No. More. Silence.
A good friend shared a link to this post and I asked Wendi Deetz (the author) if I could repost here, she agreed.
http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/notes.php?subj=1077186723
Mon October 28 at 11:26pm I am disgusted, outraged and appalled - and yes, you've seen me this way before.
Can you remember your homecoming dance? If you can, I want you to imagine yourself there. What is it like in your body? What is it like in your life? Maybe, like me, you never went to a homecoming dance, but you can remember what it's like to be 15, 16, 17. You might remember your younger self delighted or tortured or torn between the two. And you probably never had to imagine your classmates watching as you were brutalized while they did nothing.
When I was sexually assaulted by my drama teacher, one month after my 15th birthday, I endured a public whipping I wouldn't wish on anyone. Strapping, high school boys asked me, "Why'd you turn him in? He wasn't good enough for you?" I encountered the rage of high school administrators and family members of those administrators desperate to separate themselves from their liability, high school students, angry that I took their favorite teacher away, a father, who told me, that I needed to understand, "When you act a certain way with men (HE WAS 48, I WAS 15), they can get the wrong impression."
I did not get raped by multiple assailants while high school dancers looked on, doing nothing. "What's shocking about it is there were so many people willing to involve themselves in such a serious crime," police Lt. Mark Gagan said.
Is that really so shocking? Is it even surprising anymore? Less than a year ago, another woman was brutally gang-raped in the same city, under different circumstances, and also because she's queer (and a woman). Of course, because she's a woman, vulnerable to roving packs of men who have no sense of honor or integrity or right and wrong. The same police lieutenant who oversees her case today, now oversees this case where a 15-year-old girl was brutalized in the same city, under his watch, where the circumstances seem to have escalated to the point that it just keeps happening. Add public consumption, as a foot-note to the tale.
I am sick and I am enraged and I am going to do something in this town and in this world to bring an end to this particular oppression. If you don't think it affects you that women are being systematically raped as a weapon of war, as a weapon of hate, I beg you to imagine your 15-year-old baby or self at her/your homecoming dance. Then, try to justify your silence. Try to justify your apathy. If you don't think we're responsible for this girl, think again.
If you haven't already read about the most recent attack in Richmond[CA], you can do so here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/10/27/2009-10-27_richmond_high_school_gang_rape_cops_arrest_2_in_attack_on_calif_teen_girl_bystan.html
U.S. STATISTICS
Fact #1: 17.6 % of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. Of these, 21.6% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 32.4% were between the ages of 12 and 17. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #2: 64% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #3: Only about half of domestic violence incidents are reported to police. African-American women are more likely than others to report their victimization to police Lawrence A. Greenfeld et al. (1998). (Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends. Bureau of Justice Statistics Factbook. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice. NCJ #167237. Available from National Criminal Justice Reference Service.)
Fact #4: The FBI estimates that only 37% of all rapes are reported to the police. U.S. Justice Department statistics are even lower, with only 26% of all rapes or attempted rapes being reported to law enforcement officials.
Fact #5: In the National Violence Against Women Survey, approximately 25% of women and 8% of men said they were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date in their lifetimes. The survey estimates that more than 300,000 intimate partner rapes occur each year against women 18 and older. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #6: The National College Women Sexual Victimization Study estimated that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 college women experience completed or attempted rape during their college years (Fisher 2000).
Fact #7: Men perpetrate the majority of violent acts against women (DeLahunta 1997).
Fact #8: Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) calculation based on 2000 National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice)
Fact #9: One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998)
Fact #10: Factoring in unreported rapes, about 5% - one out of twenty - of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. 19 out of 20 will walk free. (Probability statistics based on US Department of Justice Statistics)
Fact #11: Fewer than half (48%) of all rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police (DOJ 2001).
Fact #12: Sexual violence is associated with a host of short- and long-term problems, including physical injury and illness, psychological symptoms, economic costs, and death (National Research Council 1996).
Fact #13: Rape victims often experience anxiety, guilt, nervousness, phobias, substance abuse, sleep disturbances, depression, alienation, sexual dysfunction, and aggression. They often distrust others and replay the assault in their minds, and they are at increased risk of future victimization (DeLahunta 1997).
Fact #14: According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, more than 260,000 rapes or sexual assaults occurred in 2000; 246,180 of them occurred among females and 14,770, among males (Department of Justice 2001).
