For some reason, the print media is atwitter these days about the scourge of "rape," whether it's on college campuses, the military academies, schools, churches or wherever. All of the articles cite seemingly incredible rates of victimization, but the statistics always seem to be obfuscated with ambiguous language. Consider the following breathless summary on a rape awareness page at Appalachian State University:
You are not alone. We want to help.
Aquaintance rape is more common than left-handedness, heart attacks or alcoholism.
By the time they turn 18, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually victimized.
90% of all sexual violence involves an offender of the same race.
Over 50% of all assaults occur during the day.
85% of the time, a sexual assault victim knows his or her attacker.
(Adapted from The PCAR Pinnacle. See the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape for more information.)
So we are led to believe that more than one-seventh of the population (left-handed proportion) have been RAPED? Seems difficult to believe.
One in four 18 year old girls have been "sexually victimized"? Really?
Let's see...rape, sexual assault, sexual victimization...what is the range of behaviors we are talking about here?
When I hear it said that some woman was "raped," my understanding is that she was forced into an act of vaginal intercourse, which included, as a minimum, vaginal penetration. Historically, police did not want to pursue such cases unless there was some clear physical evidence of force or abuse: bruises, cuts, scratches, broken eyeglasses, whatever. Otherwise, the guy would just say "It was consensual," and eventually a jury would be confronted with a "he said/she said" scenario, and that wasn't worth the effort of the police and DA to prosecute the case.
If the incidence of this specific activity is INCREASING then by golly something ought to be done about it. Not sure what, but that is terrible.
Then we have the relatively new phenomenon (or newly codified phenomenon) of "date rape," where the two people are in some sort of a consensual social circumstance, the boy proposes having sex the girl says, "No," and the guy completes the act (vaginal intercourse) by physical force. In this case there is less likelihood of the kinds of physical evidence that the act was forced, and prosecution is even more problematic because in most cases the girl/victim voluntarily placed herself in the situation.
Again, this is a BAD thing, and if it an increasingly common event, then it is worthwhile taking measures to stop it.
On the other hand, I am reluctant to say this, but accusations of "date rape" MUST be given very close scrutiny. If it is a borderline misunderstanding (or worse, a retroactive revokation of consent by the female), then it would be a gross miscarriage of justice for the perpetrator to be punished to the same extent as the perpetrator of rape in the paragraph above.
If by "sexual assault," you are talking about a person being forced to engage in a "sexual" act other than vaginal intercourse (male "rape," BJ at gunpoint, etc), then, if that is an increasingly common phenomenon then public action to fight it is warranted.
But I'm concerned that in the campaign to get women to report RAPES (most of which we are told, are not reported), they are using the term, "sexual assault" very loosely, and bringing other mushy language like "sexual victimization" these statistics become nonsense.
Somebody cops a feel at a party. Somebody forces a French kiss. Somebody does a bump and grind while dancing at a party. Somebody makes an unwanted verbal sexual advance. Are the girls subjected to this boorish behavior "sexual victims"? Should the perpetrators be prosecuted as criminals?
When you add this sort of thing to RAPES, the resulting total is meaningless. It's like counting the number of people who were "injured or killed" in skateboard accidents. They are two different things.
And so the question becomes, if there are more reports of "rapes," "sexual assaults," and "sexual victimization" on campus (or in the overall society), does that mean (1) that it happening more often, or (2) that it is happening at the same frequency but is reported more often, or (3) that people (women and girls) are now "reclassifying" behavior from (a) a lousy sexual experience, to (b) rape?
I would like to read a report that contains statistics that are credible, and I haven't seen many that are.
NOTE: This discussion does not address "date rape"drugs, or statutory rape.
You are not alone. We want to help.
Aquaintance rape is more common than left-handedness, heart attacks or alcoholism.
By the time they turn 18, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually victimized.
90% of all sexual violence involves an offender of the same race.
Over 50% of all assaults occur during the day.
85% of the time, a sexual assault victim knows his or her attacker.
(Adapted from The PCAR Pinnacle. See the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape for more information.)
So we are led to believe that more than one-seventh of the population (left-handed proportion) have been RAPED? Seems difficult to believe.
One in four 18 year old girls have been "sexually victimized"? Really?
Let's see...rape, sexual assault, sexual victimization...what is the range of behaviors we are talking about here?
When I hear it said that some woman was "raped," my understanding is that she was forced into an act of vaginal intercourse, which included, as a minimum, vaginal penetration. Historically, police did not want to pursue such cases unless there was some clear physical evidence of force or abuse: bruises, cuts, scratches, broken eyeglasses, whatever. Otherwise, the guy would just say "It was consensual," and eventually a jury would be confronted with a "he said/she said" scenario, and that wasn't worth the effort of the police and DA to prosecute the case.
If the incidence of this specific activity is INCREASING then by golly something ought to be done about it. Not sure what, but that is terrible.
Then we have the relatively new phenomenon (or newly codified phenomenon) of "date rape," where the two people are in some sort of a consensual social circumstance, the boy proposes having sex the girl says, "No," and the guy completes the act (vaginal intercourse) by physical force. In this case there is less likelihood of the kinds of physical evidence that the act was forced, and prosecution is even more problematic because in most cases the girl/victim voluntarily placed herself in the situation.
Again, this is a BAD thing, and if it an increasingly common event, then it is worthwhile taking measures to stop it.
On the other hand, I am reluctant to say this, but accusations of "date rape" MUST be given very close scrutiny. If it is a borderline misunderstanding (or worse, a retroactive revokation of consent by the female), then it would be a gross miscarriage of justice for the perpetrator to be punished to the same extent as the perpetrator of rape in the paragraph above.
If by "sexual assault," you are talking about a person being forced to engage in a "sexual" act other than vaginal intercourse (male "rape," BJ at gunpoint, etc), then, if that is an increasingly common phenomenon then public action to fight it is warranted.
But I'm concerned that in the campaign to get women to report RAPES (most of which we are told, are not reported), they are using the term, "sexual assault" very loosely, and bringing other mushy language like "sexual victimization" these statistics become nonsense.
Somebody cops a feel at a party. Somebody forces a French kiss. Somebody does a bump and grind while dancing at a party. Somebody makes an unwanted verbal sexual advance. Are the girls subjected to this boorish behavior "sexual victims"? Should the perpetrators be prosecuted as criminals?
When you add this sort of thing to RAPES, the resulting total is meaningless. It's like counting the number of people who were "injured or killed" in skateboard accidents. They are two different things.
And so the question becomes, if there are more reports of "rapes," "sexual assaults," and "sexual victimization" on campus (or in the overall society), does that mean (1) that it happening more often, or (2) that it is happening at the same frequency but is reported more often, or (3) that people (women and girls) are now "reclassifying" behavior from (a) a lousy sexual experience, to (b) rape?
I would like to read a report that contains statistics that are credible, and I haven't seen many that are.
NOTE: This discussion does not address "date rape"drugs, or statutory rape.
