Based on my on social circle in college (at MSU), 1/4 sounds right. Among my nerdy, honors student, not going our drinking, mostly Bible-Study attending friends, the number was about 1/6 for women who had men they knew or or were simply at a party with force them to have sex or try really hard to force them to have to have sex. There was one particularly powerful night when an older girl on our floor confessed what had happened to her as a way of preventing the same guy from doing something to one of us freshmen girls. He was strong good looking, and many other features that made it easy to get women in vulnerable situations. And because of his reputation, anyone who tried to complain/report was told “Well why were you alone in your dorm room with him?” That attitude allows these numbers to exist. Any even worse response I heard regarding this guy was, “He’s a good Christian boy, and when I asked him, he said he didnt’ do it. Why are you trying to ruin his reputation?” Its an ugly world out there sometimes. It goes both ways, and women do terrible things to men as well. I just haven’t heard those stories cried out in the middle of the night by a sobbing friend.

While I don’t want to take away from your message (which again, I agree with), the statistics and research don’t add up.

I read something a little while ago relevant to the 25% rape statistic. I can’t seem to recall enough to find the links, but she was complaining about the nature of the survey and definition of ‘rape’ for arriving at that figure.
Specifically, I think there was a question like “Did you regret the sex afterwards?” (in regards to “Have you ever been pressured into sex?”) and if you answered “yes” you had been sexually assaulted or raped or something. And from there, the statistic figure was misquoted and the statistic snowballed, kind of like certain other controversial figures.

I don’t know the accuracy, but I’m sure the information is out there on google. Until I read that I was still under the belief that the figure was 1 in 3 women. A figure that came from a coworker once..so yeh.

Kudos for dragging this one out, Pamela. I was shocked by those rape/attempted rape statistics. Society can’t keep sweeping these things under the patriarchal rug.

The campus clinic knows alot about STDs.

The HPV vaccine has been recommended for ages 11-12 because, sadly, by the time a child has reached the age of 13, a large percentage have already become sexually active. Clearly, we need to intervene early and often.

As far as the rape statistic goes, that too is very sad. I think the rape statistics might be higher but are possibly under reported. When I was a young adult, I made a few bad decisions, like walking home from parties alone. I am fortunate that I was not among those stats. I recommend reading The Gift of Fear by Gavin Debecker. It’s kind of old now but full of useful information.

Actually, I bet if you devoted half a class period to this subject, it would make a big impression. Here’s a very capable woman and scientist taking time from very demanding coursework to make a point about something that affects everybody. Your students would have a lot to think about.