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Essay / Effects of Rape and Rape Culture - 1365
They insist that these rapes are isolated incidents and certainly have nothing to do with a widespread attitude across campuses. For them, rapes are simply the result of poor judgment by drunken students. “It was an unfortunate mistake,” they say. However, a quick review of the evidence shows that this defense is completely false. There is overwhelming evidence that most rapes are premeditated. Lisak says most, contrary to popular belief, don't come from "mixed signals" or "dates gone bad." Nine out of ten campus rapes are perpetrated by serial rapists. He himself admits to harboring what he calls a "naive schema" that these numbers "may be true about crime in the community or crime in the military, but surely college students are different." It turns out that's not the case. But understanding that there are a small number of repeat sex offenders who enroll in college, just as there are sex offenders in the military” (“Myths”), is a mental step. The simple fact that the majority of rapists are repeat offenders indicates a flawed mentality. One rape might be an error of judgment, but two? For multiple rapes, the perpetrator must believe their actions are okay. Nine out of ten rapists believing their actions are okay indicates a prevalent and flawed mentality; one that universities fail to recognize. No progress can be made because universities are too afraid of damaging their reputations to even acknowledge the rape.