The last days of April marked the end of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but it is only the beginning of an ongoing conversation about combatting sexual violence on college campuses and beyond.
The federal government issued a report from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault Tuesday, which outlines various recommendations to prevent assault, as well as methods to recognize and respond to assault cases.
The Task Force is an initiative President Barack Obama established in January. It was created partly in response to data showing only 13 percent of all college rape incidents get reported, according to a government release.
Sexual assault victims often forgo reporting to the police because they fear retribution or have feelings of guilt and shame, according to the release.
Aly Jarocki, a UW-Madison student and chair of the campus’ Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment group, said such apprehensions about coming forward after assault stem from the notion of rape culture, which she added is “alive and well” on college campuses.
“I think a lot of it is [due to] the victim-blaming attitude,” Jarocki said. “A question about ‘well, how much did she drink?’ can seem really well-intentioned, but it’s still inferring that how much a woman drinks has to do with whether or not she gets assaulted.”
The number of unreported sexual assaults grows even smaller when incapacitation is considered, with only 2 percent of all cases reaching the authorities, according to the release. Jarocki said this can partly be attributed to an alcohol consumption culture on college campuses.
“People are able to look [and say], ‘oh it was just a bad drunk hook-up’ and I think that that definitely contributes to rape culture on a college [campus],” she said. “It’s expected that bad hook-ups happen sometimes and there’s definitely a difference between a bad hook-up and someone taking advantage of another person’s body.”
UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam said one way to counter sexual violence is to make sure all campus community members are engaged and made aware of the dangers of sexual assault.
“I think engaging our students as allies for each other is a continual effort,” Berquam said.
The dean added it is important for UW-Madison to maintain a well-trained arsenal of responders and advocates “from all walks of life” who can offer support throughout the campus, something she said the university is already doing well.
“I think this is an opportunity for us to continue to refine what we do,” Berquam said. “That doesn’t mean it’s still going to stop sexual assault, but my hope is that the more people that talk about this and indicate that it’s unacceptable, the fewer numbers we’ll have.”
