know, they could be sending their child away to a place where sexual assault is an increasing issue. In January 2015, bicyclists caught the student athlete at Stanford University, Brock Turner, sexually assaulting a half-naked and unconscious woman behind a dumpster. The woman had to go through a brutal trial where she had her reputation torn apart trying to blame her for what happened. During the trial, Brock Turner used alcohol as the excuse of being in this situation instead of owning up to what he did. He talked about implementing programs to speak up against alcohol and how drinking can ruin a life, but he did not want to talk about the real issue of sexual assault. Brock Turner, a renowned Stanford swimmer, was only sentenced to 6 months in prison, but he was released in 3 months because of “good behavior” (Baker). Stanford is just one example of how big of an issue sexual assault and rape-prone culture on college campuses has become. Sexual assault on college campuses is more prominent in athletic communities, and something must be done in order to prevent this type of culture from increasing.

In the recent years, the news has been filled with several schools and athletes being involved in sexual assault scandals. As seen from the revolving news stories that involve athletes and sexual assault, these scandals show the prevalence and growing issue that is becoming more common on college campuses. Sexual assault is defined as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient (USDJ). While many of these stories are covered by the media, there is a trend of lenient punishments or no punishments at all due to the name of the school and/or athlete. Some universities are not properly handling sexual assault cases when it comes to athletes, which leads to the belief that there will be no consequences or that what they are doing isn’t wrong. 

Sexual assault has become a recent and increasing issue among athletics. Although research on the issue of sexual assault among athletes has not been able to solidify the specific statistics or numbers on how often it happens, there has been quite a bit more sexual assault incidents involving athletes occurring over the last few years. This increasing number may be due to some of the qualities that are associated with sports. Athletes are often seen as the “big men on campus,” and can be treated like royalty depending on the sport they play. With this type of attention and special treatment, there becomes a “perceived lack of consequences for star athletes,” which can lead to an increase in aggressive sexual behavior because they assume that anyone would be lucky to be with them, and they know there will not be consequences because of the talent they have on the field (Wheeling). Through a couple of surveys, it was found that “one in six and one in three men would be willing to ‘use force’ to obtain sex from women as long as there were no consequences for their actions” (Wheeling). While the survey doesn’t specifically point towards athletes, it is showing that men who think they would not be punished for their actions would be more willing to use force to obtain sex. That being said, since athletes tend to be more protected by the school and athletic department and seen as royalty while having a perceived lack of consequences, they would be more willing to commit a crime, such as sexual assault. 

Not only can the belief that there are no consequences lead to a rape prone culture, but peer encouragement, violence as a part of sports, and male privilege are also factors that promote a disturbing environment. Peer support can come in the form of locker room talk and can lead to the belief and encouragement of negative attitudes and behaviors towards women. Without the leadership of coaches or other teammates setting the standard of how to treat others, especially with women, and allowing negative talk about women go on, this can lead to new and incoming players adopting those beliefs and continuing a rape prone culture. A study also found that “athletes were…more likely to endorse negative attitudes towards women,” which could lead to the harmful and dangerous behavior that supports sexual assault (Cara). This study also found that “54 percent of the student-athletes admitted to committing at least one ‘sexually coercive’ act in their lifetimes” (Cara). While this study included all college athletes, including those who participate in recreational activities, it is still a shocking percent of people who have committed a coercive act, and even these recreational sports can include the qualities that lead to a rape prone culture around college campuses. With such a high percentage of student athletes having committed a sexual assault in their lifetime and allowing some of these athletes who have committed a sexual assault to remain on the team without any consequences due to covering it up or sweeping it under the rug, they “are more likely to bring to the team the myths and ideology that supports their behavior” (Crosset 82). These athletes will bring and voice their beliefs to their teammates, making it seem as if sexual assault is the “cool” and acceptable thing for them to do. 

