So how do the numbers compare with the population as a whole? And with college aged kids, not attending school?
We don’t know, since the survey did not question people other than college students. But we do know that although assault is high (or what I’d term high) at colleges, it’s much lower at some schools than other schools.
We also have suggestive evidence. As @OhiBro points out, alcohol is a factor in many assaults. This survey points out that at the schools where sexual violence is higher, the “excess” violence is drunk males preying on white drunk females.
Young people not in college on average drink less than college students. To the extent sexual violence is linked to drinking, it will occur less in populations that drink less.
If cat calling is included, then definitely 100%.
I’m nearing 50 and was cat called last month by a bunch of guys in a pick up truck.
Female undergrads are as likely as male undergrads to commit sexual assault:
Doesn’t match up to the victim numbers at all. Somebody’s lying. I’m guessing perpetrators are saying they didn’t do it.
Well of course, no one likes to think of themselves as someone who assaults others. “It was a joke”/ “it was consensual”/etc.
Several factors could be involved. Male victims of female sexual assault may dramatically under-report on surveys. Our society doesn’t take male victims of sexual assault as seriously as female victims.
OK, I found the place in the study that addresses @“Cardinal Fang”'s quiz, and it’s surprisingly low. The average percentage of women reporting some type of sexual harassment during the current school year was around 28%, with the range being 13%-46%. Of the women reporting some type of sexual harassment, about 91% reported “sexual advances, gestures, comments, or jokes that were unwelcome.” So the answer to the Cardinal’s first question is around 25%. The percentage of women whose experience of sexual harassment included being sent unwelcome pictures, etc., in the current school year (which, after all, was not middle school) was much lower, 21% and change, so on average around 6%.
@doschicos, @momofsenior1, @HarrietMWelsch and @jonri were reading my mind when they guessed 90% or over for women reporting “sexual advances, gestures, comments, or jokes that were unwelcome.” Good mindreading, my friends, but unfortunately I initially read the paper wrong, thinking that 91% was the correct answer. You should have waited a couple of hours before reading my mind.
I did realize my error well before @JHS posted, though, so I wasn’t in danger of embarrassing myself with an egregious mischaracterization of the results. (Whew.) As @JHS discovered, the correct answer is 26%. And 6% for the bonus question about women students getting sent dick pix and the like.
Figure 22
First year females expriences DOUBLE the number of sexual assaults as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year females in SEPTEMBER. Basically even for all other months. Welcome to college, frosh ladies!
So sad. Females are clearly unprepared for what awaits them.
First year students get assaulted a lot more in October too. So sad, colleges are doing a bad job of protecting students from criminal predators.
Colleges and police can only do so much to protect them. A strategy of avoidance and prevention must be employed by girls. Any time I suggest this, people say I am blaming the victim. No, I just know reality.
Colleges can only do so much to protect women from assaulters. Now the question is, are colleges doing all they can? It’s worth noting that only about half of the sexual assaults measured in the survey took place on campus.
We don’t know the identity of the nine colleges surveyed, but it would be interesting to find out, and see what the worst colleges are doing differently than the best colleges. Some differences are unavoidable; non-residential colleges and colleges with older students have lower assault rates, but the answer isn’t to close all of the University of Indiana’s dorms and preferentially admit older students there. But some changes around alcoholic parties might be doable.
My daughter and I took a self defense class through our local police department before she left for college, and then she took another one her first month of college with her roommates through the campus police. A lot is being aware of your surroundings and prevention, but there was also hands on how to take some one down with practice with a 250 lb dummy, and then a police officer with pads acting as an assailant. It was very helpful but doesn’t solve the whole problem.
Awesome to hear, @momofsenior1 !
250 pound dummy? Wow. I need my daughter to learn that…when the time comes.
Freshwomen encountering sexual misconduct problems in their first year/month at a residential college could be due to being naive about methods of sexual predators (e.g. by intoxication) and about the effects of alcohol (how many college students have their first experience with alcohol at a fraternity or other party early in college?).
Both freshwomen and freshmen may also naively blunder into an questionable consent situation after drinking.
How effectively can parents and colleges get 18 year old new residential college students to exercise restraint and discretion with respect to their new freedom from parental supervision that allows them more opportunities to get drunk and have sex?
During the first months at college, most first year students do not have a solid group of friends who look out for them. Sexual predators take advantage of that.
@roethlisburger It may not be the first time that these kids have ever had alcohol, but it’s often the first time they’ve ever gotten drunk in a large group of strangers.
For many years my spouse travelled to some of the most dangerous cities in the world, for work. It would be good if those cities became less dangerous, and some were making progress, but not much and certainly not before his trips. So he was always prepared and had a safety conscious mindset wherever he was, and did not take any chances. Probably missed out on some opportunities and experiences that way, but he stayed safe. When our eldest left for college, he advised her to do the same and provided tips on how to do so. Something to consider.
@roycroftmom , yes, maybe we’re not communicating the danger to incoming freshman as a group.
The connection of alcohol to rape is so well known, yet girls still drink and/or hang around males that are drinking. So either they don’t care if they get raped, or they simply don’t understand the profound dangers that they face. And I use drinking as a primary example, but your husband’s recommendations would certainly apply.