April 2018: Sexual Assault Awareness Month – Albright College

April 2018: Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Happy April Albrightians! Now that we have entered Spring and are (hopefully) finished with the snow, we must focus on the importance of this month. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). This year’s theme for Sexual Assault Awareness month is “Embrace your Voice”.

There are a variety of ways we, as individuals, can embrace our voices this April. First, we will stand up for ourselves when we are faced with situations involving gender stereotypes. We will not allow others to spread false truths about us simply due to our gender. We will also practice giving and receiving consent whenever entering a situation that involves another person. We will only give consent when we are completely comfortable with the event that is happening and only continue once the other person has also given their consent (Announcing the 2018 Sexual Assault Awareness Month Theme).

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (Get Statistics):

  • “One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives”
  • “In the U.S., one in three women and one in six men experienced some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetime”
  • “51.1% of female victims of rape reported being raped by an intimate partner and 40.8% by an acquaintance”
  • “52.4% of male victims report being raped by an acquaintance and 15.1% by a stranger”
  • “Almost half (49.5%) of multiracial women and over 45% of American Indian/Alaska Native women were subjected to some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetime”
  • “91% of victims of rape and sexual assault are female, and nine percent are male”
  • “In eight out of 10 cases of rape, the victim knew the perpetrator”
  • “Eight percent of rapes occur while the victim is at work”

In order to make a change in society, we must all work together in the fight against sexual assault. We all have a voice and we should never be afraid to use it, no matter what situation we have found ourselves. For further information on SAAM and what you can do to join the fight against sexual assault, visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center website at http://www.nsvrc.org.

~Jessica Fink ‘18

References

Announcing the 2018 Sexual Assault Awareness Month Theme. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.nsvrc.org/blogs/saam/announcing-2018-sexual-assault-awareness-month-theme

Get Statistics. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics