By Martin Monto
Kenny Smith's opinion piece in last week's Beacon spurred me to provide a little perspective on the sexual assault problem on campus.
My comments are not just a response to Smith's perspective but also an effort to provide information about sexual assault and suggest a solution that is neither adversarial nor gender-based.
Two students and I surveyed a representative sample of 277 upper-division University of Portland students last semester, evaluating rates of sexual assault and perceived barriers to reporting.
The results will surprise you. Almost 10 percent of women reported experiences within the past year that would legally qualify as rape.
While most women reporting these experiences didn't personally define them as rape, over 5 percent reported that they had been raped during their time at the University. Moreover, 31 percent of women reported that they had experienced unwanted sexual contact over the past 12 months, a broader category.
When asked about barriers to reporting rape, shame, fear of retaliation, confidentiality concerns, fear of not being believed, and fear of being punished for some ancillary activity such as underage drinking, were all identified as important barriers by over 40 percent of female respondents.
The methods of the study are solid, and the reported rates of nonconsensual sex are similar to those at other universities.
Smith's concern about a wave of false rape accusations by women wishing to avoid code violations is a fantasy. The University has already been practicing a de facto policy of not punishing people for coming forward to report sexual assaults for years, yet sexual assaults remain wildly under-reported.
The University's official crime statistics show just six sexual offenses total in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
As indicated by our study, students still see fear of punishment as a significant barrier to reporting. The recent change in the printed policy should finally alleviate the fear among victims that they will be kicked off campus or otherwise punished if they report rape.
Unfortunately, there are many other barriers to overcome, including the attitudes of people like Smith, who seem to assume that victims are lying or asking for it. Smith's fear of false accusations gives little credit to Residence Life and other student services personnel.
The reporting process and those involved in it don't automatically assume the validity of an undocumented accusation. If you do nothing wrong, you will very likely not run into difficulty.
Nevertheless, Smith's plan to provide consent forms to his sexual partners isn't a bad idea, especially if he is engaging in sex with people he doesn't know or trust or are not adults.
When we blame victims of sexual assault, it gives us a false sense of control - the illusion that we can avoid the same outcome if we stay between the lines. "If only she wasn't wearing that provocative dress," "If only she hadn't flirted in that suggestive way," "If only she hadn't had that extra drink"... but these attitudes mask the fact that sex without consent is always wrong and always illegal, even if the victim was drinking or flirting or wearing a short skirt, and even if the victim doesn't report it.
If a person, male or female, is too impaired by alcohol or drugs to consent, it's illegal to proceed.
The idea of non-consensual sex isn't fun or cute or sexy and I assume no one is in favor of it.
Rather than taking sides, I'd like the university community to agree that non-consensual sex is a problem that we are all responsible for addressing, the way we have with drunk driving.
When I was in college, drinking was considered individual behavior, and it was totally unacceptable to intervene to prevent an acquaintance from driving drunk. But research and a national advertising campaign began to promote the idea of peer intervention, the idea that "friends don't let friends drive drunk."
Today, research indicates that most college students regularly intervene to prevent peers from driving drunk by hiding their keys, keeping them occupied until they sober up, serving as designated drivers, or using other strategies.
Peer intervention could dramatically reduce sexual assault. Instead of feeling powerless, either men or women could intervene in potential sexual assault situations.
Though peer intervention in these situations already occurs occasionally, my research suggests that we have a long way to go before it becomes common practice.
Students still see sexual behavior as entirely personal and are hesitant to take responsibility for the well-being of their peers.
There is no convenient slogan. "Friends don't let friends rape friends" is not going to fly. However, there are many things we can do to intervene: Accompanying our friends on a risky walk home, continuing to have a conversation with a couple rather than giving them privacy, talking to one or both participants about our concerns, etc.
Until we as a community act together to address the issue, we are stuck with the current situation - high rates of sexual assault and distrust between men and women, not the best foundation for a campus community.
Martin Monto is a professor of
Sociology
