UVA and the alleged frat rape - Rolling Stone backpedals

When I say "rape," I mean "sexual assault" of all kinds. I know the two aren't synonymous, so I'll clarify from now on.

When communicating to people about risk, or risky behavior, in a magazine article or any other form of communication, the key is to remember that the people at actual risk are much more interested in the numerator than the denominator.

Also, rape, like other crimes such as robbery or murder, is a crime of proximity and opportunity. Being on a college campus provides both of those to would-be rapists much more than most places. Just like poverty-stricken areas provide it for other crimes.

 

If she found it and documented and reported it properly, it wouldn't matter where she looked for it.

Thus rears the ugly head of shitty, irresponsible journalism.

 

Because it's overly wordy, let's just use "rape" as a catch-all for "sexual assault." And, frankly, I would still be inclined to take the other side of your bet. I think it would be very, very difficult to make a definitive (as you say "without a doubt") case that it's a huge problem (in the numerical sense). I have long been very skeptical of these "one-in-five" or "one-in-three" numbers that are proffered, because they simply don't make sense (either logically or statistically). The only way they can even conceivably be made to work is to: 1) expand the definition of rape to the point that the term is almost meaningless; and 2) assume that college women today are substantially more averse to actually reporting it than they were 10, 20, even 30 years ago.

As regards the latter, I thought this guy made a pretty good point:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394111/uva-gang-rape-wasnt-jonah-goldberg/page/0/1

 

If womyn had balls he'd be punching them. He's Willie Wonka 2.0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yT1GHoFiAw

 

You're getting too hung up on the "1 in 5" number. I mean, if it were 1 in 20, or 1 in 50, or 1 in 500, would that make it OK? That's still a lot of sexual assault. Besides, I'm pretty sure that "1 in 5" number came from a survey, and is not based on any hard, consistent data.

What is, however, pretty well documented and provable is that rape is pretty drastically underreported. And, that a sizable majority of rape victims are under the age of 24. That, in and of itself, constitutes a major problem regardless of the other "stats" that make for better headlines.

 

If the number's not important, why does the advocacy movement constantly refer to it?

 

One of the liberal commentariat sites last year caught a huge amount of flak, if I recall, for running a column urging college women to stop getting black-out wasted and making themselves sitting rape targets. Of course, the Jezebels of the world - as well as more mainstream, measured sites - went nuclear about it and said that it was victim-blaming, taking the onus off of men to stop raping, etc., etc.

What utter claptrap. I would wager that 90 percent or more of alleged college rapes and/or sexual assaults take place when the women is intoxicated. Some preventative measures would seem to be reasonable. Instead, Sabrina Erdely and Rolling Stone tell us that rapes occur in pre-meditated fashion by marauding gangs of fratbros who force themselves upon stone-cold sober freshman goody-goodies.

What a disservice. The movement is practically enabling rapists with some of their dogma.

 

I think you answered your own question.

 

I'm not going to argue the journalistic aspect of your post, but the quoted part is such Stephen A. Smith, elements-of-provocation, hot-take bullshit. Women should be allowed to go out and get drunk, wearing whatever they want, without having to worry about some meathead raping them.

 

Erik Wemple just took a sledgehammer to Will Dana's credibility.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/12/08/rolling-stone-managing-editor-in-2006-well-write-what-we-believe/

 

You're right. They should. And I should be able to drive around at 2 a.m. on New Year's Eve all I want without worrying about getting slammed by a drunk driver. But I won't.

 

If only there were an attempt at solving the drunk driving problem by punishing the drunk drivers instead of mandating that the sober people drive more carefully.