Duke Student Allegedly Assaulted at Off-Campus Party

[knowledgeispwr]

Durham — Durham police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a Duke University student at an off-campus party early Sunday morning.

According to investigators, the 18-year-old female told officers she was at the party in the 400 block of Gattis Street around 3 a.m. when she was allegedly raped in the bathroom. There were at least 50 people at the party at the time, police said.

A neighbor told WRAL that Duke and Durham police broke up the party around the same time as the alleged attack. Neighbors said both drugs and a gun were found inside the home by authorities.

http://wral.com/news/local/story/1200387/

[Kagemusha]

1. I had to double-check the date on the web site...

Boy does this bring up familiar memories. Didn't the university make a big show of saying it was cracking down on these things? Of course, there's only so much a university can do about stuff taking place off-campus.

[Ignacio Upton]

2. Here we go again.......

Not really, but I just hope that Nifong stays the fuck away from this.

[knowledgeispwr]

3. The sad thing is...

that it's going to be that much harder to investigate this case because of all the hoopla with the lacrosse scandal.

Perhaps universities can do more to educate all their incoming freshmen about sexual assault (making sure everyone knows what constitutes it) and the high risk situations of college parties.

[salin]

4. sadly a higherbar has now been set..

:cry: As a rape survivor I cry. Back to an era where the assumption of guilt falls on the victim. Back to an era of silence.

[IndianaGreen]

5. The Tawana Brawley case did not help rape victims anymore

than the McMartin case helped child abuse victims. Everytime there is a false accusation, it casts an unfair shadow over the vast majority of cases in which an assault did take place.

One thing we can all learn is that we must follow the evidence, and that many times it takes time to develop that evidence. The worst thing we can do is to jump to conclusions. The rights of the accused must be protected, and the victim must always be treated with respect and dignity, barring any evidence to the contrary.

Publicity and justice do not go well when they travel hand-in-hand.

[NashVegas]

20. The McMartin Case (Final Verdict) Is Irrelevant, IMO

At the time it happened, most child sexual abusers were still getting little more than a slap on the wrist, if they were found guilty at all. In many cases, the "that 7 year old was asking for it" defense was amazingly effective.

The dubious benefit of the McMartin case was that it made sexual abuse of children a major topic. Even if it was a witch-hunt, it still got people talking, and thinking.

Brawley hurt race relations far more than it did rape convictions.

[UndertheOcean]

8. NO ONE IS assumed guilty until proven otherwise in a court of law...

as must be.

[Triana]

6. At most universities...

...that is part of incoming new student orientation - how to be careful, safe, common-sense advice about safety, info about sexual assault, getting safe rides, campus security and phones, etc. Many of the students choose to ignore common sense in favor of parties and popularity, instead. Not saying they all do or that they in any way "deserve" to be assaulted if they don't - they shouldn't HAVE to be so on guard all the time in order to be safe - but it's a mean world out there, and that's just reality. Too many of them think "oh, that's not gonna happen to ME!" Sadly, it's most likely to happen in the first several weeks/months of a new student's year - whether she's careful or not.

Students even try to educate each other via publications like the one below - and still, it happens:

http://www.duke.edu/web/saturdaynight/

And this happens on ALL college campuses not just Duke. It's the SAME type of thing that happens for the SAME reasons outside of campus environments. Our patriarchal society, the male sense of entitlement, and society's refusal to hold males accountable for their actions and for their hostile behavior towards women. It's a free ride for them. Who's gonna stop 'em?

[customerserviceguy]

9. Very true

I saw countless women ignore the warnings given out by campus authorities at the University of Washington in the mid 1970's, and we had Ted Bundy running around abducting women at that time.

[Triana]

10. It's sad that they have to live on the edge like that in the world..

...but it's the way it is and taking risks is just not wise or responsible. Again, NOT that they in any way "deserve" to be assaulted if they don't follow every darned rule - they do not - but they owe it to themselves to be a safe as possible.

And even when they do - it still happens - and that goes right down to society's mentality about it - on and off college campuses. The colleges and universities do address it directly. Maybe it needs to be a required 'freshman' class - about assualt, verbal and emotional abuse, physical abuse, setting healthy boundaries, healthy and safe interpersonal communication and activities on campus, etc.

I dunno...

[marions ghost]

11. the first day I got to college

there was a girl crying about having just been raped in the dorm. I remember her sobbing and thinking OMG--what a nice introduction to campus life. Of course there was never any prosecution. She knew she would lose the case. That sent a big message to the rest of us. Girls, there is no protection for you if this happens, you are on your own. And nothing much has changed since then in spite of the disclaimers and excuses.

[Triana]

13. OMFG....

..what a horrible experience for you AND her! See this is what I mean - it's just too damn acceptable - in society in general and on campuses.

:(

[AngryAmish]

12. If it is any consolation, rape is way down in this country

Much lower percentage than in the recent past.

[Triana]

14. Well at least that's good news...

..what is this attributed to? Do you have a link to any article or research? I'd be curious to know what they attribute the reduction to.

[AngryAmish]

15. Here's a link

For example, rape was 2.4 per 1000 in 1973 and about .5 per 1000 in 2005 (by eyeballing the graph).

