From: John Doe, Psychological Services
RE: A proposal to increase women's safety on campus and stop campus rape
BACKGROUND: INCREASING ATTACKS OF WOMEN ON CAMPUS
Government statistics show that approximately three percent of college women admit to having been victims of rape or attempted rape over the course of an academic year, and another 1.7 percent admit to being coerced into having sex. Date rape is part of these numbers, and fully 13 percent of college women around the country have reportedly been stalked during their college tenure (Fisher, 2003). However, the statistics show that some 60 percent of all attacks take place in the residences of the students.
While campus policy officially condemns sexual victimization, the hard truth is that women are vulnerable to sexual attack on this campus, and the most effective intervention we can currently offer is psychological counseling after the fact. Indeed, I have seen a 15-percent increase in the number of victims who have come to our offices for rape-crisis counseling over the course of one year.
That is why I believe we need to intervene before counseling becomes necessary. I believe offering entering college women courses in self-defense and defensive behavior as soon as possible after they first arrive on campus would repay the college dividends in savings from the numbers of women who do not have to seek out psychological help for life-altering traumas.
SOLUTION: DON'T CLEAN UP THE MESS, EMPOWER THE WOMEN!
It is not enough to wait for the crimes to happen; if we can, we need to keep them from happening. Accordingly, I am proposing two things: First, a campuswide status inventory of physical security at all dormitories and night-use buildings--locks, access, lighting, communications; and second, a course of classes that cover both physical and psychological aspects of sexual assault and how women can seize control of their vulnerabilities
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