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“Expulsion upon graduation,” a one-day suspension, and a reflection essay are punishments mentioned in the film. When colleges do issue punishments, they are often light. During the same time period, zero students were expelled for sexual assault, despite the fact that 205 were reported. At the University of Virginia, 183 students were expelled from school for plagiarism or cheating. In school after school, the number of expulsions for sexual assault is miniscule compared to the number of sexual assault reports. Some of the most damning statistics in the documentary compare reports of sexual assault to punishments of assault. In addition to these personal accounts, the film neatly collates statistics from decades of experimental research, surveys, and documentation of disciplinary outcomes.
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Despite the fact that only 2 to 8% of sexual assault reports are false, administrators question the victims’ behaviors and discourage reporting, leading to a sense of institutional betrayal among survivors. “The rape was bad, but the way I was treated afterward was worse,” one survivor laments, a sentiment also voiced by others interviewed. The film is effective at highlighting commonalities in experiences of sexual assault and the universities’ responses, or non-responses. The tone soon shifts as several women interviewed reveal that they were sexually assaulted shortly after arriving on campus. The film begins with a montage of students and their families reacting with joy to their college acceptances and another montage of inspirational welcome speeches by college administrators. Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have created a tightly edited and well-researched film that weaves personal narratives, institutional analysis, and social science statistics to make a persuasive argument that in an effort to maintain their brands, universities have overlooked the alarming incidence of campus sexual assault. The Hunting Ground is a devastating examination of the university response to campus sexual assault.