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The War On Campus Sexual Assault Goes Digital

HughPickens.com writes: According to a recent study of 27 schools, about one-quarter of female undergraduates said they had experienced nonconsensual sex or touching since entering college, but most of the students said they did not report it to school officials or support services. Now Natasha Singer reports at the NYT that in an effort to give students additional options — and to provide schools with more concrete data — a nonprofit software start-up in San Francisco called Sexual Health Innovations has developed an online reporting system for campus sexual violence. One of the most interesting features of Callisto is a matching system — in which a student can ask the site to store information about an assault in escrow and forward it to the school only if someone else reports another attack identifying the same assailant. The point is not just to discover possible repeat offenders. In college communities, where many survivors of sexual assault know their assailants, the idea of the information escrow is to reduce students' fears that the first person to make an accusation could face undue repercussions.

"It's this last option that makes Callisto unique," writes Olga Khazan. "Most rapes are committed by repeat offenders, yet most victims know their attackers. Some victims are reluctant to report assaults because they aren't sure whether a crime occurred, or they write it off as a one-time incident. Knowing about other victims might be the final straw that puts an end to their hesitation—or their benefit of the doubt. Callisto's creators claim that if they could stop perpetrators after their second victim, 60 percent of campus rapes could be prevented." This kind of system is based partly on a Michigan Law Review article about "information escrows," or systems that allow for the transmitting of sensitive information in ways that reduce "first-mover disadvantage" also known to economists as the "hungry penguin problem". As game theorist Michael Chwe points out, the fact that each person creates her report independently makes it less likely they'll later be accused of submitting copycat reports, if there are similarities between the incidents.

12 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Anonymous rape claims by starworks5 · · Score: 4, Informative

    its like 4chan, for rape.

    But seriously, as soon as I saw the ada initiative on there, i knew it was bullshit. Selena Deklemann herself tried to entrap me once as an enemy of feminsts, by trying to cajoule me into going to meet her behind the florist dumpster alone, and after i repeatedly refused accused me of harassing her at Open Source Bridge.

    Then there is the matter that the founder of the ada initaitive, which is also listed in there, currently has a federal case open for a false rape claim against her husband, among others that she has made over the years to others, except for the fact that she killed herself over the issue. Schwern vs Plunkett

  2. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I once tracked down the "one in four" number. It turns out they include all drunken sex, all cases of not asking permission at each step and pretty much every other bullshit thing they could throw in to inflate the number. And why am I reading this on Slashdot anyway?

  3. Re:"nonconsensual sex or touching" by Your.Master · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you look up the study, the exact quote is “nonconsensual penetration or sexual touching involving physical force or incapacitation,”.

    The summary is brain-dead, but in a way that *understates* the problem, compared to the actual quote (which doesn't contain the word "rape"). After all, you're interpreting this as lower arms and shoulders, but that's clearly not "sexual touching involving physical force or incapacitation"..

  4. Re:"nonconsensual sex or touching" by tburkhol · · Score: 5, Informative

    That means that the average rapist has raped 5 times. I *hope* that is waaaay to high.

    It's not. The vast majority of men don't do non-consensual sex, meaning that non-consensual sex is practiced by a small minority of men.

    One argument is that they don't even know. That our dating language and culture are so strongly based on conquest, that (some) men may have trouble distinguishing between pretend resistance as sexual play and real resistance to unwanted contact. If the victim is afraid, embarrassed, or discouraged from making an accusation, then the perpetrator is taught that all those "No!" "Stop!" "Get out!" cries were just play.

    It's clear there are people exaggerating the claims or severity of sexual violence, but it's also clear that many women have participated in "real sex" that they wanted no part of, either before, during or after. That latter number is hard to pin down, but does consistently seem to be somewhere in the 10-20% range. We have to stop that.

  5. Re:Rape in America versus India. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The sad irony is that Indian men can be accused and convicted of rape if they refuse to marry a woman after they have sex with her. That's the law in India.

  6. Re:Will Any Effort Be Made To Validate The Report? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1, Informative

    If a real rape happens, you go to the police, and you do it as soon as you can

    Yep, because the police have such an impeccable record. I was going go post individual links, but it's easier to just go here http://www.google.com/search?i...

    Oh what the hell, here's a nice link for you:

    http://registerguard.com/rg/ne...

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  7. Re: Co-Eds Needs To Stop Showing by gyroheli · · Score: 5, Informative
    Well i can believe i just read another indoctrinated individual that was fed some propaganda in the 21st century.

