4 ms·

Great statistics. What is the point? Are you suggesting that knowing the gender of people is a risk factor for rape? It seems like a few people are making thi

by Duff 15y ago

Great statistics. What is the point? Are you suggesting that knowing the gender of people is a risk factor for rape? It seems like a few people are making this odd connection between assault, stalking and rape with knowing somebody's gender. You do realize that most humans can sit on any street corner and identify the gender of passers-by with a high degree of certainty, right?

saulrh 15y ago
I was simply being annoyed at an unbacked statement like that, especially given the topic. We always seem to forget that being a woman is, in fact, bloody dangerous. Something like one in five American women experiences a rape. We aren't discussing some abstract edge case; half of the population lives in completely justifiable terror of something that actually happens. I mention gender because that modifies the statistics. Women get raped much more often than men do, so the rapes/person stat is misleading; rapes/woman, the stat we care about here, is almost twice the number I quoted.
- gommm 15y ago
  I don't see how you arrive at the statistic of "one in five american women experiencing a rape" from 28 rapes per hundred thousand people. Even if we considered that only women were victim of rapes and that half of the incidents weren't reported, it would still amount to something like 112 rapes/100k so around 0.1%. Anecdotically, none of my female friends were ever raped which doesn't match with your assertion that "one in five American women experiences a rape". I do think that our culture tends to objectifying women in the medias but I don't think that rape and sexual assault is as prevalent as many people think it is... There's also a lot of paranoia due to the media looking for good sensational stories and latching on any sexual assault story they can find.
  - Anechoic 15y ago
    Anecdotically, none of my female friends were ever raped So far as you know.
  - Duff 15y ago
    Incidence varies by community and definition. Sexual assaults are very common on college campuses. The stereotypical scary guy with pantyhose pulled over his head is only one manifestation of rape. "Date-rape" and taking advantage of people not capable of giving consent (drunk, drugged, etc) happens all of the time.
    - burgerbrain 15y ago
      "taking advantage of people not capable of giving consent (drunk, drugged, etc) happens all of the time." Men are also victims of that.
  - iy56 15y ago
    The x/100000 is per year. The 1/5 number is over a woman's lifetime. Still seems fishy to me, though.
  - saulrh 15y ago
    I didn't go from one to the other; I should have made that more clear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States#Rape_statistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States#Rape_...
scott_s 15y ago
It's a question of comfort in an online space, which is all about perception, not actual risk.

by Duff 15y ago

saulrh 15y ago

I was simply being annoyed at an unbacked statement like that, especially given the topic. We always seem to forget that being a woman is, in fact, bloody dangerous. Something like one in five American women experiences a rape. We aren't discussing some abstract edge case; half of the population lives in completely justifiable terror of something that actually happens. I mention gender because that modifies the statistics. Women get raped much more often than men do, so the rapes/person stat is misleading; rapes/woman, the stat we care about here, is almost twice the number I quoted.

gommm 15y ago
I don't see how you arrive at the statistic of "one in five american women experiencing a rape" from 28 rapes per hundred thousand people. Even if we considered that only women were victim of rapes and that half of the incidents weren't reported, it would still amount to something like 112 rapes/100k so around 0.1%. Anecdotically, none of my female friends were ever raped which doesn't match with your assertion that "one in five American women experiences a rape". I do think that our culture tends to objectifying women in the medias but I don't think that rape and sexual assault is as prevalent as many people think it is... There's also a lot of paranoia due to the media looking for good sensational stories and latching on any sexual assault story they can find.
- Anechoic 15y ago
  Anecdotically, none of my female friends were ever raped So far as you know.
- Duff 15y ago
  Incidence varies by community and definition. Sexual assaults are very common on college campuses. The stereotypical scary guy with pantyhose pulled over his head is only one manifestation of rape. "Date-rape" and taking advantage of people not capable of giving consent (drunk, drugged, etc) happens all of the time.
  - burgerbrain 15y ago
    "taking advantage of people not capable of giving consent (drunk, drugged, etc) happens all of the time." Men are also victims of that.
- iy56 15y ago
  The x/100000 is per year. The 1/5 number is over a woman's lifetime. Still seems fishy to me, though.
- saulrh 15y ago
  I didn't go from one to the other; I should have made that more clear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States#Rape_statistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States#Rape_...

scott_s 15y ago

It's a question of comfort in an online space, which is all about perception, not actual risk.