Home      Login

Abstract: 

Everyone understands that a victim of rape should report the crime to the police. Yet only about one-third of rapes are reported, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. When a student is raped, what goes into the victim’s decision to report or not report? What kind of advice do victims get from their peers? In 2009, as part of the author’s dissertation, a sample of undergraduate students in a mid-size northeastern university were asked to complete a survey on their opinions about the criminal justice system, health care, and the efficacy of mental health professionals, along with their beliefs about rape and gender roles, and to share the kind of advice they were likely to give a fellow student who had been the victim of rape. How students answered the survey questions tended to correlate with the advice they were likely to give to a hypothetical rape victim.

Keywords: aftermath of rape; police matter; health/mental health issue; PTSD; Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act; campus police; preemptive educational training

Affiliations:  1: University of South Dakota.