After attending the Univerity of Kentucky in the fall, I’ve become aware of the issue of sexual assault on our campus. I receive text alerts when a sexual assault or something of a violent nature occurs on campus, and I was appalled by the frequency of these alerts. As the semester went on I heard about a fellow classmate being victimized by a 22 year old she knew who ended up being arrested and charged with “five counts of first-degree rape, four counts of third-degree sodomy, one count of third-degree sexual abuse, and one count of first-degree strangulation (attempted).” (fox56news.com) It was very eye opening seeing the severity of the crimes and the violent nature. It made it even more real to me that this can happen to anyone. Many students stood with the victim and were rooting for justice to be served, just to find out on March 18 that his case was dropped by the grand jury and he was found innocent. This is only among one of hundreds of thousands of cases where a victim doesn’t get to see justice served. And this is not a problem that starts from nothing; events like this occur because of systemic failure. Ignorance of behavioral patterns in juveniles and excuses made by their parents, teachers, school officials, etc, as well as lack of consequences for actions leads children to grow up and believe that sexual assault and other violent acts are an unacceptable way to behave.

With sexual violence statistics over the past years, we can observe the amount of reported crimes more than doubling in the past decade. As of 2024, CDC.gov stated that over 50% of women, and 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence involving sexual contact. Those statistics are horrific. Being a victim of any crime can leave a person traumatized, and sexual violence leaves millions of people every year with trauma. With the people who commit these crimes, there is a clear lack of respect for other human beings. Whether that disrespect for life started in the childs home life, in their education system, traumas in their past, was taught by someone close the them, etc, it is unacceptable and there are no excuses for it. 

 On the graph below you can see statistics showing the amount of reported and convicted sexual assault cases. (rainn.org) 

As you can see, these statistics are devastating, and the majority of these victims will not see the justice they deserve. Sexual assault/ abuse/ rape are all things that have an incredibly large impact on a persons life, one that can’t be reversed. There is something so incredibly dehumanizing about people who have hurt you and caused you trauma being allowed to walk free with no consequences while their victims deal with the repercussions of someone else's choices daily. It is a failure of the system and disgusting to allow these people to walk free and not have their victims served justice. 

 There are many people close to me who have been victims themselves, and chances are you know people that have been affected as well. Many people are too afraid to speak up, because they see how little is done to serve justice, or for many other reasons. Do not be afraid to speak up. Everybody deserves to be served justice and I am asking you to please share this and use your voice to encourage the University of Kentucky as well as LPD to make a change. Victims need justice, and people who commit crimes like these need to be held accountable for their actions. An example should be set by our system that behavior like this is unacceptable and inhumane because right now the example being set is that this is normal and okay, and it is far from normal.