The silent victims of rape on college campuses

Editor’s note: Due to the sensitive nature of this article, the alias “Jennifer” is used in place of the name of an IU student.

Jennifer wasn’t drunk or out alone the night she was raped.

The blue-eyed freshman, who keeps a bottle of pepper spray fastened to her car keys, said it could happen to anyone.

Jennifer’s Story

Jennifer was new to the Bloomington party scene, but not uninformed of the wild antics characterizing students’ weekends.

Older friends had relayed stories of rickety houses with wallpaper fashioned from Keystone beer boxes and blends of Kool-Aid and vodka leaking through rips in flimsy baby pools.

Her first nights out followed suit.

She’d never seen such a multitude of red plastic cups cluttering basements in high school.

The night she was raped, a Friday, started similarly to others that October. She glossed her lips and went to a fraternity on campus with floor mates, and was flattered when a seemingly friendly brother approached her.

They began to talk as Miley Cyrus’s voice blared through the speakers and soon realized they had a mutual friend.

“Come on,” the brother had said. “She’s upstairs now.”

He led Jennifer through two levels of staircases, assuring her a smaller party awaited near his room.

“After that, he wouldn’t let me leave when I wanted to,” she said of the night. “Then I just got scared, and next thing I knew it happened.”

Though Jennifer physically and verbally resisted, the assailant pinned her to his
mattress. Pounding music concealed her screaming.

“The first two or three days afterward, I was unspeakably sad,” she said. “It was hard for me to wake up and get out of bed. I felt as though I had a huge rock on my chest that was holding me down.”

In the weeks following the incident, Jennifer dropped her coursework to part-time student status. She began to suffer frequent bouts of depression and anxiety.

“My entire perception of life changed,” she said. “Things that once seemed so simple became stressful. A lot of motivation was lost, and instead of focusing on doing well on things like school or work, I had to focus on doing them at all.”

Silent Victims

Jennifer isn’t alone.

One in five women who attend college and live on campus will become the victim of a rape or an attempted rape by the time she graduates, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“One in five,” said Carol McCord, associate dean of students. “That number applied to anything else would be viewed as an epidemic.”

Ninety-five percent of rape victims do not file police reports, according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity. The numbers of victims who seek counseling, medical exams or advocacy group help is largely unknown.

McCord, who offers help to sexual assault victims, said obtaining accurate statistics is a difficult endeavor.

“It is so sacred that even including numbers to report might erode trust,” she said.
Three instances of forcible rape on IU properties were reported in 2008, according to the IU Police Department’s Clergy Report. Thirty one cases allegedly occurred in Bloomington, according to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau’s Offenses Known to Law Enforcement report.

IU Health Center counselors said they have reason to believe sex crimes are vastly under-reported.

Dr. Nancy Stockton, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, said students seek help from the Health Center’s Sexual Assault Crisis Center on a daily basis.
Counselors recorded 756 visits from sexual assault victims in 2008, according to Health Center documentation.

“Rape on campus is a problem,” Stockton said. “One of the most salient reactions of victims is to feel guilty, as though it was their fault. They feel violated, as though they’ve lost control of their body, their physical being.”

Because of this common guilt complex, Stockton said rape victims are often reluctant to report incidents to the police.

Debbie Melloan, a Sexual Assault Crisis Service counselor at the IU Health Center, said fear of judgment is another instigator of silence.

“As a society, Americans aren’t very open to victims,” she said. “When sexual assault crimes are reported in the news, often times peoples’ reactions have to do with the victim’s behavior as opposed to the perpetrator’s. Really, people should ask, ‘Why did he choose to exploit her after she said no?’”

Melloan said some victims fear further humiliation during a trial process. Others believe legal action will extend devastating feelings of anguish.

“People are already feeling diminished and degraded,” she said. “Some decide that it’d be easier to stay silent.”

Traumatic Aftermath

Melloan said the post-rape trauma Jennifer experienced is both common and damaging for many sexual assault victims.

“Most of us live our lives thinking we’re in a safe environment,” she said. “We don’t want to live thinking we can’t trust people. Rape is a shocking, unexpected experience.”

Students should be aware that a majority of victims know their assailants before assaults occur, she said. A broken sense of trust stems from such severe betrayal.

“Often times victims think, ‘Someone I chose to be with, someone I thought had respect for me, did this,’” she said. “It’s a disturbing reality. It causes people to rethink their world.”

Stockton said she sees a wide range of post-rape effects in patients, including depression, paranoia and difficulty forming and maintaining relationships.

“Sexual assault is the ultimate loss of control, short of being murdered,” Melloan said. “I would tell rapists, ‘You’re doing this to another human being who deserves to be treated with respect. Think of your mothers, sisters, daughters.’”

Collecting Evidence

Dr. Judy Klein performs forensic rape exams at the IU Health Center per the request of victims.

She said “rape kits,” a close anatomical examination that includes STD screening and DNA sample collecting, can be used as police evidence. In some cases, obtained sperm samples can be used to identify perpetrators.

“Just because a victim undergoes an examination doesn’t mean he or she has to then go to the police and press charges,” Klein said. “Exam results can be held up to one year, which gives victims time and flexibility to decide what to do.”

Klein also offers blood and urine tests to detect date-rape drugs. She said traces of Rohypnol, commonly known as “Roofies,” can be found in blood up to 24 hours after digestion and in urine up to three days.

She said the drug promotes loss of memory, amplifies the effects of alcohol and induces lengthy periods of “blackouts” or unconsciousness — a perfect tool for predators.

However, Klein said, too much can render a victim more than defenseless. An overdose in conjunction with alcohol can result in respiratory failure and death.
Then, she said, a rapist becomes a murderer.

“It’s the most manipulative, exploitative thing anyone could do,” Klein said. “It removes a person’s ability to give consent and could cause devastating health effects as well.”

Healing

Any given weekday, Melloan sits across from patients in her fourth floor office, listening and offering advice, empathy and total confidentiality. A small sign on her mahogany desk reads: “It’s still a beautiful world.”

“For a victim of sexual assault, the healing process takes time,” she said. “They must acknowledge the experience, talk about it, discuss each feeling.”

Melloan said she urges victims to come forward when they’re ready, whether they seek help from parents, counselors or police officers.

“Over time, they get their voices back,” she said. “They need to be believed, their pain must be validated. To be silent is often very damaging.”

Reporter Alex Benson contributed to this story.