College athletes are often the focus of media, but it isn’t always for winning a championship or highlighting their athletic talents. Instead, college athletes frequently dominate the media for something much different: sexual assault.
If you are a college athlete, you know what it is like to have people pretend you are a hero. Add in the pressure of protecting your team’s and the school’s reputation, as well as the pressure from the fans, and being a college athlete can become very stressful. Athletes must deserve some sort of special treatment for enduring all of this. Right? Wrong.
Being an athlete does not make sexual assault, or any other crime for that matter, any more acceptable than a crime committed by any other student. However, let’s examine both sides of a crime, regardless of the perpetrator. Is sexual assault more prevalent among college athletes, or is it just reported more?
Over the past 20 years, it is has become evident that a large number of college athletes are involved in sexual assaults, including gang rapes, in colleges across the country. In a number of cases, these college “heroes” believe they are entitled to special treatment. They believe that they are special and not bound by the same rules and codes as the ordinary “grunts.”
Another reason for the increased number of assaults is peer pressure, which is when one follows the leader, even when the leader’s actions run counter to the law and common decency. Sorry, that excuse doesn’t float either. When does one become responsible for his or her own actions? Surely, college students have reached that age.
Because college sports are a huge moneymaker for schools, both coaches and school officials tend to be more protective of their athletes than any other students. However, coaches and school officials may not be the only ones protecting high profile college athletes. Often, the victims themselves may try to protect their assailants, and in other cases, the victims are ignored and/or are harassed and often called “liars.”
In 2015, “Outside the Lines,” a show on ESPN, studied how many football and men’s basketball players from 2009 to 2014 were suspects in criminal incidents in 10 major programs. Among others, the reports showed that Florida State had 66 men’s basketball and football players involved in criminal activity. In 70 percent of the cases, the athletes never faced charges, had charges dropped, or were never brought to trial, whereas only 50 percent of the college-aged males in Tallahassee never faced charges. Maybe these statistics do bear out the belief that they are, indeed, “special.”
Another aspect to consider is maybe sexual assaults by athletes are reported more than assaults by “regular” students. Assaults by college athletes are a whole lot more newsworthy and absolutely more sensational. Athlete assault headlines sell better than an assault by “Joe Schmoe,” the average student. It’s impossible to truly know the number of sexual assaults on college campuses, but reported or unreported, sexual assault is a serious crime, deserving the full punishment of the law no matter who you are.
Here’s the real issue. Sexual assault cannot be tolerated, and it is even more horrendous when the assailant is a college athlete who thinks he or she has a right to whatever he or she wants. Sexual assault is certainly not a game and should not be treated like one, even if the perpetrator is the star quarterback.
