Department of Justice study: ~4% of college women raped each year, ~10% sexually assaulted

Parents Forum
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The DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics created a campus survey to measure sexual victimization, and put out this report three years ago: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ccsvsftr.pdf

After extensive pilot testing (detailed in the report) they ran the test on nine different colleges, in different geographical regions, 2-year and 4-year, public and private, small and big. They emphasize that the topline result isn’t representative of all colleges, but we can see that all the different kinds of colleges report what I think is an alarmingly high rate of sexual violence. We can also see that the BJS National Crime Victimization Survey vastly underestimates the rate of sexual violence at colleges, for reasons that have already been well publicized.

The survey had a superb response rate, over 50% for women students, 40% for men.

In the survey, rape is defined as nonconsensual sexual penetration. Sexual battery is defined as other nonconsensual sexual touching, including forced kissing, grabbing, fondling, etc. Sexual assault is defined as rape or sexual battery.

Averaged over all schools (not over victims, but schools), the yearly prevalence of sexual assault was 10.3%. That is, an average of 10.3% of female students said they’d experienced sexual assault in the 2014-15 school year. For rape, it was 4.1%; for sexual battery, 5.6%.

At the worst college for rape, College 5, 7.9% of the women said they’d been raped in the last year. At the worst college for sexual battery, College 1, 13.2% of the women said they’d experienced sexual battery.

And now, a quiz time for you: What percent of women students said they had experienced “sexual advances, gestures, comments, or jokes that were unwelcome to you” in the previous school year?

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:frowning:

“And now, a quiz time for you: What percent of women students said they had experienced “sexual advances, gestures, comments, or jokes that were unwelcome to you” in the previous school year?”

It has to be very high as I know it goes on ALL THE TIME. I’d guess over 90%.

3

If you have a daughter, and you are worried about this (as well you should be), perhaps another factor to consider in choosing colleges is the reproductive health rights of the state the college is in.

4

I’d go as high as 95%.

And thank you for posting this, @“Cardinal Fang”.

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The survey also reports what percentage of women students say they’ve been sexually assaulted since they began college: 21%, with a high of 38%(!!) at School 1. And remember, this is a lower bound on the percent of women who get assaulted at these colleges, because the freshmen, sophs and juniors respondents might have an assault waiting in a later year. As has been reported in all the other similar studies, the most likely time to be raped is in the first couple of months of freshman year.

Let’s talk about the schools in the survey that reported higher levels of assault. At School 1, 71% of the assaulters and 75% of the victims had been using drugs or alcohol before the assault. Also, at School 1, white women were more likely to be assaulted than nonwhite women. This looks very like a school with a big fraternity/sorority culture.

6

I too will guess the percentage of unwanted sexual advances as north of 90%.

7

For decades, studies have shown alcohol to be a factor in at least 50% of campus rapes.

I would advise every college student to completely avoid consuming alcohol, and avoid people consuming alcohol. Especially females. College is full of brain power, so surely kids can find ways to entertain themselves that don’t involve alcohol.

Also, the female empowerment culture should change. The sexual revolution was invented by men. “Take charge of your sexual pleasure, and you can start by having sex with me. And if you get pregnant, abort it. And if you give birth, you don’t need a man. Equal pay, right? And you need a promotion!”

People have been trying to fix this forever, but it never gets fixed because people don’t recognize the complexities that all tie together.

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In this study, I’d bet more than half of the women victimized by sexual assault were victimized while sober. (I can’t find definitive proof.) That’s because although sexual assaults are more likely to happen to non-sober women, it’s also the sad fact that those victims are much more likely to have been victimized more than once.

So avoiding alcohol doesn’t go as far as one might want to forestall sexual assault. Probably an equally good tactic is to go to a school that doesn’t have a strong fraternity presence.

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@ohibro, this article is about sexual assault. I’m not sure what relevance your point about female empowerment is - it has done a lot to raise awareness of these issues, but that certainly doesn’t seem to be the context you’re highlighting it in.

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@SJ2727 , in my opinion, they are somewhat linked. The culture that anything goes degrades women in they eyes of male predators. Women are to be respected and revered by men, and that doesn’t just happen by telling men to respect and revere women.

@“Cardinal Fang” , yes, definitely avoid the fraternities.

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So you consider empowerment to be degrading? I guess in some ideal world women being submissive and dressing conservatively and never touching alcohol never get assaulted, but that’s certainly no real world I ever heard of. How about we stop blaming victims, and do more about blaming those men who - being smart enough to be at college, as you pointed out earlier - can’t seem to make the right choice about not to hurt another human being?

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@OhiBro, what’s your guess on what percent of women students said they had experienced “sexual advances, gestures, comments, or jokes that were unwelcome to you” in the previous school year? I’d love to hear male guesses on this.

For a bonus, how many college women said they’ve been sent or shown unwelcome sexual pictures, photos or vides in the last year? How many men said they’d perpetrated any kind of sexual harassment, including unwelcome advances, gestures and comments, unwelcome videos and pictures, flashing, and sexual rumormongering?

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I would think that number is close to 100% of girls prior to HS graduation. Maybe 100% prior to middle school graduation.

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I myself would not classify an unwelcome sexual advance as necessarily harassment. A guy is allowed to ask, and I am allowed to say no, without it being harassment. If the guy is my professor or my boss, then any advance is harassment, but a fellow student is allowed to ask.

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@“Cardinal Fang” , I would guess 75%, and 50% on the bonus.

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@SJ2727 , I would love to blame and punish the male perpetrators. But how?

17

I would say 100%. I don’t have one female friend who hasn’t been subjected to unwanted sexual advances, and I’m not talking about being asked out, I’m talking about being groped, grabbed, and physically touched against our will/without consent.

18

Quiz time question again:

What percent of female college students said they had experienced “sexual advances, gestures, comments, or jokes that were unwelcome to you” in the previous school year?

(@OhiBro says 75%, @doschicos over 90%, @HarrietMWelsch 95%, @jonri over 90%, @momofsenior1 100%) Notice that the question is “over the previous school year,” not “in their lifetime.”

Bonus question again:

How many college women said they’ve been sent or shown unwelcome sexual pictures, photos or vides in the last year? (@OhiBro guesses 50%)

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I find that the bonus question, in narrowing the frame to “the last year,” is maybe a little trickier to answer. Or maybe I’m just overly aware of a disturbing middle school trend (verified and observed widely, not just heard of) of boys rickrolling girls with porn videos.

Anyway, even with the narrow window, I’ll go with 90%.

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Note that in this particular survey, groping, grabbing and being touched without consent do not count as harassment. They count as sexual battery, a kind of sexual assault. Sexual harassment is things like being catcalled or being sent dick pix.