Module 17

I think that violence against women is so prevalent in society because men that they know they have an advantage over women and most of the time can get away with it. Men know that they are stronger than most women and have a great amount of control over them. Many of the also understand that once they commit a violent act on a woman, most of the time women will be too scared to turn them into the police or even tell anyone.

At JMU we have many programs and policies to prevent sexual assault. Personally, I think that the police and security in general are awesome. They are always driving around making sure everyone is safe. One night me and this other girl were walking home from a party (it was pretty late) and we got stopped by a campus security guard who asked us if we wanted a free ride home. I think that things like that are great because it's so easy for things to happen to girls at night, especially on such a big, fairly spread out campus. James Madison also has these blue safety lights that you can press whenever you feel unsafe and a police officer will arrive there in a ridiculously fast amount of time.

We also have a sexual assault support group, as well as a strictly male support group. I think it's good that we have this one for males because although assaults happen to women more often, they do happen to males a great deal. It could be very embarrassing for men to be the only one in a women's sexual assault group because society tends to think that it is virtually impossible for men to get sexually assaulted.

I think that there should be more lighting around the off-campus apartments. This is where a majority of the assaults take place, and there are extremely dark, deserted places around the city. I also think JMU should take greater steps to identify those who commit crimes and making people aware of what they look like and where they live. This could be a great preventative measure.