Campus Sexual Assault: College Women Respond

by Lauren J. Germain

Overview

Survivors of campus sexual assault share the stories of how they confronted and overcame the trauma of being attacked.

A 2014 report issued by the White House Council on Women and Girls included the alarming statistic that one in five female college students in the United States experiences some form of campus sexual assault. Despite more than fifty years of anti-rape activism and over two decades of federal legislation regarding campus sexual violence, sexual assault on American college and university campuses remains prevalent, underreported, and poorly understood. A principal reason for this lack of understanding is that the voices of women who have experienced campus sexual assault have been largely absent from academic discourse about the issue.

In Campus Sexual Assault, Lauren J. Germain focuses attention on the post–sexual assault experiences of twenty-six college women. She reframes conversations about sexual violence and student agency on American college campuses by drawing insight directly from the stories of how survivors responded individually to attacks, as well as how and why peers, family members, and school, medical, and civil authorities were (or were not) engaged in addressing the crimes.

Germain weaves together women's narratives to show the women not as victims per se but as individuals with the power to overcome these traumatic experiences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421419053
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lauren J. Germain earned her PhD in higher education from the University of Virginia. She is the director of evaluation, assessment, and research at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1 What We Don't Know about Campus Sexual Assault 1

2 The Paradox of Embodied Agency 23

3 Managing Identity 39

4 Telling Friends and Family 54

5 Seeking Justice 71

6 The Beautiful Process of Empowerment 89

7 Agency and Campus Sexual Assault: The Way Forward 96

Appendixes

A Participant Demographics and Case Details 109

B Methodological Notes 110

C Supplementary Ideas 111

Notes 113

Bibliography 117

Index 123

What People are Saying About This

Emilie Buchwald

A valuable guide in understanding both the challenges college and university women face in the aftermath of reporting rape and the processes of empowerment created to assist them. Lauren Germain's examination of women's actual experiences, perceptions, and behaviors points to the cultural shifts that must take place on campus to make them rape-free environments.

Gavin W. Henning

Lauren Germain gives voices to the statistics around sexual assault on college campuses. The insights shared in this book can enable colleges and universities to make campus safer and better prepared to respond to individuals after they have been assaulted. This is a must read for everyone working on a college campus.

From the Publisher

Lauren Germain gives voices to the statistics around sexual assault on college campuses. The insights shared in this book can enable colleges and universities to make campus safer and better prepared to respond to individuals after they have been assaulted. This is a must read for everyone working on a college campus.
—Gavin W. Henning, ACPA, College Student Educators International

There is much to learn from the stories told by college women about the assault on their bodies. Their narratives are often fragmented and wandering, conveying to the reader psychological perplexity and intense inner shame and emptiness. We need to identify with the stories in order to understand the healing process, not just of the women but of the men whose damaged egos lead them to inflict unutterable pain.
—Peggy Reeves Sanday, University of Pennsylvania, author of Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus

A valuable guide in understanding both the challenges college and university women face in the aftermath of reporting rape and the processes of empowerment created to assist them. Lauren Germain's examination of women's actual experiences, perceptions, and behaviors points to the cultural shifts that must take place on campus to make them rape-free environments.
—Emilie Buchwald, coeditor of Transforming a Rape Culture

Peggy Reeves Sanday

There is much to learn from the stories told by college women about the assault on their bodies. Their narratives are often fragmented and wandering, conveying to the reader psychological perplexity and intense inner shame and emptiness. We need to identify with the stories in order to understand the healing process, not just of the women but of the men whose damaged egos lead them to inflict unutterable pain.

Editorial Reviews

A concise and coherent book on identity and identity management, following [college women's] reported sexual assaults at their places of study. Intelligently written and planned.

Metapsychology

Campus Sexual Assault provides in-depth insight into the post-assault experiences of college women. It frames women as agentic beings who conceptualize their experiences and cope with their assault in a multitude of ways. By highlighting the individual pathways for recovery, readers are offered a deeper understanding of how women adapt and move forward following sexual assault.
—PsycCRITIQUES

Lauren Germain has written a powerful, important, and timely book that helps the reader understand the devastation caused by campus sexual assault. A must read for educators!
—Choice

Stigma, sexism, and additional forms of oppression frequently result in survivors' voices being absent from the dialogue about how to respond to sexual violence on campus. Lauren J. Germain sought to address this void by centering the lived experiences of student women survivors. Her book . . . provides insight into the ways that college women respond in the aftermath of sexual assault, highlighting an understanding of empowerment and agency among survivors of sexual assault.
—NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education

A concise and coherent book on identity and identity management, following [college women's] reported sexual assaults at their places of study. Intelligently written and planned.
—Metapsychology

From the Publisher

Lauren Germain has written a powerful, important, and timely book that helps the reader understand the devastation caused by campus sexual assault. A must read for educators!

Choice

Stigma, sexism, and additional forms of oppression frequently result in survivors' voices being absent from the dialogue about how to respond to sexual violence on campus. Lauren J. Germain sought to address this void by centering the lived experiences of student women survivors. Her book . . . provides insight into the ways that college women respond in the aftermath of sexual assault, highlighting an understanding of empowerment and agency among survivors of sexual assault.

NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education

Campus Sexual Assault provides in-depth insight into the post-assault experiences of college women. It frames women as agentic beings who conceptualize their experiences and cope with their assault in a multitude of ways. By highlighting the individual pathways for recovery, readers are offered a deeper understanding of how women adapt and move forward following sexual assault.

PsycCRITIQUES

"Stigma, sexism, and additional forms of oppression frequently result in survivors' voices being absent from the dialogue about how to respond to sexual violence on campus. Lauren J. Germain sought to address this void by centering the lived experiences of student women survivors. Her book... provides insight into the ways that college women respond in the aftermath of sexual assault, highlighting an understanding of empowerment and agency among survivors of sexual assault."

NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education