Title IX investigations scare most sexual assault survivors away because of the requirement of evidence that some survivors can’t provide, ending the investigation before it even starts. Not knowing how to react in the case of an assault and being unprepared is what leads to this very ending.
Every 73 seconds an American is sexually assaulted in the U.S., according to Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), a nonprofit anti-sexual assault organization.
But how many of those who are sexually assaulted actually report it?
For former San Jose State swimmer Shona Spikes, Title IX wasn’t enough to ensure that as a survivor of sexual assault, she would see justice.
Spikes hosts her own podcast, Shona Sucks and in her fourth episode, “San Jose Sucks” Spikes said she felt her perpetrator didn’t get the punishment he deserved because she had no evidence for an investigation.
“The last option was to sit him down and pretty much give him a slap on the wrist and tell him what he’s being accused of,” Spikes said in her Feb. 29 podcast. “That's the one I went with. Even though I didn’t want any of them.”
Acquaintance rape is the most common type of sexual assault in the world, making up 75% of all rape cases and 90% of college rape cases, according to a 2008 article in the Journal of Medical Health titled “Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault: College Women's Risk Perception and Behavioral Choices.” Acquaintance rape is when the victim had previously known their perpetrator.
The main reason these statistics are so high among college rape cases is a lack of university preparedness.
Every year SJSU requires incoming freshmen and transfer students to take an online course on Title IX and how to file a report.
Sure, to the average person getting a basic knowledge about how to file a complaint to Title IX or learning how to get out of an awkward situation could be informative and helpful, but to a freshman going into college, it’s just another module to complete.
After that module is finished, there is no more education for students about preventing sexual assault. That is unless you’re in Greek life. As a member of Greek life, one is required to attend multiple in-person Title IX meetings every semester with their sorority and fraternity counterparts.
The reason for Greek life’s additional sexual assault prevention education is due to its party culture.
Acquaintance rape mostly occurs in “dating” situations, like at parties or in bars, hence the name “date rape.”
Attending those mandatory Greek life meetings for Title IX can be informative, but the meetings don’t prevent rape at parties or in social situations.
Unfortunately for college students, there isn’t much that can be done unless there are police at every single party or in every single dorm.
In her podcast, Spikes suggested that she wasn’t given the opportunity to seek justice because she didn’t know she had to provide evidence and there was no one there to witness or corroborate the story.
Even famous sexual assault cases struggle without enough evidence.
For example, several women who were sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein, including a 17-year-old girl, came forward with their stories. However, several women’s accounts were not deemed viable on the basis of not having substantial evidence to prove that Weinstein assaulted them. Despite being charged with rape in the third degree and criminal sexual act in the first degree, he was still found not guilty on the other three counts including two more charges of predatory sexual assault.
For average university students, it’s especially tough to receive support after sexual assault.
For Spikes, she said getting support from her team was difficult. In her podcast, she discusses how she felt completely separated from most of the group.
“Countless people discredited me because he was well-liked,” Spikes said in her podcast. “He was the class clown who everyone wanted to be around. And I was quiet and withdrawn.”
Spikes said that once her fellow teammates heard about the rape, the rumors began to spread and thus, it became a “he-said, she-said” matter. This is very common in cases with Acquaintance rape due to the idea of “token resistance” brought about by a 1988 study and the term being reaffirmed in an article from 2014.
In a 2000 study, “Ambiguous Communication of Sexual Intentions as a Risk Marker of Sexual Aggression,” the authors define acquaintance rape as oftentimes involving “token resistance,” which is when the man or woman misreads “no” as their partner wanting to have sex, but doesn’t want to appear “easy.”
In a 1988 study, it showed that of 610 female undergraduates, about 40% of them had engaged in token resistance at least once, according to a study cited in “Do Women Sometimes Say No When They Mean Yes? The Prevalence and Correlates of Women's Token Resistance to Sex”.
The reasons for women saying no, according to the 1988 study, was because they didn’t want to appear promiscuous to their partner, they were uncertain about their partner’s feelings toward sexual contact or they were in undesirable surroundings.
This is often why a sexual assault case that involves the possibility of token resistance is disputed and it is also why sexual assault survivors don’t always receive the justice they seek.
Women in college may not report their rapes because they risk not being believed by loved ones and peers.
A lack of validation by the institution that is supposed to educate and support students is the reason why 20% of college-age female students report sexual assaults to the police, according to RAINN.
Oftentimes, women don’t even know what evidence they need to provide if they choose to report a sexual assault.
According to an online article by Robert Helfend, a California attorney, in order to prove a rape occurred there must be physical evidence, threats, coercion or some sort of fraud for the case to move forward.
These four different variations of evidence is something that the university institution fails to educate freshman, transfers and Greek life affiliates about.
In order to further educate and provide more support for sexual assault survivors, there needs to be better education on what avenues are available when seeking justice, rather than just completing a module or attending a meeting about how to avoid it.
