Rape Crisis on Campus
September 19th, 2014 by Mike VasilindaPresident Barack Obama today announced a nationwide effort to curb sexual assaults on college campuses, and Florida colleges, including Florida State have their work cut out.
Florida State is one of 55 colleges nationally being investigated for it’s handling of sexual assault cases. 911 calls are all too frequent. “And you said she was raped. Yeah. Is that her I hear in the background? Yeah.” is how one call was recorded.
From the first call to the follow up investigation, experts like Meg baldwin of the Refuge House near Florida State say police often make filing complaints difficult, often dropping cases and seldom filing charges. “Over the course of three years, about three hundred and to have only two prosecutions out of that group is an extremely troubling number” says Baldwin
Jacksonville student Glennika Walker says she fees safe, but “I just think if you are aware of your surrounds and don’t take drinks from people that you don’t know.”
FSU began an education campaign earlier summer.
Research now shows that rapes on a college campus aren’t two people getting drunk, It’s a perpetrator planning his crime.
“Most of these attackers are raping more than one woman. Typically the average is about six to eight women” says Baldwin
This past week, star quarterback Jameis Winston, who was not prosecuted after rape allegations surfaced last year, apologized for yelling an insensitive remark about women in the student union.
“I really want to apologize to my teammates” Winston told reporters before talking about the Clemson game on Saturday. We asked student Layla Behbahain of Miami what she thought.
“You know, he apologized to the team but not to the women he was yelling at. Do you think he should have done that?
“Yeah, he should have.”
Statistically, an FSU student, man or woman, will be raped this weekend.
City police and prosecutors near college campuses do not record whether a victim is a student, so the number of students being raped could be higher.
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