Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Juliette Grimmett" <>]

FYI from Mary Koss regarding the following horrific article

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-mac_donald24feb24,0,7810608,full.story

Dear Editors,

 

The conclusions in Heather McDonald's opinion might have impacted
differently had she included the following information:

 

1.                  The US Department of Justice recently funded its own
study led by Bonnie Fisher to verify the findings of Koss. Fisher and
colleagues replicated the evidence of a pandemic of rape on campuses
using questionnaires approved by the Department of Justice for their
validity  Fisher's rape estimate is 1 in 5 during women's college
career, whereas Koss' was 1 in 4 since age 14.  Also, Fisher omitted
rape while intoxicated—or sex while intoxicated as MacDonald thinks of
it. These differences make the higher Koss statistic understandable. The
accurate comparison isn't 1 in 4 versus practically nothing. Using the
US Department of Justice data as the "gold standard" MacDonald should
have focused on 1 in 4 versus 1 in 5.

2.                  The National College Drinking Study done at Harvard
also reported similar numbers and more importantly found that they could
be predicted by the rate of binge drinking on the campus as a whole. 
Thus, on high binge drinking campuses, ANY woman was more likely to be
raped, not just those who intoxicated themselves.

3.                  Men are supposed to know that just as you would not
have sex with a dead body or an unconscious person lying on the street,
it is equally wrong to have sex with a woman who is unable to consent
due to intoxication.

4.                  Studies show that whether or not a woman
acknowledges her "unwanted sex" or "regretted sex" or "promiscuous sex"
as rape, she suffers equal emotional distress to women who view their
experience as rape.  This finding was originally reported by Koss and
colleagues in 1988 and the same conclusion was reached by the US
Department of Justice study.

5.                  Women who drink too much deserve a hangover and
eventually a reputation as budding alcoholics, they do not deserve to be
raped.

 

Mary P. Koss, Ph.D.

Regents' Professor of Public Health

Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health

University of Arizona

1632 E. Lester St.

Tucson, Arizona 85719

(520) 626-9502 (voice)

(520) 626-9515 (fax)

(520) 481-8610 (mobile)