[154] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: New topic, Rape@MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sourav K. Mandal)
Sat Apr 21 17:22:20 2001
Message-Id: <200104212121.RAA26480@dichotomy.dyn.dhs.org>
From: "Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>
Reply-To: "Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>
To: mit-talk@mit.edu
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Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 17:21:43 -0400
"Nnennia Ejebe <nnennia@MIT.EDU>" wrote:
> Anyway, so I was wondering what people think about the possiblity/probability
> that rape occurs on our campus.
As long as misogyny exists, so will rape when a fraction of men take
that attitude too far. I haven't been on campus for about a year and
half, but there was plenty of misogyny evident in the population when I
left.
> I've heard this statistic over and over: 1 in 4 college age women are raped.
I believe it's raped _or_ suffered an attempted rape, but either way
it's appalling.
> Assuming we have 4000 undergrads, wouldn't that
> mean that 100 undergrads would be victims of rape at MIT!?!
Well, 50, since there are only 2000 or so women, and rape is much rarer
among men outside of prison.
> Do the campus police have statistics?
Yes, but some caveats:
* Rapes of MIT students might occur off-campus, outside the CP
jurisdiction.
* They can only compile stats on the rapes that do get reported.
* There was some controversy a while back of the CPs not releasing
statistics as they should, so that reduces their credibility.
> Considering how vocal the admin. is about
> alcohol, why I haven't I ever heard anything (I'm a freshmen) so far about
> rape?
Well, I think that alcohol abuse is by far more prevalent on campus
than rape. Also, they feel as though they can more easily prevent
alcohol incidents since they are acts of recklessness, rather than
violence. Futhermore, IIRC, alcohol is a factor in many rapes, esp.
date rapes.
A bigger question is, what would constitute rape awareness or
prevention? I belive an MIT student convicted of a violent felony is
already subject to expulsion. The only real prevention is if women who
are raped realize that there is no shame in pursuing justice. The
misogyny endemic in much of the American male culture needs to be
changed, but I'm skeptical that MIT as a college can do anything about
that.
Cheers,
Sourav
------------------------------------------------------------
Sourav K. Mandal
Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com
http://www.ikaran.com/Sourav.Mandal/