Why? Well, that is the $100,000 question. My guesses -and certainly uneducated guesses at that- are that feminism has succeeded in bringing violence against women to the forefront and guys realize rape is a bad thing. There are fewer jokes, etc. (except prison rape jokes). More men realize no means no.

The second primary reason rates are down is there are fewer men in the offender age group nowadays. Most violent crimes occur by men in the 16-35 age category. In 1973 the baby boomers were in full bloom and thus more violent young men. Also, women are more likely to be raped at a younger age - thus fewer victims. For women at college - a vulnerable age because of the nature of college- they may not be any safer. I do not have those statistics of victims broken down by age.

One thing that has no correlation - porn and rape. During the Reagan years many feminists and Ed Meese(!) (Reagan's attorney general) tried to recriminalize pornography because they claimed it caused rape. I think it is safe to say between cable and the internets porn plays a more prominent role than ever in our society, yet the rate of rape is way down.

[marions ghost]

16. your conclusions are still debatable

esp if they are only based on statistics for REPORTED rapes.

I think we'd all like to believe society has changed--that it is less acceptable to rape women. And hopefully more women are not as naive --and are not confused about what rape is or isn't anymore. But they may not even be reporting it as much as in the past, a by-product of their taking more responsibility for their own sexuality. As for the relationship of pornography to rape, you would need to fully research that topic beyond making assumptions based only on statistics.

In this WAPO article from 2006, you can see how the debate is still very open on this question of whether rape rates reflect a true reduction in the crime:

Excerpt (snip)

"By all accounts, rape is still one of the most underreported crimes. Several decades after the establishment of rape crisis hotlines, greater sensitivity toward rape victims by police and prosecutors, adoption of policies by news organizations to not identify victims and limitations on how much a victim's sexual history can be placed in evidence during trial, the Justice Department estimates that 61 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are still not reported. But that is down from 69 percent in 1996, and experts say the trend remains downward.

Not everyone is convinced that things are getting that much better. Many who work with rape victims say they do not believe there has been a widespread decline in the number of attacks. Instead -- despite the years of attempted outreach to rape victims -- they say the crime may be as hidden now as ever.

"If there's been a change, it's been a very small change," said Dean Kilpatrick, director of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center in Charleston, S.C. He said that recent high-profile rape cases such as those involving Duke University lacrosse players and basketball star Kobe Bryant may have persuaded rape victims to stay silent because of public scrutiny of the accusers' private lives and sexual history." (snip)

And from the same article:

"In the Washington area last week, local officials said they had seen little evidence of a vast decline in rape. Last year, the District's total rapes fell 24 percent; at the same time, reports of rape increased in several suburban jurisdictions.

Because the recent federal report on crime statistics counts only cities, statistics on other local jurisdictions were not included.

"I think we're steady in Prince George's County," said State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey. He said county authorities have seen new and disturbing trends in sexual assault, including a spate of attacks by juveniles and a few assaults committed at school-day "skip parties." Ivey recalled one recent skip party at which a girl was allegedly surprised and attacked by eight or nine men as a kind of gang initiation. "I just don't recall seeing things like that 10 or 15 years ago," Ivey said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800610.html

[dsc]

17. The only way such a large drop wouldn't be real

is if the incidence of reporting rapes went down by a similarly large percentage. I find that more that a little difficult to believe. Coupled with the similarly large drop in virtually all crime, it is easier to believe that rape also dropped a significant amount.

[AngryAmish]

18. Is your argument that a much, much higher % of rapes go unreported?

I find that hard to believe. Of course I agree that rape remains woefully underreported. However the advent of rape shield laws, SANE nurses, rape counselors, special sex crime units of police and prosecutors, etc. make women LESS likely to report the crimes? I doubt that.

Now what is interesting is that the national statistics only comes from cities. Some cities, as the cost of living increases, have the poor folks moved to the burbs. And most violent criminals are poor folks. NY murder rates have fallen off the face of the earth but fewer poor folks live in NY.

I read the article when it came out but I have yet to see any competing numbers - as opposed to anecdotes which must be discounted - so I will stand by my contention. Cheers.

[marions ghost]

19. well

tho I don't have stats--when it comes to rape, it is not a crime limited to what are normally considered 'violent criminals.' Otherwise, how do you explain the feeling among college students that if they are raped it will be by a friend or acquaintance? This segment of the predator population would be students or professors with no recorded offenses. I remember when I was in college at a major university, there was a professor known to all as "the rapist" because of his tendency to flatter, gain trust, and then force himself on female students. Smart female students did not go anywhere with him. And what I have seen in academia since tells me that not much has changed. In my environment, I don't see much evidence that women are more likely to report the crime or that they feel in any way more protected by the system. More rape counsellors are of course good, but the laws and experience in the legal system
are only marginally better since the Dark Ages.

It's a real tenacious myth that rapists tend to be poor and disadvantaged. Probably because higher class rapists can convince themselves that it isn't rape or otherwise rationalize it away. And women don't like to prosecute against people they consider friends or people they made the mistake of trusting.

It's very difficult to draw any conclusions about a crime that is still 60-70% unreported.

[superconnected]

7. Wonder what will happen with this one...