Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach to Party Rape

Abstract

This article explains why rates of sexual assault remain high on college campuses. Data are from a study of college life at a large midwestern university involving nine months of ethnographic observation of a women's floor in a "party dorm," in-depth interviews with 42 of the floor residents, and 16 group interviews with other students. We show that sexual assault is a predictable outcome of a synergistic intersection of processes operating at individual, organizational, and interactional levels. Some processes are explicitly gendered, while others appear to be gender neutral. We discuss student homogeneity, expectations that partiers drink heavily and trust their party-mates, and residential arrangements. We explain how these factors intersect with more obviously gendered processes such as gender differences in sexual agendas, fraternity control of parties, and expectations that women be nice and defer to men. We show that partying produces fun as well as sexual assault, generating student resistance to criticizing the party scene or men's behavior in it. We conclude with implications for policy.

Rape Myth Acceptance Among College Students in the United States, Japan, and India

“…Despite the high percentage of sexual assaults, the reporting rates on college campuses are very low (Armstrong, Hamilton, & Sweeney, 2006). One of the reasons may be that most college women are assaulted by someone that they know, possibly making it harder for the women to report the assault or it may be that it is unclear on where to report an assault to campus officials (Streng & Kamimura, 2015).…”

Balancing Contradictory Identities—Performing Masculinity in Victim Narratives

“…10. This is thus a twist on formulations of a discourse on responsibility different from, for instance, narratives from female rape victims who sometimes are reported as "taking the blame" or to feeling as though they "deserve it" by painting a picture of themselves as offering themselves as victims by, for instance, being too drunk (e.g., Armstrong, Hamilton, and Sweeney 2006). Here, the young men deny such responsibility by dealing with this in a restricted sense of discussions on initiation of an interaction.…”

“…13. Such balancing rhetoric may also be considered among other categories, such as, for instance, young women who have been sexually assaulted but who want to protect the identity of a respectable femininity (Armstrong et al 2006). …”

Women’s Studies as Virus: Institutional Feminism, Affect, and the Projection of Danger.

“…Women's studies programs have successfully lobbied history departments to more seriously address the lives of women, just as they have outlined theoretical and empirical ways to understand intersecting and interlocking identities and oppressions (Hooks, 2000a;Hull, Scott, & Smith, 1982). Feminists have demanded more serious analyses of sexual assault and domestic violence on campus (Armstrong, Hamilton & Sweeney, 2006;Smith, 2014) and have invaded traditionally "male" fields like philosophy and English. In some cases, like the field of psychology, feminists have made it possible for women to not only invade the (traditionally male and pathologizing) field, but to radically take it over; psychology is now dominated by female students who make up 72% of Ph.D. and Psy.D.…”