AP U.S. Government & Politics 2017-2018

The documentary “The Hunting Ground” opened my eyes to the reality of sexual assault on college campuses. In the documentary the positions and challenged faced by survivors are juxtaposed with the priority and privilege often given to the assailant. Groups, such as End Rape on Campus, were created for the purpose of addressing the faults in the response system for reports of sexual assault as well as advocacy for victims. Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, who both attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, started the group End Rape on Campus with the purpose of advising and advocating for sexual assault victims at Universities across the United States using Title IX and the Clery act as evidence and support. The organization is a non-profit and receives their funding from donations made through their webpage. Some of the staff and founding staff members are frequent contributors and writers for major news outlets, so the organization is very publicized and gains a lot of ...

When the words, sexual assault, are said today, it’s frequently seen as a taboo word that can’t be spoken about. This is one reason that sexual assault survivors are unable to come out to people when they have been assaulted. This directly affects their experience when it comes to sexual assault. Women in both the documentary and the song had very difficult experiences with sexual assault. The way I saw it they didn’t want to talk about it not only because they didn't want to relive the experience, but also because they thought people would judge them for getting raped, which is absolutely absurd. And the fact that even if women report that they have been sexually assaulted, the perpetrator is rarely handled with correctly, which also contributes to the horrible experience that comes along with the horrible sexual assault. However, when they did talk about it, it seemed as if they’re experience with the assault got better because they knew they had people around them that supp...

Sexual assault is one of the most dehumanizing and traumatizing crimes that anyone can endure. Many people suffer from it, and raising awareness is something that has always been needed because in society victims of sexual assault are rarely believed. But, in order to raise awareness we can’t just have others experience the trauma themselves, but instead educating others. In schools from a young age children should be taught what consent is and how it works. It is very easy for children to understand the principles on consent. Many parents have been teaching their younger children about consent and how important it has become. But, as a society we can’t just focus on the youngest people of the generation, but also teenagers and adults. Classes and workshops should be put into place that teach students, teachers, and adults, the importance of consent and what consent looks like. Not only that, but they should also be taught what rape is and the psychological effects it can have...

Documentaries such as the hunting ground are very important when raising awareness around sexual assault and rape. They give victims the opportunity to tell their stories rather than having it twisted and changed by the offended, the media, or the news. The only person who truly knows what happened happened to them and how they felt about it, is the victim. When articles are written trying to refute the claims made by the victim, it leads to the public becoming skeptical, and decreases the believability of the victims claims. We need to ensure that articles like these are not written or published, because they are often from a point of view of a person who had no involvement in the incident. I feel we need to give everybody the benefit of the doubt.  A very minimal percentage of rape reportings are false, and rather than assuming all claims are false, we should assume all claims are true until absolutely proven false. The voice that is most important in these situations are the v...

Sebastian Nalls & Trey Dawkins “It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.” -The Chicago Times The press has four essential roles: holding government leaders accountable to the people, publicizing issues that need addressing, educating citizens so they can make informed decisions, and connecting people with each other in civil society. The term “fake news” is loosely thrown around as a result of the election of President Donald Trump. It is often used to describe media outlets that don’t accurately depict the truth of a given situation, either by bias or blatant ignorance. However if something is “fake news”, is it actually news anymore? If the press is falsely educating citizens, are they fulfilling their job as the press? CNN Films produced the well known documentary called The Hunting Ground in 2015, hoping to educate individuals on the horrors of sexual assault on college campuses. Sexual assault and harassment on college campuses is a rampant...

Hunting Ground Response by Kendal Sohn and Ayda Akgun There is no real way to stop sexual assault and rape completely, but there needs to be a better system in place within colleges and the federal government to combat perpetrators. Right now an effective step is being taken by outlets of media and advocacy for survivors through protest and press, but the focus should really be directed to educating boys earlier about consent and respect for women. In these situations, the voice the accused holds should be equal regardless of if they are a star student-athlete or a regular student. Colleges are million dollar industries, and they are very focused on their image and their sports teams more than the well being of their students. They tend to avoid handling sexual assault and/or rape accusations if it could affect the school's reputation in any sort of way. EROC, ‘End Rape on Campus’ was founded by a group of students, professors, and survivors in the summer of 2013. The...

            We can help raise awareness for victims of sexual assault by encouraging them to share their stories, and not responding with ridicule and blame. The Hunting Ground documentary emphasizes how a lot of young women feel discouraged in reporting instances of sexual assault or harassment because of the lack of support from Colleges and Universities in previous cases. That being said, the accused do have the same rights to voice their side of the story as the accuser. It’s critical that a change be made in the way Institutions handle sexual assault reports, and enforce strict regulations on the accused, such as if they are to be removed from campus.             Jameis Winston, a former football player on Florida State University, remained eligible to play for the University even after multiple accounts of alleged rape. He was not charged and barely questioned about the incident, while Erica Kinsman was blamed and repe...

Sexual assault is something that must be tackled as an entire community. There is no one solution to the issue, other than altering the ways in which men (the most common perpetrator's of sexual assault) are taught about respect and consent. In order for such attacks to become less commonplace, we must begin to teach from a young age these values of consent and respect. Sex cannot be treated, as it currently is, as a taboo or irresponsible activity in schools; open and honest discussion must be had in order to ensure that people are emotionally ready to engage in intercourse. More specifically, men must be taught that sex is not something they hold a right to, nor something they control. These sentiments are currently communicated when we refuse to talk about sex in school or in the media; young men being told to be secretive about sex are likely to remain ignorant towards the basic facts of sex and consent. From a criminal justice standpoint, sexual assault must ...

In order to raise awareness to this problem, we must join together with survivors to share stories and hold perpetrators accountable. We need to help survivors feel confident and comfortable with sharing their stories and not holding anything back. This has been an issue for so long because survivors have been silenced by society, which prevents other people from empathizing with them. By allowing survivors to share their stories, such as in The Hunting Ground , it gives other people a better idea about the scope and seriousness of this problem, which in turn makes us more capable of supporting survivors. It is also important to hear the story of the accused as well. Oftentimes individual situations are not clear-cut, and it is important to hear both sides of the story, as well as the perspective of other people that could be involved. Furthermore, it can be beneficial to work with perpetrators of sexual assault to hold them accountable, help them learn from their actions, and ...