Is Illegal Hazing Still Common Among American Fraternities?
All fraternities at American universities have a process of inviting new first-year university students to join their ranks, followed by a formal initiation ceremony. What does differ from one fraternity to another, however, is precisely what goes on during the initiation period and what prospective new members—often called “pledges”—have to do in order to gain admission. While just about all major American universities explicitly ban fraternities from hazing potential recruits, it is difficult to determine what actually goes on behind the closed doors of fraternity houses, where critics believe the forced consumption of alcohol, abuse, physical violence and humiliation sometimes still occur. Hazing may have been rejected and even banned in the past two decades, but after numerous scandals appeared in the media, it is clear that some fraternities still humiliate their pledges and put their in harm’s way, before offering them admission. A short history of fraternities In order to unders
