In the wake of a directive, by the Obama Administration, that colleges and universities are to be more aggressive in stamping out sexual assault on campuses – come news that forcible sexual assaults on the Stanford University campus have more than doubled over the past couple of years.  According to Stanford’s new 2011 Safety, Security & Fire Report, the number of forced sexual assaults jumped from 10 in 2009 to 21 in 2010

At this point – it is important to define what is considered a sexual assault as it relates to this report.  A forcible sexual assault any sexual act against a person’s will.  Included are such offenses as rape, sodomy, forcible fondling and assault or penetration with an object.

What makes these kinds of statistics so hard to track is that there can be a certain amount of shame associated with being the victim of a sexual assault, and often times the crimes go unreported.   Laura Wilson, Stanford Chief of Police, said that she thinks that greater reporting of the crimes may be behind the increase, though she was unable to say why there would have been such an increase.
Sexual assault on college campuses is a serious problem.  So much so, that the Obama Administration has recently given guidance to the college and university system about how to handle sexual abuse allegations.  The new rules give clear guidance as to how the allegations are to be reported, and how the cases are to be handled.  One of the biggest changes for some institutions is that the new guidelines lower the amount, for certain institutions, of consideration given to the accused.  In other words, the word of the accuser, and other evidence, is given greater weight under the new guidelines, than under the current guidelines of some colleges and universities.

There has been another case of illness outbreak on a major cruise line.  This time, Celebrity Cruises was affected.  According to news outlets, one of its ships suffered an outbreak of a  Norovirus-like illness, caused  dozens of passengers aboard the ship to become sick.

The ship had been traveling on an 11-night trip to the Eastern Mediterranean when several passengers came down with the unidentified illness.

The outbreak caused the company to delay the departure of one of its ships from Southampton, England on Wednesday so the vessel could be sanitized.

The outbreak caused the 2,852-passenger Celebrity Eclipse left the city’s port about half an hour behind schedule after a deep cleaning that resulted in long delays for passengers boarding the vessel.

A Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman said that the sanitization was done “in an abundance of caution” to ensure the illness didn’t break out on the new voyage that began Wednesday.

We have done a lot of reporting on Norovirus on this blog over the past few months.  It is interesting because there is usually not a big headline on your local news when there is an outbreak.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Norovirus is a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness which thrives on cruise ships. The virus regularly breaks out in places where people congregate such as schools and churches. Symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea usually last a day or two.

Primary Source:  http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2011/09/celebrity-cruises-eclipse-norovirus-cruise-ship/549620/1

When a person uses the term “rape,” usually what is meant by the term depends on the context, and the person using the term.  Whether a person defines rape in one manner or another will determine how rape is seen in society.  Also the way in which rape is defined by law enforcement will determine how many rapes are reported every year.  Now, some people are calling to have the definition of rape reexamined by federal authorities.

The definition of rape used by the F.B.I., which was written more than 80 years ago, is “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will.” Because of this archaic definition, thousands of sexual assaults that occur in the United States every year are not reflected in the federal government’s yearly crime report.  This definition is more restrictive than definitions used by other law enforcement agencies in the country.

Because of this, there are many critics of that definition.  They argue that this definition does not take into account sexual-assault cases that involve anal or oral penetration or penetration with an object.  It also seems to leave out cases, in which the victims are male, cases where the victims were drugged, and cases in which the victim was under the influence of alcohol or cases. Surely, there are many people that would classify some, or all, of these acts under “rape.”  But, under the current guidelines, many of these acts would not classify as rape.

So, what is the big deal whether the acts are classified as rape or not?  They are classified as violent crimes nevertheless, so does slapping the “rape” label on these crimes make a difference?  Some people would say “yes!”

Many law enforcement officials and advocates for women insist that rape being underreported is ultimately a bad thing because it gives the pubic a false sense of security, inasmuch as the pubic is not fully aware of what is happening in society.

“The public has the right to know about the prevalence of crime and violent crime in our communities, and we know that data drives practices, resources, policies and programs. It’s critical that we strive to have accurate information about this,” said Carol Tracy, executive director of the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia.”