{"id":38,"date":"2003-02-06T22:49:15","date_gmt":"2003-02-07T06:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/02\/06\/rape-prevalence-statistics-on-donohue\/"},"modified":"2003-02-06T22:49:15","modified_gmt":"2003-02-07T06:49:15","slug":"rape-prevalence-statistics-on-donohue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=38","title":{"rendered":"Rape Prevalence Statistics on Donohue"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading a transcript of a Donahue<\/em><\/a> show (via Ms Musings<\/a>) themed around the question “are women getting a free ride?,” an episode devoted mainly to anti-feminists Warren Farrell<\/a>, Marc Angelucci and Peter Allemano (Farrell is the author of the men’s rights classic The Myth of Male Power<\/em><\/a>, Angelucci and Allemano help run the National Coalition of Free Men<\/a>). Also present was Gloria Allred<\/a>, there to provide feminist counterpoints, and several more anti-feminists to speak on specific anti-feminist issues (a pinch of bitter divorced men, a sprinkling of anti-Title-IX jocks). Plus some dude from Stuff<\/em> magazine for comic relief.<\/p>\n

As usual, a lot of factual claims got tossed around. Many of those claims are things I know nothing about, and so can’t comment on; but there’s quite a few I do know about and would like to comment on – I expect there will be a bunch of posts from me on this subject.<\/p>\n

For the most part, I think Allred did a great job, speaking well and refusing to fit into the women vs. men mold the anti-feminists were trying to press her into. But while aruging that “women have a long way to go,” she said “one out of three [women] will be raped sometime in her lifetime.”<\/p>\n

Quoting myself<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

According to Dr. Mary Koss’ study (which was conducted in the early to mid eighties), about 15% of college women have been victims of completed rape at some point since age 14.<\/p>\n

This result of Koss’ study has been frequently criticized by anti-feminists. But at least three other nationwide studies of lifetime rape prevalence came to similar conclusions; the National Women’s Study found 13% (not available online, sorry), the Centers for Disease Control study<\/a> found 15%, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics study<\/a> of college women found 10%.<\/p>\n

I don’t think there will ever be a single number that people can point to and say “this is the right answer.” Unreported rape is inherently difficult to measure; there will never be a study that someone can’t find reason to doubt, and every new study will raise new questions. But from the best studies currently available, somewhere between 10% and 15% of American women will be raped in their lifetimes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So the 33% figure Ms. Allred suggests is way out of line with current research.<\/p>\n

Why does this matter? Normally, this isn’t the sort of fact-checking I’d bother posting, because it’s not important to the argument Allred is making: Whether 10% or 33% of women are raped in their lifetime, either way it’s way<\/em> too high, and either way Allred’s point – that “women still have a long way to go” – is true. From a debate point of view, Ms. Allred’s error isn’t substantial, because correcting the error doesn’t undermine the point she was making.<\/p>\n

But there’s more to life than debating. The real statistics, as far as I can make out, are that somewhere between 10% and 15% of American women are raped sometime in their life. That’s terrifying enough; using numbers that are even higher and scarier, especially on national TV, could needlessly frighten people, especially women. The truth is bad enough without exaggeration.<\/p>\n

.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reading a transcript of a Donahue show (via Ms Musings) themed around the question “are women getting a free ride?,” an episode devoted mainly to anti-feminists Warren Farrell, Marc Angelucci and Peter Allemano (Farrell is the author of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mary-koss-controversy","category-rape-intimate-violence-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}