Sociological Imagination
Luke McDowell
"A Rape On Campus"
Freshman student at UVA, jackie was just like any other student, working hard on getting settled in, doing her work, and making friends. One of these friends that was made was a Frat boy named Drew. He invited jackie over to his frat house for a date. When she arrived she was attacked and brutally raped by Drew and his fellow Frat brothers. After this incident Jackie Jackie was devastated. She attempted to reach out to her new college friends for help. When they were asked by Jackie if she should report these crimes everyone seemed against her, telling her things like "Do you want to be responsible for something that will paint UVA in a bad light?" and "Your reputation will be shot for the next four years." After two years of fighting depression and even suicidal thoughts caused by this event, Jackie was finally able to muster the strength to let the story out and This article was printed onto Rolling Stone Magazine. After coming out about her Story UVA has become 1 of the 86 colleges under Federal investigation, but is only 1 of the 12 under a sweeping investigation as "compliance review." Jackie has now become somewhat of an outcast in UVA. Looked down upon by all the frat and sorority kids. Reporting this crime was seen as an act of betrayal. After having many meetings with the Dean, Mr. Eramo, she discovered that within the past year there had been 38 reports of sexual assault on the campus, only 9 resulted in complaints, while the other 29 cases simply disappeared. Jackie also learned that two other young women had been gang-raped by the same frat that assaulted her, Phi Kappa Psi. Jackie held seminars for student groups on bystander intervention, and how to support survivors. Jackie has learned much from the incident and still fights for justice, and hopes to bring awareness to this issue, and help any one dealing with the countless rapes on college campuses.
Broad issues Of The Article
One Broad Issue stated in this Article is the shockingly high number of rapes on college campuses. One in Five women in college is sexually assaulted. The scariest part of that is the fact that only 12% of those women report the crime. The rest are simply too scared too, or don't wish to ruin their chances of a social life in college. In 2002, psychologist David Lisak, studied more than 1800 college men. he Found that roughly 9 out of 10 rapes are committed by serial offenders who are responsible for an average of 6 rapes each. This contradicts my personal 'sociological imagination' because i was raised taught to respect women, and never hurt them. Growing up with my mother and sister i have a strong respect for all women, and i view them as vitally important to not only society but life itself.
On other broad Issue is the Oppression of Women in society. Young women in society (especially that of society on college campuses) are used for purely sexual endeavors. Once under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, many men simply jump on the opportunity. This is not only a very scary thought for a women, but it is also incredibly dehumanizing.
How Empathy Connects
Empathy is something that i feel many people lack, whether they simply don't try or just cant. If everyone was able to use empathy and place themselves into another persons shoes that none of this would happen. However there is always a silver lining. Things happen for a reason, and this happened so that Jackie can now easily empathize for many other girls dealing with sexual assault, and hopefully, after reading this article you can too.