Is there a greater risk of being sexually assaulted by a stranger in ...

[Boojatta]

a poor, urban, residential neighborhood than of being sexually assaulted by a stranger in a wealthy, urban, residential neighborhood?

If there is, then what could be done to reduce the risk of sexual assault by strangers in poor, urban neighborhoods?

Are there trustworthy sources of data that indicate that the risk of being sexually assaulted by strangers in urban, residential neighborhoods is not correlated with the wealth or poverty of the neighborhood?

[Warpy]

1. Scumbags don't respect class or location

If there are more assaults in crowded, inner city areas it's because they are crowded, inner city areas.

There have been plenty of women in the suburbs raped by intruders. People hear screaming in the city. They often don't in the burbs.

[Katherine Brengle]

2. Good point - population concentration means asshole concentration too, it doesn't

necessarily have anything to do with poverty.

[bjorkfan]

3. A rapist might think...

that a missing upper class woman will have the whole city looking for her (missing pretty white woman syndrome), and she will have better legal representation. On the other hand, the rapist might expect that a poor woman's disappearance won't get attention and that she won't be able to afford a good lawyer. I'm just trying to put myself in the head of a criminal. With all the kidnapping victims ingored in favor of the Natalee Holloways and Jennifer Wilbanks, it seems like a logical way to think.

[Iris]

4. you don't have to kidnap someone to rape them.

Break in the house, do what you came to do, leave. Could happen anywhere.

[Boojatta]

5. Is it more likely to happen in a poor neighborhood that has

a high crime rate or in a wealthy neighborhood that has a low crime rate?

(Note: I do not intend to suggest that those two cover all kinds of neighborhoods or all possibilities. I'm simply interested in your thoughts on that question among others.)

[Iris]

6. Honestly, I've lived in both types of neighborhoods.

And at one time or another, both neighborhoods were plagued by a serial rapist. I still live in a large metropolitan area and watch the news daily. Sexual assaults that are reported run the range from extremely poor and blighted neighborhoods to extremely wealthy neighborhoods.

[noamnety]

7. Access to victims is greater in a poor urban area.

So I would expect a higher rate there. You can target a lobby of an apartment and lots of potential victims pass through, whereas a private house has residents who might enter through a closed garage. There are more people out walking in poor areas, whereas more people use cars - which function to some degree as personal shields - in wealthier areas.

That analysis doesn't lend itself well to your question, though. "what could be done to reduce the risk of sexual assault by strangers in poor, urban neighborhoods?" I guess the answer is for women to live like prisoners in their homes instead of having contact with other people.

Now factor in that most rapes are committed by people the victims know, and that solution doesn't make so much sense.

We don't really like to address that, though, because it requires recognizing rape as a normal part of our culture, rather than something that a few bad apples (psychopaths) do. It does, however, lead one to the conclusion that the only real solution is to change the culture. Otherwise you just got half the population living under an echo of a police state, and that's not the sort of freedom we want.

[Iris]

11. but women in suburban areas are isolated for large parts of the day.

With NO ONE around to hear class breaking, a door being kicked in, or screams.

[mzteris]

8. put another way

is there a greater risk of being sexually assaulted by someone you know in a wealthy, urban, residential neighborhood?

The real question is - what can be done to reduce the risk of sexual assault. Period. What is it about men's upbringing that makes them think this is acceptable behaviour?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[noamnety]

10. actually I shouldn't have responded to this thread at all.

I need to look closer at who writes the OP, you can deduce a lot about where a thread is going from that. :)

[Boojatta]

12. If the Original Poster repeatedly intervenes to push a thread

in a particular direction, then the Original Poster might have an important impact on the direction of the thread.

However, if the Original Poster doesn't participate much beyond creating the Original Post, then I don't see how it matters who the Original Poster is. I would think that the actual words of the Original Post would have a much greater impact on the direction of the thread.

I don't deny that the following is possible: if message board participants decide to take a very close look at who writes any given Original Post and to allow that information to influence them, then who wrote the Original Post might be very significant (in a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of way).

[Katherine Brengle]

13. You tend to post things that are either inflammatory or

intentionally (perhaps that's presumptuous, but I'm giving your intelligence the benefit of the doubt here) ignorant on a regular basis.

[Boojatta]

14. Moderators judge whether or not a message is inflammatory.

Suppose that an ordinary DU member on a regular basis reads my messages and attaches little value to them. Why wouldn't such a member simply put me on ignore for threads and replies? Perhaps I occasionally post a message that is judged to be excellent enough to compensate for the rest of my messages.

I tend to post questions. They are simultaneously a confession of my ignorance and an opportunity for others to apply their intelligence and display their knowledge. Not one's ignorance, but the refusal to try to remedy one's ignorance, is a sin.

[One_Life_To_Give]

15. They are looking for easy targets

Whatever makes it easier for them will be the choice taken. If you make yourself an easy mark in either a Rich or Poor neighborhood, you will be targeted.

Think of it from the attackers point of view. You would need to take control of your victim before they had a chance to summon help. Typically meaning you need to get close and have the victim isolated.

Now does the wealthy woman coming home at night have to take walk the path thru the alleyway to avoid the gang hanging on the corner?