Fact #15: Sexual violence victims exhibit a variety of psychological symptoms that are similar to those of victims of other types of trauma, such as war and natural disaster (National Research Council 1996). A number of long-lasting symptoms and illnesses have been associated with sexual victimization including chronic pelvic pain; premenstrual syndrome; gastrointestinal disorders; and a variety of chronic pain disorders, including headache, back pain, and facial pain (Koss 1992).Between 4% and 30% of rape victims contract sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the victimization (Resnick 1997).
Fact #16: More than half of all rapes of women occur before age 18; 22% occur before age 12. (Full Report of the Prevalance, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #17: In 2000, nearly 88,000 children in the United States experienced sexual abuse (ACF 2002).
Fact #18: About 81% of rape victims are white; 18% are black; 1% are of other races. (Violence Against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
Fact #19: About half of all rape victims are in the lowest third of income distribution; half are in the upper two-thirds. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
Fact #20: According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS), a national survey of high school students, 7.7% of students had been forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to. Female students (10%) were significantly more likely than male students (5%) to have been forced to have sexual intercourse. Overall, black students (10%) were significantly more likely than white students (7%) to have been forced to have sexual intercourse (CDC 2002).
Fact #21: Females ages 12 to 24 are at the greatest risk for experiencing a rape or sexual assault (DOJ 2001).
Fact #22: Almost two-thirds of all rapes are committed by someone who is known to the victim. 73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger (— 38% of perpetrators were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, 28% were an intimate and 7% were another relative.) (National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005)
Fact #23: The costs of intimate partner violence against women exceed an estimated $5.8 billion. These costs include nearly $4.1 billion in the direct costs of medical care and mental health care and nearly $1.8 billion in the indirect costs of lost productivity and present value of lifetime earnings. (Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, Georgia, March 2003).
Fact #24: Domestic violence occurs in approximately 25-33% of same-sex relationships. (NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, October 1996.)
Fact #25: Boys who witness their fathers' violence are 10 times more likely to engage in spouse abuse in later adulthood than boys from non-violent homes. (Family Violence Interventions for the Justice System, 1993)
Fact #26: An estimated 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the United States annually for sexual exploitation or forced labor. (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 2000)
Fact #27: Somewhere in America a woman is battered, usually by her intimate partner, every 15 seconds. (UN Study On The Status of Women, Year 2000)
Fact #28: A University of Pennsylvania research study found that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to low-income, inner-city Philadelphia women between the ages of 15 to 44 - more common than automobile accidents, mugging and rapes combined. In this study domestic violence included injuries caused by street crime.
Fact #29: Following the Supreme Court's decision in 2000 to strike down the civil-rights provision of the Federal Violence Against Women Act (ruling that only states could enact such legislation), only two states in the country (Illinois and California) have defined gender-based violence, such as rape and domestic violence, as sex discrimination, and created specific laws that survivors can use to sue their perpetrators in civil court. (Kaethe Morris Hoffer, 2004).
Fact #30: A study reported in the New York Times suggests that one in five adolescent girls become the victims of physical or sexual violence, or both, in a dating relationship. (New York Times, 8/01/01)
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Fact #31: At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are "missing" from various populations, mostly in Asia, as a result of sex-selective abortions, infanticide or neglect. (UN Study On The Status of Women, Year 2000)
Fact #32: Globally, at least one in three women and girls is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime. (UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2/28/00)
Fact #33: A recent survey by the Kenyan Women Rights Awareness Program revealed that 70% of those interviewed said they knew neighbors who beat their wives. Nearly 60% said women were to blame for the beatings. Just 51% said the men should be punished. (The New York Times, 10/31/97)
Fact #34: 4 million women and girls are trafficked annually. (United Nations)
Fact #35: An estimated one million children, mostly girls, enter the sex trade each year (UNICEF)
Fact #36: A 2005 World Health Organization study reported that nearly one third of Ethiopian women had been physically forced by a partner to have sex against their will within the 12 months prior to the study. (WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, 2005)
Fact #37: In a study of 475 people in prostitution from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia):
62% reported having been raped in prostitution.
73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.
92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately.
(Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426)
Fact #38: The most common act of violence against women is being slapped—an experience reported by 9% of women in Japan and 52% in provincial Peru. Rates of sexual abuse also varies greatly around the world—with partner rape being reported by 6% of women from Serbia and Montenegro, 46% of women from provincial Bangladesh, and 59% of women in Ethiopia. (WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, 2005)
Fact #39: So-called "honour killings" take the lives of thousands of young women every year, mainly in North Africa, Western Asia and parts of South Asia. (UNFPA)
Fact #40: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that 2002 saw a 25% increase in “honor killings” of women, with 461 women murdered by family members in 2002, in 2 provinces (Sindh and Punjab) alone. (Pakistan Human Rights Commission, 2002)
Fact #41: More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision or other forms of genital mutilation. (Heise: 1994)
Fact #42: In eastern and souther Africa, 17 to 22% of girls aged 15 to 19 are HIV-positive, compared to 3 to 7% of boys of similar age. This pattern—seen in many other regions of the world—is evidence that girls are being infected with HIV by a much older cohort of men. (UNICEF/UNAIDS 2007)
Fact #43: : A 2005 study reported that 7% of partnered Canadian women experienced violence at the hands of a spouse between 1999 and 2004. Of these battered women, nearly one-quarter (23%) reported being beaten, choked, or threatened with a knife or gun. (Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2005)
Fact #44: In Zimbabwe, domestic violence accounts for more than 60% of murder cases that go through the high court in Harare. (ZWRCN)
Fact #45: a study in Zaria, Nigeria found that 16 percent of hospital patients treated for sexually transmitted infections were younger than 5. (UNFPA)
LINKS TO STATISTICS:
The following are a selection of other web sites at which to find and verify violence against women statistics:
* Bureau of Justice: Crime and Victim Statistics
* Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women
* Family Violence Prevention Fund
* RAINN Statistics
* Violence Against Women Online Resources
* World Health Organization: Gender Based Violence
http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/notes.php?subj=1077186723
Mon October 28 at 11:26pm I am disgusted, outraged and appalled - and yes, you've seen me this way before.
Can you remember your homecoming dance? If you can, I want you to imagine yourself there. What is it like in your body? What is it like in your life? Maybe, like me, you never went to a homecoming dance, but you can remember what it's like to be 15, 16, 17. You might remember your younger self delighted or tortured or torn between the two. And you probably never had to imagine your classmates watching as you were brutalized while they did nothing.
When I was sexually assaulted by my drama teacher, one month after my 15th birthday, I endured a public whipping I wouldn't wish on anyone. Strapping, high school boys asked me, "Why'd you turn him in? He wasn't good enough for you?" I encountered the rage of high school administrators and family members of those administrators desperate to separate themselves from their liability, high school students, angry that I took their favorite teacher away, a father, who told me, that I needed to understand, "When you act a certain way with men (HE WAS 48, I WAS 15), they can get the wrong impression."
I did not get raped by multiple assailants while high school dancers looked on, doing nothing. "What's shocking about it is there were so many people willing to involve themselves in such a serious crime," police Lt. Mark Gagan said.
Is that really so shocking? Is it even surprising anymore? Less than a year ago, another woman was brutally gang-raped in the same city, under different circumstances, and also because she's queer (and a woman). Of course, because she's a woman, vulnerable to roving packs of men who have no sense of honor or integrity or right and wrong. The same police lieutenant who oversees her case today, now oversees this case where a 15-year-old girl was brutalized in the same city, under his watch, where the circumstances seem to have escalated to the point that it just keeps happening. Add public consumption, as a foot-note to the tale.
I am sick and I am enraged and I am going to do something in this town and in this world to bring an end to this particular oppression. If you don't think it affects you that women are being systematically raped as a weapon of war, as a weapon of hate, I beg you to imagine your 15-year-old baby or self at her/your homecoming dance. Then, try to justify your silence. Try to justify your apathy. If you don't think we're responsible for this girl, think again.
If you haven't already read about the most recent attack in Richmond[CA], you can do so here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/10/27/2009-10-27_richmond_high_school_gang_rape_cops_arrest_2_in_attack_on_calif_teen_girl_bystan.html
U.S. STATISTICS
Fact #1: 17.6 % of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. Of these, 21.6% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 32.4% were between the ages of 12 and 17. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #2: 64% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #3: Only about half of domestic violence incidents are reported to police. African-American women are more likely than others to report their victimization to police Lawrence A. Greenfeld et al. (1998). (Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends. Bureau of Justice Statistics Factbook. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice. NCJ #167237. Available from National Criminal Justice Reference Service.)
Fact #4: The FBI estimates that only 37% of all rapes are reported to the police. U.S. Justice Department statistics are even lower, with only 26% of all rapes or attempted rapes being reported to law enforcement officials.