    Women shouldn't have to tame their behaviour because some guys can't handle it

    Police officers shouldn't have to wear heavy uncomfortable bullet proof vests because some gun wielding criminals can't handle being good law abiding citizens. That's about as sensical as your statement. It's unrealistic to expect there to be no criminals, just as it is unrealistic to expect there to be no rapists. "They can't handle it" cause that's the stereotypical macho masculine view. That a man should just man up and if he doesn't he's a pussy that can't handle it. Fuck things like mental health or how he grew up or whatever the fuck else right? Being piss drunk makes you an easier target as you can't think/control your bodily normally. By no means does not drinking remove all risk, it just reduces it. It's hysterical that rather than acknowledging that fact, you'd rather refute it by saying we should be living in some utopia where no one does any wrong. Fuck off.

  8. Re:"nonconsensual sex or touching" by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you look up the study, the exact quote is “nonconsensual penetration or sexual touching involving physical force or incapacitation,”.

    The summary is brain-dead, but in a way that *understates* the problem, compared to the actual quote (which doesn't contain the word "rape"). After all, you're interpreting this as lower arms and shoulders, but that's clearly not "sexual touching involving physical force or incapacitation"..

    Those were numbers pulled from 2 universities. A sample size of two isn't very impressive. Here's the actual rape numbers, from a study that spanned four years: 1 in 52 women are raped.

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  9. Umm... no. You are misrepresenting the issue. by denzacar · · Score: 5, Informative

    From TFS:
    https://www.aau.edu/uploadedFi...

    Overall, 11.7 percent of students across the 27 universities reported experiencing nonconsensual penetration or sexual touching by force or incapacitation since enrolling at the IHE.

    Which is about HALF of the fabled 25%.

    The magic 25% (i.e. the long parroted and continuously debunked legend of 1 in 4 women being raped) was reached through following fiddling of numbers.
    Again, from TFS:

    To assess the overall risk of nonconsensual sexual contact, prevalence measures were estimated that combine the two behaviors that constitute sexual contact (penetration and sexual touching) and the four tactics discussed above (physical or threat of physical force; incapacitation; coercion; AAC [Absence of Affirmative Consent]).

    Absence of Affirmative Consent being a catch-all category for any kind of "explicit" and "active, ongoing voluntary agreement" of "both partners".

    The question that makes 11.7% into "1 in 4 women" being:

    Since you have been a student at [University], has someone had contact with you involving penetration or oral sex without your active, ongoing voluntary agreement? Examples include someone:
    - initiating sexual activity despite your refusal
    - ignoring your cues to stop or slow down
    - went ahead without checking in or while you were still deciding
    - otherwise failed to obtain your consent

    When that question, which no longer talks about rape but about failure to read minds and thus tell if someone is still deciding and a failure to "otherwise obtain consent" (possibly in written form) we get the magical 1 in 4 numbers.
    Which would dictate that every family that has at least one female child, also has at least one rape victim (two grandmas + mom + daughter = 1 of them must be have been raped).

    But even then more fiddling with numbers is needed to reach the magic 1 in 4 value. Such as limiting the survey response to seniors only.

    According to the AAU survey, 16.5 percent of seniors experienced sexual contact involving penetration or sexual touching as a result of physical force or incapacitation. Senior females (26.1%) and those identifying as TGQN (29.5%) are, by far, the most likely to experience this type of victimization.

    And if it needs to be more obvious that they get those numbers by padding the set and expanding the time frame...

    Students who are relatively new to school may experience higher risk because they are not as familiar with situations that may lead to an incident of sexual assault or misconduct.
    Examination of the rates for the current academic year show this pattern holds for undergraduate females.
    Among freshmen, 16.9 percent of females reported sexual contact by physical force or incapacitation.
    This percentage steadily declines by year in school to a low of 11.1 percent for seniors.

    And then there are other issues...
    Like defining "penetration" as "when someone's mouth or tongue makes contact with someone else's genitals", without defining whose mouth and whose genitals are in question.
    The way question is defined, both giving and receiving oral sex constitutes penetration.
    On whom? Well... On both giver and receiver of oral sex, according to such a loose definition.

    Or "physical force" being defined as "holding you down with his or her body weight, pinning your arms, hitting or kicking you, or using or threatening to use a weapon against you".
    Which equates physical violence and a gun to your head with "being on the bottom".

    Or how numbers reported don't really match up.
    Like penetration numbers for fem

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  10. Re:Will Any Effort Be Made To Validate The Report? by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Informative

    Look at the guy who thinks fraternities are more important than not being raped.

    Look at the guy who thinks that punishing every fraternity for a crime at one fraternity that never even happened is more important than the truth.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  11. Re:Will Any Effort Be Made To Validate The Report? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except that according to the FBI (where the CDC gets it's data) rape is defined as "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim"

    While I'm sure there are a few cases of femdom type cases of females raping males pretty much NO female on male rapes would fit under that definition.

  12. Re: Will Any Effort Be Made To Validate The Report by zugmeister · · Score: 3, Informative

    So feminists, if you're really for equality

    Don't look at what they say, look at what they do.