robynlatchford

It is such a relief to see a documentary about campus rape. Finally, this epidemic is out in the open and getting the publicity it needs. I am a survivor of sexual violence and I can tell you that rape on campus and rape in general is WAY more common than most people assume it is. For everyone discounting the 1 in 4 statistic, look at the raw data from rape crisis hotlines. They get THOUSANDS of calls per day. These are not all from pathological liars or women who woke up with regret after having sex with someone. In fact, only 2 - 10% of rape allegations are false, and there are false allegations for EVERY crime. However, in our American culture, we are much more likely to be skeptical about rape allegations, which is unfortunate because when a victim brings an allegation forward or even just tells a friend, being disbelieved re-traumatizes the person.

Someone else on here wrote that many women in their family have gone to college and none have been raped -- but that's not how statistics work. This person needs to take a statistics class. You can't choose any group of 4 women and expect to have exactly 1 rape survivor among them - depending on the particular group, none could be survivors or all four could be survivors.

I am so glad that many universities are being called out for their improper handling of sexual assault allegations. For those of you who believe universities shouldn't be involved and this should only be a police matter, in my opinion, this isn't practical. Even if a rape report turned into an investigation, an arrest, and a future prosecution, this takes YEARS. In the meantime, both the victim and the alleged rapist exist on the same university campus, perhaps even in the same dorm room! As a survivor I can tell you this would be extremely traumatizing and it would affect the victim's ability to continue their education. This violates Title IX, which is "a law passed in 1972 that requires gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding." Also, universities have sanctions for misconduct, which should also include sexual misconduct. Not all victims want to go to the police or are in a position to do so, and one of the worst things you can do to a victim of sexual assault is force them to go to the police (or not). They have already had their choices taken away from them when their own body was violated, so please don't take away their choice on how to handle their assault away from them as well.