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Someone Is
Sexually Assaulted Every
2.5 Minutes
in U.S., Says Justice Dept.
Statistics Are Considered Far Below
Actual,
Since More than Half Admit They Don’t Report
The U.S.
Dept. of Justice reports that some type of
sexual assault occurs every 2.5 minutes in the
U.S. And a person is raped every eight minutes.
If you have
a daughter on a college campus, you must be
worried all of the time. I did when I had two
daughters on two different campuses.
But that was
before so many effective self-defense devices
for women were on the market. Every parent with
a daughter – or a son, for that matter – on a
college campus should insist that he or she
carry one or more self-defense aids.
At the very
least, every student should carry a personal
alarm that will draw attention to any crisis.
It is easily activated and is loud enough to
scare any sane person away. There is also a
personal alarm with flashlight, either one small
enough to fit into a pocket or purse.
The numbers
cited become even more frightening when you
consider that only 39% of all students who have
been raped actually report it to authorities.
Rana
Sampson, in an article entitled “Acquaintance
Rape of College Students”, claims that “rape is
the most common violent crime on American
college campuses today.” And it has been
reported that college women are more at risk for
rape and other forms of assault than women the
same age but not in college.
There is a
lot of peer pressure on young ladies in college
to not report what has come to be known as “date
rape”. That has led to the following from the
Bureau of Justice Statistics: “48.8% of college
women who were victims of attacks that met the
study’s definition of rape did not consider what
happened to them rape.”
I’m sure
that parents would not agree with that
assessment; they would rather their daughter
have sounded the personal alarm. The sound no
doubt would have broken “the mood.”
Adding to
parents’ concerns is the alcohol effect. Some
studies have shown that up to 50% of all college
students’ sexual assaults are associated with
alcohol. This doesn’t necessarily mean the
young lady is under the influence; it could be
only the male, alcohol which has bolstered his
courage and released some inhibitions.
Again, peer
pressure enters the equation, but a loud blast
from the personal alarm could undo that sudden
burst of courage very quickly.
There are
other options to the personal alarm, such as the
keychain alarm with light, a signal that can be
activated with the push of a pin, and a
pocket/keychain whistle, which you don’t have to
actually blow, but also activates with the push
of a button. |