Some sports that children start participating in from a young age tend to have a violent nature to them and can familiarize the concept of violence into their everyday lives, making it common and acceptable both on and off the field. For example, sports, such as football, hockey, and wrestling, have a violent nature to them that can be leading to the off the field violence of sexual assault. A study done by Laura Finely, who is a sociologist at Barry University, found that “players in ‘power and performance sports’…commit violent crimes more often than their peers in sports like swimming or tennis” (Wheeling). Since violence is such a crucial and core part of some of the male sports, it can lead to athletes taking some of that on field violence to other facets of their lives and making violence “a norm, rather than confined to a game” (Crosset 83). With violence becoming a normal practice in everyday life, it will continue to the lead to the violent behavior seen in the recent sexual assault cases. 

Getting recruits and good players to choose a school can be difficult with all of the competition from other programs, and it becomes a big part of a coach’s and athletic department’s job. However, that does not mean using women and men’s “access” to them as a way to get players. It has been seen that the “practice of using women to woo top recruits has not stopped and is still…encouraged by coaches” (Crosset 84). For example, at Baylor, their coaches implemented the “‘Show em a good time’ policy,” where they would pay for escorts, drugs, etc. in order to impress the recruits (Elizabeth 4). Not only did they encourage their players to implement this policy, but the coaches would also promote sex and women to their recruits. The assistant coach for Baylor, Kendall Briles, was quoted saying to a recruit, “‘Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at Baylor and they love football players’” (Elizabeth 4). This example of how coaches are using the idea that men, especially athletes, get their pick at any women promotes the rape prone culture on college campuses. With the coaches’ support of these behaviors, it gives their players and recruits the idea that it is okay to treat women in such a disrespectful manner, which has led to a sickening amount of sexual assault cases involving athletes. Although the programs at other colleges are not as corrupt as Baylor, these factors are still prevalent in sports and can lead to a rape prone culture, making sexual assault more prominent in athlete-based environments. 

Not only can those factors lead to the prominence of sexual assault in athletics, but the way the investigations and cases are handled by staff, coaches, and even the police departments can help promote this negative culture. A survey done by Senator McCaskill showed that “one in five colleges and universities ceded control of athlete sexual assault cases to athletic departments” (Kingkade). This would be a conflict of interest because athletic departments, coaches, and even the university as a whole want to continue to have winning programs and could possibly do anything in order to keep it that way, such as interfering with sexual assault investigations to keep the reputation of the school strong and keep the athlete from getting in trouble in order to ensure they keep playing. It can also be difficult for victims to get support and have people believe their allegations “when their attacker is an athlete and the school’s athletic department is handling the investigation” (ABC 0:00-0:12). For example, Delaney Robinson was raped by a University of North Carolina football player, and the school had “taken no action in the more than six months that have elapsed since she reported her accusations” (Ridpath). She also claimed that the officer investigating her allegations told the perpetrator “to ‘not sweat the rape allegations,’” while she was drilled with questions that insinuated it was her fault if she got raped (Ridpath). This case shows how universities can stall in their investigations in order to help protect the athlete from punishments to either hope the women drop their cases or to just allow the athlete to continue to playing without having to punish them during the season.

Mishandling of cases is also seen in the Florida State and Baylor allegations as well. In the Florida State case, Erica Kinsman claimed that the university “‘refus[ed] to investigate and…cover[ed] up her allegations of sexual assault’” regarding former quarterback Jameis Winston (Wagner). Erica Kinsman went to the hospital and reported the rape the night of the incident, but “the investigation stalled for months” until the attorney stated that no charges were being filed due to lack of evidence (Wagner). While these investigations may not seem overtly mishandled, there seems to be a trend regarding the amount of time it takes an investigation to take place when it involves an athlete. In the Baylor case, Elizabeth Doe was gang raped and filed a report, only to be met with a “cursory investigation,” where no one “interviewed either of the accused assailants” (Tracy). While the investigation of Baylor with other sexual assault cases continued, it was found that “athletic department officials had interfered with investigations of players suspected of rape,” as well as finding out that there were at least five allegations of rape reported to the athletic department, where there was no action taken (Tracy). As seen through these three specific cases, the mishandling of cases regarding athletes is a reoccurring issue and is giving these athletes the belief that there will be no consequences for their actions because of their status, which is promoting the rape prone culture that has surrounded athletic environments. 

