A Phony Epidemic
A new survey of sexual assault on college campuses? Cue the claims of proof positive that a “rape culture" exists at schools across the nation.
Take it with a large grain of salt — for the same reason so many similar studies have turned out to fall far short of similar headlines.
In reality, there’s absolutely no sign, in this study or any other, of any “campus rape epidemic.” Indeed, national crime statistics clearly show that women are safer on a US campus than off.
Yes, the heads of Yale, Harvard and other schools responded to the new study with shock and horror. But they’re under fire for supposedly lax responses to what President Obama calls a growing crisis — and plainly lack the courage to stand up to the hype.
The survey, conducted by the Association of American Universities, is said to be more conclusive than earlier ones because of its size: 150,000 respondents at 27 different universities and colleges.
And the headlines, like the one in The New York Times, all repeat the same basic finding: “1 in 4 Women Experience Sex Assault on Campus.”
Funny: The study’s authors explicitly warn against any such conclusions, noting the figure applies only “for a few” schools “and is not representative of anything outside this frame.”
They assert that such estimates are “at best oversimplistic, if not misleading.”
And while the survey’s raw numbers may sound large, they represent a response rate of just 19.3 percent — and probably not a representative sam ple. Thus, the authors cautioned, “The survey estimates related to victimization and selected attitudes may be biased upwards (i.e., somewhat too high).”
Worse, the survey didn’t ask about what most people consider sexual assault, but about harassment — including repeated requests for dinner, drinks or a date.
In fact, the authors say they “specifically avoided” asking about “rape” and “assault.”
Most telling: Even among the young women who reported actual physical force, the vast majority did nothing about it.
Why? Many reported embarrassment or the fear that no action would be taken. But “the dominant reason was [that] it was not considered serious enough” to report.
Or, in other words, they didn’t experience a genuine sexual assault — at least not in the way the media and other hysteriamongers define it.
Indeed, as Naomi Schaefer Riley notes on page 24, the vast majority of these incidents came after the woman and her “assailant” had been drinking — voluntarily. But no modern campus official is willing to launch a crusade about that.
This is not to make light of sexual assault — a crime that needs to be dealt with appropriately — or genuine harassment.
These “studies” aren’t about crime, but politics — an agenda designed to “enable” accusers by obliterating due process for the accused.
It’s a damning indictment of modern American academia that its leaders lack the intellectual courage to stand up to this nonsense.