{"id":2957,"date":"2015-10-01T02:38:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T01:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=2957"},"modified":"2015-10-01T02:42:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T01:42:01","slug":"1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"1 in 4 Women: How the Latest Sexual Assault Statistics Were Turned into Click Bait by the New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Brian D. Earp<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0(@briandavidearp<\/a>)<\/p>\n

* Note: this article was originally published at the\u00a0Huffington Post<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

As someone who has worked on college campuses to educate men and women about sexual assault and consent, I have seen the barriers to raising awareness and changing attitudes. Chief among them, in my experience, is a sense of skepticism\u2013especially among college-aged men\u2013that sexual assault is even all that dire of a problem to begin with.<\/p>\n

\u201c1 in 4? 1 in 5? Come on, it can\u2019t be that high. That\u2019s just feminist\u00a0propaganda<\/a>!\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of the statistics that get thrown around in this area (they seem to think) have more to do with politics and ideology than with careful, dispassionate science. So they often wave away the issue of sexual assault\u2013and won\u2019t engage on issues like affirmative consent.<\/p>\n

In my view, these are the men we really need to reach.<\/p>\n

A new statistic<\/strong><\/p>\n

So enter the headline from last week\u2019s\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0coverage of the latest college campus sexual assault survey:<\/p>\n

\u201c1 in 4 Women Experience Sex Assault on Campus<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what the survey showed. And you don\u2019t have to read all\u00a0288 pages<\/a>\u00a0of the published report to figure this out (although I did that today just to be sure). The executive summary is all you need.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Here is what the authors of the survey\u2013prepared on behalf of the Association of American Universities (AAU)\u2013had to say in their introductory remarks:<\/p>\n

[E]stimates such as \u201c1 in 5\u2033 or \u201c1 in 4\u2033 as a global rate [are] oversimplistic, if not misleading. None of the studies which generate estimates for specific IHEs [institutes of higher education] are nationally representative.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They go on to highlight that only 19.3 percent of students who were contacted actually responded to the survey, despite incentives\u2013a low response rate for these kinds of surveys\u2013and that even they were not likely to be representative of the student body within their own schools.<\/p>\n

Specifically: \u201cAn analysis of \u2026 non-response bias found [that] estimates may be too high because non-victims may have been less likely to participate”\u00a0(see Appendix 4 of the AAU report<\/a> for an in-depth discussion of the analyses used).<\/p>\n

None of this is buried in the fine print. In fact, the authors of the report (still in the executive summary) explicitly chastise news organizations for their misleading coverage of previous surveys:<\/p>\n

[M]any news stories are focused on figures like \u201c1 in 5\u2033 in reporting victimization. As the researchers who generated this number have repeatedly said, the 1 in 5 number is for a few IHEs and is not representative of anything outside of this frame. The wide variation of rates across IHEs in the present study emphasizes the significance of this caveat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another caveat has to do with definitions. \u201cSexual assault\u201d\u2013an incredibly loaded term\u2013can mean a lot of different things in different contexts. In this survey, it means \u201cnonconsensual sexual contact involving [either] sexual penetration [or] sexual touching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSexual touching\u201d includes \u201ckissing\u201d as well as \u201crubbing against the other in a sexual way, even if the touching is over the other\u2019s clothes.\u201d (I\u2019ll say more about this wording later on.)<\/p>\n

What about \u201cnonconsensual\u201d? This means either that the act was physically forced, or that the person\u2019s consent could not be obtained because they were \u201cpassed out, asleep or incapacitated due to drugs or alcohol.\u201d But no definition of \u201cincapacitated\u201d is given, so it\u2019s not clear how drunk (to use the example of alcohol) you have to be to meet this particular condition.<\/p>\n

