Campus rape all too common

Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, Ill.: Rape on our college campuses is not an occasional thing. National studies, including the Department of Justice-funded Campus Sexual Assault Study, have concluded that 1 in 5 women who attend college is raped — or at least subjected to an attempted rape — during their years at school.

Alexandra Forni, a Northern Illinois University student and Cary-Grove High School alumna, had been researching the topic of campus sexual assaults and was shocked at seeing that statistic in study after study.

According to the respondents in the Campus Sexual Assault Study, 40 percent of the women who were raped contracted sexually transmitted diseases. Eighty percent of them later suffered chronic physical or psychological conditions. The study also cited that women who are raped are 13 times more likely to commit suicide than those who are not.

Campus rapes are usually perpetrated on women who are incapacitated by alcohol (sometimes by drugs), and they are committed more often than not by men they know and trust.

Risky situations

Binge drinking messes with one’s judgment and reduces the ability to detect risky situations and resist unwanted advances. It’s important to note that while alcohol often plays a role in campus rapes, the victim never should be blamed.

Young men should be taught that it’s their responsibility to determine whether a woman has consented to sex or is capable of doing so. And that a woman who’s incapacitated by alcohol cannot legally consent to it. Being drunk yourself is no excuse.