“The figure is closer to one in 50,” says Sommers of colleges overall. Nevertheless, one in five just isn’t plausible. 46 too many, but for “one in five” to be true, it would have to be 200.Īdmittedly, many victims of assault fear going public, so the UVA number may be higher than. 46 sexual offenses were reported per thousand students. One in five!”Īt allegedly horrible University of Virginia, where Rolling Stone said assault was routine. President Obama added to the misinformation by pandering to the feminist victim lobby, creating a “sex abuse task force” and repeating a widely quoted - yet obviously absurd - rape statistic: “It is estimated that one in five women on college campuses has been sexually assaulted during their time there. “The hysteria around campus assault, the false information has been building for so long,” warns Sommers, “people are willing to believe anything.” “But for several days, people in the media just believed it, and publicized it, and anguished over it,” says Sommers. The Rolling Stone story sounded extraordinary from the beginning. She interviewed students at many campuses, waiting for the rape story she wanted to hear. Her source’s story fit the reporter’s own “rape culture” narrative. She barely fact-checked the claims made by her source. In much American media, a rape story is “too good to check.” The Rolling Stone author admits she wanted to believe. “It proved to be a sort of gothic fantasy, a male-demonizing fantasy,” says Sommers. It told a frightening story, based on one witness, of gang rape in a frat house that left the victim’s friends completely uninterested, since assault is so routine. Recently, a Rolling Stone article said that men routinely assault women at the University of Virginia. The media love crisis, and hyping sexual assault is a good way to get attention.
“Rape culture means everything in society is reinforcing (rape) and making it seem a legitimate thing to do. The difference is not just numbers, she says. Sommers says, “I always make clear, rape is a very serious problem, (but) if you look at the best data … it is not an epidemic. I saw nasty behavior when I was in college, and I assume there are places worse than Princeton.
No one denies that some men, especially when drunk, get violent and abusive.