A 20-year-old woman is walking down the street at around 9 pm and the streetlights have just turned on. She had a class that ran late and her friends didn’t wait for her to be finished. The night is still, with the exception of a breeze that ruffles the bottom of her skirt.
Then suddenly, and as if out of no where, a dark figure jumps out of the bushes, grabs the woman and throws her onto the ground. He then lifts her skirt high above her waist and pulls down her white cotton underpants.
“I feel like that’s what most people picture rape as,” survivor and former Harper College student Jane Doe said.* “But I’ve never actually heard someone tell a story like that, it’s usually someone we know.”
According to the 2007 Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study, out of the 6,840 students they surveyed online, 13.7 percent of undergraduate students were victims of one or more “completed” sexual assaults since starting their college career.
“I was at a house party for one of my friends,” Doe said. “I used to work with the guy who [assaulted me].”
Through tears and shallow breaths Doe went on to tell her story.
“I was lucky I guess because someone walked in halfway through and stopped him,” Doe said. “After it was over, I just sat that there for hours not wanting to move or to be touched.”
If one does the percent math on the CSA Study, that is about 937 people forced to partake in sexual behavior. Out of those 937, 7.8 percent (73 students) of victims were assaulted while voluntarily intoxicated and 0.6 percent (7 students) were given a date-rape drug.
“Of course you hear these numbers on the news or in papers,” Doe said. “But like, you never actually get how big of a percentage that is until you’re part of the math problem.”
At Bradley University there is an undergraduate population of roughly 4,588. If one uses the same percentages as the CSA study, it means about 629 students will be sexually violated during their time on The Hilltop.
CSA Study surveyed both men and women, with about 5,466 of the answers coming from women and 1,374 from men. According to The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men in the United States will be sexually assaulted at least once in their lifetime.
One has to take the data with a grain of salt. RAINN reports, 68 percent of all rapes go unreported, which is why collecting accurate data can be a challenge.
“Part of me really didn’t want to report it,” Doe said. “I just wanted to convince myself it didn’t happen, but I knew if I didn’t report it he would [rape] someone else.”
Doe said after several hours of being coaxed by friends, she went to the hospital and took part in a rape kit.
“It’s a horrible experience,” Doe said. “They take all your clothes, swab every inch of you inside and out looking for DNA or STDs. Then, if you want, [hospital staff] will report it to the police.”
In Doe’s case, it had turned out the male assailant, who was eventually convicted of rape, had assaulted two other women at the party.
Though the data seems bleak, the number of survivors coming forward is growing, partially in part of movies and movements like “The Hunting Ground” and “Carry That Weight.”
“The Hunting Ground” is a documentary that follows the lives of two survivors who are determined to make colleges and universities to help the men and women who are assaulted, and not to victim shame. The two protagonists, survivors themselves, traveled from college to college—educating students on their rights and how to file for Title IX.
At Bradley, all Title IX cases and reports go through Anne Hollis, Director of Student Support Services. Whether a student chooses to press charges against their alleged attacker is entirely up to them and is handled through the Bradley Police Department.
“I just want people, especially those who victim blame to understand that it wasn’t my fault,” Doe said. “That night at the party, I was sober, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I wasn’t ‘asking for it.’”
* For the sake of privacy, the survivor’s name was changed.
Tweet: It’s not your short skirts fault, it’s his. Check out “Sexual Assault by the numbers.”
Undergraduate Women Responses
In the CRA Study, it was found that are more susceptible to rape when they become undergraduates. This pie chart shows the percent breakdown of the different types of sexual assault.