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Editor’s note: This is part one of an ongoing series on sexual assault survivors. See Tuesday’s paper for more profiles on survivors.

For the past three weeks, Erin Smith has been afraid to walk alone at night.

She’ll put away her headphones, call a friend and scan for strangers.

It has become a routine for the 21-year-old UF psychology senior ever since her sense of safety was stolen, taken by a stranger near UF’s Levin College of Law when he sexually assaulted her.

Now, Smith is a survivor of sexual assault — one of many on UF’s campus and at universities across the nation. She knew, as many people do, that students of all races, genders and sexual orientations become survivors every semester — she just never thought she would be one.

“Everyone thinks it could never happen to them,” Smith said. “But the truth is, it could happen to anyone.”

•   •   •

Three weeks ago, it was a stranger.

But the first time Smith was sexually assaulted at UF more than three years ago, it was at the hands of someone she knew — a predator she never expected.

While sexual assault is not a legal charge, it’s a term preferred by survivors and advocates to encompass any nonconsensual sexual physical contact as well as forced intercourse.   

In the 26 cases reported to University Police since 2006 in which the survivor gave details about his or her attacker, 23 survivors were assaulted by someone they knew. Only three survivors were assaulted by a stranger, and in four additional reports, the survivor declined to give details and file a report.

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In 90 percent of campus sexual assaults, the perpetrator is someone the survivor 

knows, according to a research report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Now a student ambassador for UPD’s Office of Victim Services, Smith is aware of these statistics and is familiar with the typical elements of assault, as well as expectations of consent. But at the time, it didn’t seem real.

“For a really long time I didn’t actually consider that a sexual assault,” she said.

It would be a year before she could speak about the first time.

But the second time, it was a matter of days before Smith shared her story with her supervisor, UF victim advocate Annie Carper.

Carper helps anyone who has been assaulted or has been the victim of a crime. In the last year, about 250 students have sought help from the Office of Victim Services.

The office will be hiring a third victim advocate in the next year to help more survivors.

“We know that there’s a population of people that are not currently being served,” Carper said.

While in college, one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Out of UF’s Student Body of 50,000, there are about 23,000 male and 27,000 female students: Statistically, about 5,400 women and 1,400 men will have been sexually assaulted by the time they leave UF. 

002_Assault_Graphic.jpg

But more than 90 percent of survivors on campuses throughout the U.S. will not report the assault, according to the center.

Carper said survivors can struggle to grasp what they’ve been through.

“Especially when it’s at the hands of somebody you may know or have previously cared about,” she said.

•   •   •

Very few people believed Twi Hall.

Hall, whose pronouns are they and them, said they were abused for a year by a female friend, often on the Plaza of the Americas.

But because Hall’s assigned birth gender is male, few believed them.

According to a national report conducted by the White House, 46 percent of bisexual women have been sexually assaulted, compared to 17 percent of heterosexual women and 13 percent of lesbians.

About 12 percent of gay and 13 percent of bisexual men are sexually assaulted, according to the report. More than 25 percent of transgender people become survivors of sexual assault after they turn 13, according to the report.

The mental and physical abuse still haunts Hall eight years later: anxiety perpetuated by others’ refusal to acknowledge their attack.

“Very few people believed me,” the 26-year-old said. “Most of the people who did believe me didn’t think it mattered or that it was a big deal. It’s impossible to escape the part that gender plays in what happens when someone assigned female assaults and abuses someone assigned male.”

001_Assault_Graphic.jpg

•   •   •

There is no stereotype for a person who commits sexual assault.

“It’s far less about demographics, whether it’s fraternity males or upper-class individuals,” Carper said. “It’s much more a pattern of behavior.”

When sexual abuse happens within relationships, it’s about power, Carper said. 

For perpetrators who are in relationships with those they abuse, this involves intimidation and threats of physical and economic violence, and it has negative affects on their partner’s other relationships and academic life.

“Physical violence, sexual violence and abuse of all kinds is not actually about the sex,” she said. “It’s not actually about hitting somebody. It’s absolutely about what maintains power and control.”

Hall said the relationship with their attacker was not a romance, but a nightmare.

“For the life of me, I actually can’t tell if she likes sex or not,” Hall said. “I think it was about power.”

And often, Carper said, one forced act of dominance isn’t enough.

More than half of perpetrators will commit 5.8 rapes on average, according to a study done by David Lisak, a nationally recognized forensic consultant and former associate psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

“It’s a far smaller population committing a far larger number of acts of sexual battery rather than a bunch of people just making a random mistake,” Carper said.

•   •   •

For Carper, the attacks on her clients are never random.

“Thematically, it’s absolutely a very strategic, malicious act,” she said.

Those malicious acts still haunt Hall and still cripple Smith’s self-described badass persona. 

But with each day, they are getting better, stronger and sharing their stories.

“They don’t define me,” Smith said. “And I’m not going to let them.”

 

@k_newberg 

knewberg@alligator.org

WHO TO CONTACT 

Victims Advocate

A Victims Advocate is available 24 hours a day by calling UPD’s Dispatch Center at 352-392-1111. During business hours, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Advocates can be contacted directly at 352-392-5648. You can email Victim Advocates at annekcarper@ufl.edu and nphineas@ufl.edu 

U Matter We Care 

You can confidentially and anonymously reach out to the Dean of Student’s Office U Matter We Care team about students who may need help at umatter@ufl.edu

STRIVE

STRIVE peer educators are available to hold open nonjudgmental forums for discussion of issues related to sexual violence.  You can contact them at 352-392-1575 or visit their website at gatorwell.ufsa.ufl.edu/strive.

UF LGBT Affairs

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Affairs provides education, advocacy, and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and straight-allied students, staff, and faculty at the University of Florida. You can reach the University of Florida LGBT Office at 352-392-1261 or email lbh@multicultural.ufl.edu

Medical Care

The University of Florida Student Health Care Center leads, collaborates, and excels in the provision of comprehensive services through wellness promotion and compassionate and accessible care. The Student Health Care Center also has a Women’s Health Care Clinic that is a nurse practitioner-run clinic with a female focus. The clinic includes but is not limited to services such as counseling on contraceptive options, sexually transmitted disease/infection (STD/STI) prevention, sexuality and other women’s health, screening, diagnosis and treatment of STDs/STIs, breast exams and instruction in self-examination, pap smears and routine pelvic exams and pregnancy testing.

Counseling Services

The University of Florida Counseling and Wellness Center has professional counselors and therapists on staff and offers individual or group counseling dealing with any form of sexual exploitation or other issues related to victimization. All counseling services are free and confidential. The center has an excellent referral system should your needs be better met by a different agency or program. You can reach the University of Florida Counseling and Wellness Center at:

3190 Radio Road

(352) 392-1575

www.counsel.ufl.edu/cwc

 

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