Interpretations could range pretty widely.<\/p>\n

Are you a victim?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, consider that the survey\u2019s developers \u201cspecifically avoided\u201d using the words \u2018rape\u2019 or \u2018sexual assault\u2019 in the questions they administered to the students. This was so that \u201crespondents would use a set of uniform definitions when reporting on the types of events that were of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some sound methodological reasons for doing this. But as Ashe Schow\u00a0has pointed out<\/a>, it can also have the effect of eliciting much higher responses than would otherwise be obtainable, due to avoiding such harsh-sounding words.\u00a0As a result<\/a>, \u201cmany students who don\u2019t [actually] view themselves as victims and [who] don\u2019t believe they were sexually assaulted\u201d could end up being counted as \u201cvictims of assault.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an obvious response here. \u201cWell,\u201d you might say, \u201cthey\u00a0were<\/em>\u00a0sexually assaulted, and they\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0victims, even if that\u2019s not how they feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s try a little perspective. Technical definitions on a questionnaire may not, in fact, line up with someone\u2019s lived experience, and people should be free to reach their own self-understandings when it comes their status as victims (or non-victims). And some students may simply disagree with the definitions. Given, however, that the students were forced to choose between \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d in response to the various questions\u2013and were given no chance to explain or elaborate\u2013these are not just trivial details.<\/p>\n

A more accurate headline?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, much more could be said about caveats, but using just the information we have so far, we can see that a more accurate headline would look something like this:<\/p>\n

Approximately 1 in 4 of 19% of a Non-Representative Sample of Women Who Responded to a Non-Representative Survey of 27 Colleges (Out of Roughly\u00a05,000<\/a>) Reported Experiencing Sexual Assault, Where \u201cSexual Assault\u201d is Taken to Mean Anything from Being on the Receiving End of an Unsolicited Kiss to Forcible Penetration at Gunpoint, Regardless of the Particular Context\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, that\u2019s too long to be practical \u2013 so let\u2019s see if we can think of something shorter:<\/p>\n

Latest Campus Sexual Assault Survey Paints Complicated Picture: Report Stresses Methodological Limitations\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s about right in terms of accuracy \u2026 but it wouldn\u2019t sell very many papers.<\/p>\n

Faced with this dilemma, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, a discourse-shaping publication with a massive readership, elected to go ahead with a headline that the authors of the very report they\u2019re covering went out of their way to\u2013repeatedly\u2013emphasize was \u201cmisleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s putting it nicely. If you take into consideration the likelihood of inflated estimates due to non-response bias, a controversial definition of assault, and a relatively small, self-selecting sample, then the headline is simply false. (The actual content of the article isn\u2019t much better. The\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0author waits six paragraphs before mentioning the 19.3% response rate, and even then only in passing.)<\/p>\n

Why this matters<\/strong><\/p>\n

So here is my problem with the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0coverage. In my view, even one assault is one assault too many, and what this survey does show is harrowing enough. There is no need to exaggerate the findings. Also sexual assault is serious. It isn\u2019t something to be dumbed down into a simple factoid or turned into fodder for a superficial headline.<\/p>\n

Even more to the point, there is a risk that \u201coverselling\u201d these kinds of findings will actually backfire in the long run, casting a shadow of cynicism over the efforts of those who are struggling\u2013against not inconsiderable odds\u2013to establish a culture (but hopefully not a bureaucracy!) of affirmative consent on college campuses.<\/p>\n

The last thing our society needs is one more excuse to take rape statistics lightly.<\/p>\n

One more thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

I said I\u2019d come back to the issue of kissing. Remember that this counts, in the AAU survey, as \u201csexual touching\u201d \u2013 and therefore (possibly) a form of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

I expect that many people will be tempted to roll their eyes. Kissing? Sure, it might be unpleasant if you weren\u2019t expecting it, but is it really in the same \u201ccategory\u201d as rape? Aren\u2019t these broad definitions just being used to \u201cinflate\u201d college sexual assault statistics, when what we really care about is something more violent?<\/p>\n

You might think that I\u2019d agree with this view (based on my qualifications about the survey\u2019s methodology, above). But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s actually that simple. Context matters. If the person who kisses you against your will\u2013or after one too many drinks\u2013is your professor, or someone who\u2019s been harassing you all semester long, or a friend who\u2019s now violating your trust, the emotional consequences could be pretty severe. It also\u00a0depends<\/a>\u00a0a lot on who you are. Some people experience even \u201cextreme\u201d forms of assault and yet somehow manage to recover and move on with their lives. Others may be emotionally handicapped for decades.<\/p>\n