Admittedly, the NCAA tried to address the issue of the amount of sexual assaults that were happening on college campuses and in athletics by passing a policy that would “not allow athletic departments to control investigations of sexual assault involving student athletes” (Kingkade). This policy, which was passed on August 8, 2014, was put in place in hopes to avoid the “conflict of interest that was allowed to exist” in the past and to ensure that the sexual assault cases were being properly handled rather than swept under the rug by the administration or coaches (Kingkade). The NCAA passed this policy to try and stop the amount of mishandled or questionable cases that have been in the media regarding athletic departments and their athletes. However, while this policy does have good intentions and can possibly help in avoiding mishandled cases, it will not stop the university or local police departments from attempting to sweep the allegations under the rug in order to save the reputation of the school and to ensure that these star athletes can continue to play and win for their program because the policy is only limiting the athletic department from getting involved. However, that does not stop other authorities from trying to save the reputation of the school or athletic programs. 

In order to put an end to the increasing number of sexual assaults seen among the athletic community, there needs to be something put in place to prevent these big scandals from happening at such an alarming rate. The NCAA tried to demonstrate the push to change the culture on college campuses by preventing athletic departments from controlling the investigations, so that they can lessen the amount of cases being mishandled and actually enforce punishments for these athletes (Kingkade). There are also a few other ways schools can try to lessen the amount of sexual assaults on campuses, as well as dismantling the rape prone culture that has been formed. Universities should “provide prevention education programs specifically designed for athletes” that educates them on sexual assault and how prominent rape prone cultures are on college campuses and how to combat that type of culture from representing that program or university (Crosset 88). Education of what constitutes as rape also needs to be included in these prevention programs because in many cases, the perpetrator uses alcohol or the fact that the victim said nothing as a way to get around it being rape (Cara). However, being under the influence and the fact that the person doesn’t specifically say “no” does not give the other party consent. Another way to decrease sexual assaults in athletics that was suggested was to ban universities from recruiting athletes “who have been convicted of a sexually violent or other physically violent act” (Ridpath). By doing this, it would assist in limiting players that have been involved in a sexually violent act from influencing and convincing other teammates that their beliefs and behaviors are okay. For instance, in the settlement with Erica Kinsman and Florida State, along with the money, the university had to agree to “five years of sexual assault awareness programs and greater transparency” (Wagner). Florida State is being required to implement these programs to try to prevent the number of sexual assaults that are happening around the country. While sexual assault has become a major problem on college campuses, specifically among the athletic community, there are steps that can be put in place to try and lessen the occurrence of sexual assault cases throughout the U.S. 

For women, like Erica Kinsman, Delaney Robinson, and the Stanford victim, their lives are forever changed, and there is a part of them that is taken and can never be returned. As fellow students, parents, teachers, and coaches, there is a responsibility to protect everyone on campus from the effect that sexual assault can have on a person and a society. College campuses are supposed to be a safe environment for people to grow in their relationships, their knowledge, and themselves, and it is important to ensure that is possible for all students. By acknowledging the increasing problem of sexual assaults and how a rape prone culture is likely to be cultivated, especially in athletics, it provides schools with a way to implement new policies and programs to guarantee that they are doing whatever they can to help put an end to the problem. While sexual assault is currently more prominent in athletic communities, universities and coaches can drastically impact the beliefs and behaviors of its athletes by not putting up with any form of sexual violence in the future, as well as providing prevention and education programs for athletes to stop sexual assault from happening or being accepted among the university and program. Universities need to make a real effort to change the rape prone culture that exists on its campuses today and provide a safe environment for students who are excited for all that this new experience can bring for them, just like Elizabeth Doe was when she decided to attend Baylor. 
