30% of college aged men are "could-be" rapists?

Question

in my psych class our teacher brought up a study from a few years back. an anonymous poll (survey) was taken by a group of college-aged males. they were asked the question, "if you knew for a fact that you could get away with it, would you rape a woman?" 30% said "yes". that is 1 in 3. personally, i don't know any men that i believe are capable of that, but this study was from a well-respected college and is very legit. it scares the hell out of me! i don't know what college it was from and i know that could make a difference in the answers. for example, different regions are known for different customs/morals.

my question is: what do you guys think about this? how does it make you feel? for the record, it was not a feminist study-there were other questions asked as well not related to rape. these guys were honest because they didn't have to give their name and no one could know who said what. also, please don't attack me-i am simply repeating the info i was given. thanks all!

when i said "by a group of college-aged males" i meant it was a survey taken FROM the college-aged males. the survey was given by the school's psych department.

chaotics" you're right. like i said, i find the results a little odd. however, if they're trying to "sound cool" by saying they would rape a girl, that is just as scary, right?

davy jones: you've been reported and blocked. good day.

ronnie: you may not have heard of it because these guys were basically saying they would only do it if they wouldn't get caught. most men realize that they can get caught in "real" life.

i'm not sure if there was repeat data. she referenced this survey when talking about something else. to the person that spoke of the wording: i asked her about that myself. the question was worded like i said. pretty simple to understand, right?

chaotics: did you not read my disclaimers. i'm not attacking you or trying to get into a pissing contest with you. you're just being hateful. believe what you want. i'm sure some women do abuse, just like some men rape. your point? i don't have a link, it doesn't mean i'm making it up. take from it what you will.

VJX: haha. like i said, take from it what you will. did you know denial is also missing?

thank you Professor C.

Answer 1

Actually it had two segments one asked the above question - the results nearly DOUBLED when the question was changed from "rape" to "force a woman to have sex". I will get the study cite and post it here later.

EDIT

It was a study by a David Finklehorn done in the early 90's or late 80's. 500 college educated (not college age) males were asked the questions. It was a not a one locale survey. The results were 30% (rape) and 50% (forced sexual activity). The last part of the question was that no one will ever know and you will not be punished. The results were presented to the New York Academy of Sciences, prior to 1995. ( I have a film segment, put together by CNN/Allyn Bacon dated 1995, that has a short piece on the study).

What is scary to me, is that according the the study participants, forced sex isn't rape!

The report also listed another survey done to 1300 males about child sexual abuse. It was an anonymous survey and one question asked was "have you ever committed a sexual act upon a child". 10% said yes.

Answer 2

Could be, but what I have noticed with "studies" is that there always seem to be studies that say more or less for one subject. I've seen it related to sexuality, specifically women's, domestic violence, this subject and others. Not to say this isn't true, it might be and I wouldn't doubt it. But from what I've seen with "studies" is that you have to find across the board evidence, but many times there are reports in the same subject with a much different outlook or percentage. For example, in my health class there was a report that supposedly 60% college students would rape if they believe they would not get caught. This was from a study, which was in this book. Then in another packet from Arizona University, the report contradicted such study or atleast the % was quite a bit lower with 25%. Both could have been true relative to the area taken. There are just so many variables that it takes extensive research to really have a clear cut view on a matter. And this applies to other subjects that I stated also. Very large population out there and there's a chance that studies don't always have all of the variables considered and that the study might not be true across the board. I think there is some truth to many studies, but too many other studies against or too many variables to really see it as the complete truth and more of a portion of the matter

Answer 3

The figure from that anonymous poll is questionable, but it's in the ballpark. Yeah, not less than 1 in 5; not more than 1 in 3. I know many men who have boasted of committing unpunished rape, and too many women who've been raped, to think my sex angelic.

The crime (opportunistic rape with impunity) is within the means of many men--and many men and many women alike will exploit opportunities that have costs another will pay. The horrible costs rape entails cloud the moral issue of exploitation; rape is perhaps the most luridly evil exploitation of man by man that is still widely practiced and widely acknowledged to exist. And I think it perfectly reasonable for some women to focus tightly on this horror as the monster to slay first.

But I'd like to urge that the discussion not stop there. Rape belongs near the top of the list of ills that includes slavery, and child abuse (a broad range that includes, but is not limited to, sexual abuse).

I won't dispute the place of rape at the top of the list in this forum, in this moment. Its political value as a rallying point cannot be denied--few women do not fear rape, and few will not join eagerly against it, even with erstwhile enemies. As feminism is most credible as a variety of practical politics, the political value of a 'feminist question' naturally takes precedence over the academic value of a question (and may even trample the academic value in pursuit of a practical political end).