So violating another person\u2019s sexual autonomy, even if it feels like \u201conly a little bit\u201d to you, is ultimately a moral non-starter. It isn\u2019t worth the risk.<\/p>\n

Improving campus culture\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0sexual assault discourse<\/strong><\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean that every drunken pass at a party should be treated like a horrible crime. But it does mean that people of all genders, including men, women, trans people, queer people, and other gender-nonconformers (the latter should be highlighted because they are the group that reported the highest rates of sexual assault in the survey) need to come together in a spirit of good faith\u2013really listen to each other\u2013and try to promote a culture of basic respect when it comes to sexual relationships.<\/p>\n

The goal, in other words, should be to massively reduce the incidence of sexual harm\u2013not only on college campuses, but everywhere. But in order to do this, we need to be serious about how we estimate the prevalence of assault, frank about the limitations of what we know and don\u2019t know, thoughtful about how we define our terms (including the range of behaviors we feel comfortable collapsing under one label), and painstakingly careful about how we communicate our findings to the public.<\/p>\n

I know far too many people who have experienced sexual assault,\u00a0running the gamut<\/a>of offensive behaviors and contexts. I have seen first-hand the enormous toll that these kinds of violations can take on people\u2019s lives. These individuals\u2013and all of us\u2013deserve a sober conversation about sexual harm, and the way it actually plays out on college campuses. We can do better than misleading sexual assault statistics turned into click-bait by the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cantor, D., Fisher, B. Chibnall, S. et al. (2015). Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct.\u00a0The Association of American Universities<\/em>. Available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* Note that in this version of this article, compared to the original at the Huffington Post<\/em>,\u00a0a link to the AAU report has been added in reference to Appendix 4 (where non-response bias was estimated), so that readers may see those analyses for themselves.<\/p>\n

Follow Brian D. Earp on Twitter by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Brian D. Earp\u00a0\/\u00a0(@briandavidearp) * Note: this article was originally published at the\u00a0Huffington Post. Introduction As someone who has worked on college campuses to educate men and women about sexual assault and consent, I have seen the barriers to raising awareness and changing attitudes. Chief among them, in my experience, is a sense of skepticism\u2013especially […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7933],"tags":[395,7957,137,1498,7955,2069,7937,787,7956],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brian-earps-posts","tag-bioethics","tag-college","tag-ethics","tag-new-york-times","tag-rape","tag-science","tag-sex","tag-sex-education","tag-sexual-assault"],"yoast_head":"\n1 in 4 Women: How the Latest Sexual Assault Statistics Were Turned into Click Bait by the New York Times - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1 in 4 Women: How the Latest Sexual Assault Statistics Were Turned into Click Bait by the New York Times - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Brian D. Earp\u00a0\/\u00a0(@briandavidearp) * Note: this article was originally published at the\u00a0Huffington Post. Introduction As someone who has worked on college campuses to educate men and women about sexual assault and consent, I have seen the barriers to raising awareness and changing attitudes. 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Earp\u00a0\/\u00a0(@briandavidearp) * Note: this article was originally published at the\u00a0Huffington Post. Introduction As someone who has worked on college campuses to educate men and women about sexual assault and consent, I have seen the barriers to raising awareness and changing attitudes. Chief among them, in my experience, is a sense of skepticism\u2013especially [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/","og_site_name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","article_published_time":"2015-10-01T01:38:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-10-01T01:42:01+00:00","author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"1 in 4 Women: How the Latest Sexual Assault Statistics Were Turned into Click Bait by the New York Times","datePublished":"2015-10-01T01:38:28+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-01T01:42:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/"},"wordCount":1786,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"keywords":["Bioethics","college","ethics","New York Times","rape","science","sex","Sex Education","sexual assault"],"articleSection":["Brian Earp's Posts"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/10\/01\/1-in-4-women-how-the-latest-sexual-assault-statistics-were-turned-into-click-bait-by-the-new-york-times\/","name":"1 in 4 Women: How the Latest Sexual Assault Statistics Were Turned into Click Bait by the New York Times - 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