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Kind of. Sexual crimes are more likely to be about sex, not power. The reason why men are overwhelmingly more likely to commit sexual assault is because of ba

by jly 8y ago

Kind of. Sexual crimes are more likely to be about sex, not power. The reason why men are overwhelmingly more likely to commit sexual assault is because of basic biology of sexual selection - men (in general) desire many and varied partners compared to women. Positions of power make it easier to perpetrate sexual crimes without repercussions, but this is still skewed heavily in favor of men. Women clearly do get caught up as perpetuators, but it's surprising and comparatively rare because of the polygynous basis of our species (and most other animals). This is a controversial idea because of the public narrative, but evolutionarily-informed ideas about sexual coercion can be surprising when applied to humans, while the same behavior in other animals is not questioned.

slavak 8y ago
This is intuitively true, but is it also factually true? Many studies (https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/kze8qn/the-hidden-epidemic-of-men-who-are-raped-by-women https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/kze8qn/the-hidden-epi...) seem to indicate that, at least for cases of actual rape, it is not, and women are abusers at pretty much the same rate as men. This might be different for sexual harassment, but that's a claim that needs to be verified. As it is, research and public perceptions when it comes to sexual violence against men are sorely lacking.
- jly 8y ago
  I had not seen this paper, so thanks for sharing. The primary conclusion is that more males are victims of sexual crimes and more females are abusers than is generally thought. I'm sure this is the case, but this shouldn't be mistaken for women being equal abusers. First, the referenced source data (NCVS and NSVRC [1]) explicitly point out that 9% of victims of all rape and sexual assault are male. This is not insignificant, but it still means that > 90% of all sexual crime victims are female. 99% of female victims have male abusers [2]. Another recent study out of Germany found that women were 10-20x more likely to be victims across all age groups, and men were 50-100x more likely to be the abusers [3]. I think these new looks at the data do highlight a serious lack of knowledge about male victimization and female abuse, which will help us have a better picture of what's really going on. Unfortunately, the study referenced by Vice makes many politically-motivated statements about gender stereotypes, and then attempts to fit the data to that narrative. It suggests that we should adjust our national discussion about these issues from a more gender-neutral approach, which is a very palatable idea. Modern ideas about sexual abuse that are rooted in evolutionary psychology actually attempt to discuss ultimate causes about why this kind of behavior occurs, using well-understood ideas about the evolution of human behavior and countless examples from other animals. It should come as no surprise that men and women differ significantly in their sexual behavior, both intuitively and factually. This is a controversial idea in the social sciences (which are more widely discussed in the media), but not in biology. [1] https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc... . [2] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X08322632 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X08322632 . [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791564/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791564/ .

by jly 8y ago

slavak 8y ago

This is intuitively true, but is it also factually true? Many studies (https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/kze8qn/the-hidden-epidemic-of-men-who-are-raped-by-women https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/kze8qn/the-hidden-epi...) seem to indicate that, at least for cases of actual rape, it is not, and women are abusers at pretty much the same rate as men. This might be different for sexual harassment, but that's a claim that needs to be verified. As it is, research and public perceptions when it comes to sexual violence against men are sorely lacking.

jly 8y ago
I had not seen this paper, so thanks for sharing. The primary conclusion is that more males are victims of sexual crimes and more females are abusers than is generally thought. I'm sure this is the case, but this shouldn't be mistaken for women being equal abusers. First, the referenced source data (NCVS and NSVRC [1]) explicitly point out that 9% of victims of all rape and sexual assault are male. This is not insignificant, but it still means that > 90% of all sexual crime victims are female. 99% of female victims have male abusers [2]. Another recent study out of Germany found that women were 10-20x more likely to be victims across all age groups, and men were 50-100x more likely to be the abusers [3]. I think these new looks at the data do highlight a serious lack of knowledge about male victimization and female abuse, which will help us have a better picture of what's really going on. Unfortunately, the study referenced by Vice makes many politically-motivated statements about gender stereotypes, and then attempts to fit the data to that narrative. It suggests that we should adjust our national discussion about these issues from a more gender-neutral approach, which is a very palatable idea. Modern ideas about sexual abuse that are rooted in evolutionary psychology actually attempt to discuss ultimate causes about why this kind of behavior occurs, using well-understood ideas about the evolution of human behavior and countless examples from other animals. It should come as no surprise that men and women differ significantly in their sexual behavior, both intuitively and factually. This is a controversial idea in the social sciences (which are more widely discussed in the media), but not in biology. [1] https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc... . [2] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X08322632 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X08322632 . [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791564/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791564/ .