It shouldn't become the only item on the list, though. When men no longer rape women, there will still be things to set right.

Answer 4

A "few years back" is actually the early 80s. I remember hearing about this study when I was in elementary school and how horrified my parents were by it and being lectured about it. I don't know if things have changed, because there's been a lot of awareness raising (no one even talked about "date rape" when this was done) since then and I also don't know if this study has been repeated.

EDIT

Thinking back... yes, when I was 10 years old, I received outraged lectures about rape and about how many men have evil, despicable attitudes and how I should never grow into one of them. Did I have a weird childhood? I don't know.

Answer 5

sexual violence on college campuses is more common than any of us would like to believe.

here is one link to a national nonprofit (there are many, many more - just do the research)

http://www.rainn.org/

many women don't report the crime b/c of the pain and shame involved.

also, i watched a video called "The Undetected Rapist". I think the group Momentum (not positive) made it. Anyway, it was made for judges. In it, an actor reads the lines from an actual rapist (not sentenced b/c the victims didn't report it). He said his fraternity would "stake out" women - usually freshmen b/c they were young, immature and didn't know how much they could handle of alcohol. They wd invite these girls to the party. They would serve very sweet juice that wd cover the taste of alcohol. Then they would have sex with them - sometimes using some force. It was scary. This guy was a law student.

Most cases of rape involve an acquantance. It is not some stereotype of a guy. It is someone the girl knows.

I have had several friends tell me of their rape experience. I would presume that male friends are not told. I believe it is something females would share - and not all of them do. Some of them keep it secret until their grave.

This is not to say all or most guys commit rape. I am not saying that, but I am saying sexual violence is in fact common on campuses.

What is needed is a clear idea of how to give consent, how to avoid being in a situation where rape can occur, and how we need to have empathy and understanding and awareness in this area.

Answer 6

I think it sucks, but it honestly doesn't surprise me. There are a lot of bad people in this world up to no good. A lot of men don't have any respect for women. College is a huge place for criminal activity because you have thousands of people the same age living in the same space, where they are free to do whatever without the rules you had growing up. A lot of people with pent up emotions and feelings are finally able to release those feelings. More often than not they don't know how to release those feelings so it comes out in a violent rage.

Answer 7

I would hope that this study was conducted based on the responses from males in universities across the country, not just in one psych department. Still, that's terrifying.

Answer 8

Well, one thing to keep in mind is social settings. When men are in groups of other men, especially in predominately male settings (military, fraternities, mostly male colleges) they begin to take on the US vs them ideology. Our society has built and maintained this idea that men are supposed to be agressive and sex driven while women are supposed to want relationships. They even go as far as to justify this with biology, claiming that testosterone is what makes them behave this way. Men at frat parties are more likely to rape women, because they have other guys ushering them on. There is no moral compass.

To them, this socially constructed idea justifies what they are doing and allows them to make a decision that they might not make if they were not around other men.

Answer 9

People "could-be" a lot of things. Every person alive has the potential for violence, lust, blood, blah, blah, blah...doesn't matter much, does it. Just because people are capable of doing truly horrible things to each other doesn't mean that they will. Answering a hypothetical question to the affirmative proves nothing. Hypotheticals are just "what-ifs", they are a maybe, they are a fantasy. Nothing more.

It doesn't matter what people "could-be" it only matter what they are. Let's deal with situations that actually occur, help those who truly need us, instead of wasting valuable time and energy worrying about people who might do something bad or who might be in trouble. Reality might not be the most fun place to live, but live it you must.

Answer 10

Let's analyze this survey from the standpoint of science instead of irresponsible scaremongering.

1: How was the sample selected? Does it represent all college age men or does it provide a much more limited subset of representation? Did it include college-age men who were NOT attending college, and did it adjust for any proportion of over-representation of college attendees in the sample? We don't know. We aren't told. Did the sample include men of a representative variety of incomes? Did it include a representative variety of regions? Was the sample at all representative of college-age men in general? If it was not, then it is not a valid means whereby to describe men of the ages of 18-25 (generally considered "college age"). Instead, it only describes the actual sample.

Was this done at only one school? Was it a frat-heavy school? Was it a non-frat school? Did the sample correct for this? Were social science students over-represented? What proportion were engineering students? How representative of the population as a whole was the sample and how was it adjusted for any deficiencies in representation?

How, exactly, were the questions phrased? Was the same question properly couched in more than one fashion and set within other types of questions in order to correct for any bias inherent to the wording of the question?

How was the survey administered? What potential biases might have been introduced in this method?

We could go on and on. To evaluate this survey, these questions and others need to be answered, otherwise, the survey is nothing but a piece of partisanized crap.