A. What is the other side to the story? Is the rape epidemic truly an epidemic? How valid are the claims?
B. French, David. "The Campus-Rape Lie." Academic Search Elite [EBSCO]. N.p., 6 July 2015. Web.
This was an interesting read, to say the least. French combats the attack on campus assailants with an arsenal of counter-statistics and logic. He argues that there is no 'rape crisis' or even a 'rape culture', There is simply a large number of radicals 'Lefts' who are jumping on the rape epidemic bandwagon as a new source of passionate activism. French explains how largely-cited statistics are not reliable and that true numbers related to campus rape are far lower than widely advertised. In addition, he advocates for innocent male victims who are denied due process and charged with sexual crimes that ruin careers and lives-- on the basis of preponderance of evidence, as often decided by school staff.
This article was written with passion, and even if I cannot fully agree with its content, I respect the argumentative nature of the author. I think that it's important to take much of what French is saying with a grain of salt. Many of his points are dual-ended, with him only exploring one side (perhaps because he feels that liberal media has done a sufficient job with the other viewpoints; nonetheless...). For example, French states that there is no rape crisis because there's been a consistent decline in reported assaults since 1997 (31). Just because there's a decrease, however, doesn't mean a problem has disappeared; the crime is still being committed. Many of statistics stem from very blurry lines on exactly what crime they are addressing. Although all are sexual crimes, rape, sexual assault, harassment, or misconduct, dating violence, sodomy- all of these distinctions affect the statistics. Actual rape (by the legal definition) may not be as frequently committed as sexual misconduct; thus some statistics can be used more favorably than others. Another arguing point that French spun concerned the famous "1 in 5" statistic, stating that nearly 20% of women will be sexually assaulted during their undergraduate college career. This is commonly cited in awareness campaigns across campuses. French points out that the own administrators of this study warn against using the statistic to draw any conclusions. The study was given to only two colleges and was administered online, without many guidelines. The Department of Justice produced a more reliable and more valid survey that produced a statistic of 6.1 rapes per 1,000-- this, however, did not include other sexual crimes, whereas the previous study did.
Although this article doesn't fully expand properly on several points, it does start a good conversation. It must be difficult for university administrators to dance the delicate line between serving justice to both the alleged victims and the accused, especially when governmental agencies are demanding crackdowns left and right. Is this really the university's job though? It is certainly important for universities to do all they can to prevent such an atrocity from happening to its students; but once the crime has been committed, shouldn't higher, more fit authorities become involved? The previous articles would dismiss this text as a manifestation of men's rights and the endorsement of rape culture. I believe, however, that a new idea can emerge from the culmination of all of these readings: why, if rape is such an epidemic, does the school restrict its investigation to simply an academic setting? Why aren't the police involved, if this is such a heinous crime of an exponential magnitude? Questions like these could help the university streamline how it handles sexual assault cases within its campus.
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