NYT: Nearly 1 in 5 Women in U.S. Survey Say They Have Been Sexually Assaulted

[Poll_Blind]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/health/nearly-1-in-5-women-in-us-survey-report-sexual-assault.html

An exhaustive government survey of rape and domestic violence released on Wednesday affirmed that sexual violence against women remains endemic in the United States and in some instances may be far more common than previously thought.

Nearly one in five women surveyed said they had been raped or had experienced an attempted rape at some point, and one in four reported having been beaten by an intimate partner. One in six women have been stalked, according to the report.

“That almost one in five women have been raped in their lifetime is very striking and, I think, will be surprising to a lot of people,” said Linda C. Degutis, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the survey.

“I don’t think we’ve really known that it was this prevalent in the population,” she said.

I am almost 40 and I'm a white male and I'm not surprised by these statistics at all. I also won't be surprised when a week, two weeks, a month goes by and these horrifying statistics quietly slip beneath the waves of social consciousness.

One in five, raped.

One in four, beaten.

One in six, stalked.

That's everywhere around you, dear reader. That's everywhere around you nomatter what corner of America you inhabit. An informal conspiracy of societal complacency.

PB

[progressoid]

1. A sad rec.

[xmas74]

2. Only one in five?

Then again, that's from those who have reported/admitted.

Many of us just sit here and try to forget it over the years. Guess what? You never forget.

[Poll_Blind]

7. I have a feeling it's higher, too.

And this is in America! I think about the rest of the world and what the numbers must be there....

And that's about as far as I get because I start to really question my view of the world vs statistics like this.

PB

[xmas74]

8. I'd be willing to bet it's more like one in three.

(At least in the U.S.)

I know far too many who have fallen victim.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. When awful behavior escalates year after year, that tells me

that there are no consequences for the perpetrators.

The issue is still framed as if it's the victims' problem; that the issue can only be fought by telling women that they must do something different.

Meanwhile, we all live with constant cultural reinforcement of women as little more than "hotties" and the butts of humiliating jokes, while the stereotype of the oversexed, macho, unrepentant and bone(r)-headed man (but he IS likable--you'd even like to maybe go for a beer with him; so dudely) is the other side of the coin.

Not only that, but for many men, in many social groups, sexual violence and general harrassment and hatred of women is applauded.

There's a book called "Changing a Rape Culture" that I want to read.

[abelenkpe]

4. One in five admit it

Sure the number is higher. Being stalked? No fun at all. Never really feel safe again.

[Old and In the Way]

5. We are a sick society.

Another datapoint to connect the dots. As a husband and a father to a 23 YO female, I'm disgusted by this and cannot understand how this is tolerated on such a scale. We live in a rural area where a guy killed his wife and 2 kids this summer. There has been a growing number of domestic abuse cases in our area as well. We worked on a campaign this fall for a friend running for state legislature and this was his #1 issue...sadly, the voters returned another Republican to replace the Republican who is being indicted for pulling a handgun on a person at local restaurant.

[Nay]

6. Of those 3 things, I have experienced 2. One of those things twice. I am surprised at those stats

because they seem too low.

[raccoon]

9. And I'm sure this is nothing new; it's just that it's being reported more often now. nt