About Koss....

This is a good article.


http://www.collegiatetimes.com/newsadmin/printable.php?ID=2064

Column: Rape statistics mislead general public

posted: September 26, 2003

by Kris Hassinger
"One in four women will be sexually assaulted."

It can be heard in the chants during "Take Back the Night." It is written
on posters, protest buttons, flyers and is included in awareness workshops,
seminars and on brochures handed out to freshmen. College professors and 
high school teachers alike state it as if it were gospel.

But what is the origin of this statistic? What is the hard evidence behind
this intuitively outrageous number? My suspicions were aroused when I 
noticed marked inconsistencies: some institutions said one in four women 
are sexually assaulted before 18, some said one in four during a lifetime 
and yet others even claimed it was one in four while enrolled at college. 
So I decided to look into the matter and was amazed at what turned up.

Mary Koss conducted a survey including 3,000 women from college campuses 
across the United States during 1987. She found of the women surveyed, 
15.4 percent had been forced to engage in and 12.1 percent had experienced 
an attempt to force engagement in sexual intercourse.

This means 27.5 percent reported since the age of 14 they had experienced 
a rape or attempted rape. Activists took the number and ran with it,
never questioning the results.

To her credit, Koss did try to make the questionnaire reflect incidents 
that would be considered sexual assault under the current law. However, 
the law in her home state of Arizona is fuzzy at best when dealing with
alcohol and rape. It states if either partner consumes alcohol, legal 
consent to sex cannot be given and potential for rape is present.

Pretty ambiguous to say the least, especially considering the vast number
of sexual encounters involving some level of alcohol consumption. Any 
woman who ever had the experience of sharing alcohol, having sex with 
a man and later regretting it for any reason could answer yes to this 
question.

By counting "yes" answers to this as affirmative evidence, Koss was 
able to reach the conclusion that a total of 27.5 percent of the 
respondents had been victims of rape or attempted rape. If the question 
were thrown out of the survey, the results quickly jump from one in four 
to one in nine.

Another vague question asks if the woman had ever been coerced into sex, 
but without any violence or threat of violence. I think it would be hard
to find any relationship where one partner was not in the mood but 
eventually gave in to their partner's wishes. Imagine if this excuse 
were used for other things: "I'm not at fault for underage drinking, 
officer, my friends talked me into it!"

Only about a quarter of those Koss classified as victims in the survey 
labeled what happened to them as rape. In other words, those taking the 
survey did not consider themselves as victims, but those giving the 
survey certainly did. About half described the incidents as 
"miscommunication," and 42 percent of those counted as victims went 
on to have sex again with the very same men who had allegedly raped them.

To put things into perspective, Matt Sanders, assistant director of the 
Oasis Center for sexual assault and relationship violence, said one in 
six men will be sexually assaulted in his lifetime if the same criterion 
is used.

A number of other studies have been done before and since the Koss 
survey. For example, Duke researcher Linda George found the number to
be one in 17, while professor Mary Gordon of the University of 
Washington found only one in 50 women had been raped.

Closer to home, the 1995 Virginia State Council of Higher Education 
Report found six percent of college women reported giving into sex 
because of physical threats or the inability to resist. Despite these 
and various other surveys throughout the country, the one in four figure 
is the only one ever cited. I have to admit chanting "one in 17" does 
not have the same ring to it.

In an effort to put to rest the debate over earlier surveys, the U.S.
 National Institute of Justice compiled statistics from two studies 
from college students across the nation. The first used very graphic 
and behavior specific questions about sexual situations the students 
had encountered. The second survey focused on what the victims 
perceived as crimes.

It should be noted the surveys only pertained to the past seven months,
not over a lifetime. Using the results of the first survey, 1.7 percent
of female college students reported being raped, and 1.1 percent were 
victims of attempted rape. The second survey had quite different results:
.16 percent reported being raped, while .18 percent dealt with attempted 
rape. Far from settling the matter, the government's survey is more 
useful at showing how different methodologies garner different results.

In no way am I condoning the behavior of rape or sexual assault; it is
undoubtedly an issue at Virginia Tech as well as other colleges across 
the nation.

However, I believe the problem is bad enough to preclude any exaggerated
statistics such as "one in four."

I only wish organizations would report findings accurately and not resort
to scare tactics. Using data that only conforms to one narrow, 
preconceived belief is dishonest and a disservice to both men and women 
alike.