Fact #5: In the National Violence Against Women Survey, approximately 25% of women and 8% of men said they were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date in their lifetimes. The survey estimates that more than 300,000 intimate partner rapes occur each year against women 18 and older. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #6: The National College Women Sexual Victimization Study estimated that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 college women experience completed or attempted rape during their college years (Fisher 2000).
Fact #7: Men perpetrate the majority of violent acts against women (DeLahunta 1997).
Fact #8: Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) calculation based on 2000 National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice)
Fact #9: One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998)
Fact #10: Factoring in unreported rapes, about 5% - one out of twenty - of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. 19 out of 20 will walk free. (Probability statistics based on US Department of Justice Statistics)
Fact #11: Fewer than half (48%) of all rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police (DOJ 2001).
Fact #12: Sexual violence is associated with a host of short- and long-term problems, including physical injury and illness, psychological symptoms, economic costs, and death (National Research Council 1996).
Fact #13: Rape victims often experience anxiety, guilt, nervousness, phobias, substance abuse, sleep disturbances, depression, alienation, sexual dysfunction, and aggression. They often distrust others and replay the assault in their minds, and they are at increased risk of future victimization (DeLahunta 1997).
Fact #14: According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, more than 260,000 rapes or sexual assaults occurred in 2000; 246,180 of them occurred among females and 14,770, among males (Department of Justice 2001).
Fact #15: Sexual violence victims exhibit a variety of psychological symptoms that are similar to those of victims of other types of trauma, such as war and natural disaster (National Research Council 1996). A number of long-lasting symptoms and illnesses have been associated with sexual victimization including chronic pelvic pain; premenstrual syndrome; gastrointestinal disorders; and a variety of chronic pain disorders, including headache, back pain, and facial pain (Koss 1992).Between 4% and 30% of rape victims contract sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the victimization (Resnick 1997).
Fact #16: More than half of all rapes of women occur before age 18; 22% occur before age 12. (Full Report of the Prevalance, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)
Fact #17: In 2000, nearly 88,000 children in the United States experienced sexual abuse (ACF 2002).
Fact #18: About 81% of rape victims are white; 18% are black; 1% are of other races. (Violence Against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
Fact #19: About half of all rape victims are in the lowest third of income distribution; half are in the upper two-thirds. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
Fact #20: According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS), a national survey of high school students, 7.7% of students had been forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to. Female students (10%) were significantly more likely than male students (5%) to have been forced to have sexual intercourse. Overall, black students (10%) were significantly more likely than white students (7%) to have been forced to have sexual intercourse (CDC 2002).
Fact #21: Females ages 12 to 24 are at the greatest risk for experiencing a rape or sexual assault (DOJ 2001).
Fact #22: Almost two-thirds of all rapes are committed by someone who is known to the victim. 73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger (— 38% of perpetrators were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, 28% were an intimate and 7% were another relative.) (National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005)
Fact #23: The costs of intimate partner violence against women exceed an estimated $5.8 billion. These costs include nearly $4.1 billion in the direct costs of medical care and mental health care and nearly $1.8 billion in the indirect costs of lost productivity and present value of lifetime earnings. (Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, Georgia, March 2003).
Fact #24: Domestic violence occurs in approximately 25-33% of same-sex relationships. (NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, October 1996.)
Fact #25: Boys who witness their fathers' violence are 10 times more likely to engage in spouse abuse in later adulthood than boys from non-violent homes. (Family Violence Interventions for the Justice System, 1993)
Fact #26: An estimated 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the United States annually for sexual exploitation or forced labor. (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 2000)
Fact #27: Somewhere in America a woman is battered, usually by her intimate partner, every 15 seconds. (UN Study On The Status of Women, Year 2000)
Fact #28: A University of Pennsylvania research study found that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to low-income, inner-city Philadelphia women between the ages of 15 to 44 - more common than automobile accidents, mugging and rapes combined. In this study domestic violence included injuries caused by street crime.
Fact #29: Following the Supreme Court's decision in 2000 to strike down the civil-rights provision of the Federal Violence Against Women Act (ruling that only states could enact such legislation), only two states in the country (Illinois and California) have defined gender-based violence, such as rape and domestic violence, as sex discrimination, and created specific laws that survivors can use to sue their perpetrators in civil court. (Kaethe Morris Hoffer, 2004).
Fact #30: A study reported in the New York Times suggests that one in five adolescent girls become the victims of physical or sexual violence, or both, in a dating relationship. (New York Times, 8/01/01)
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Fact #31: At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are "missing" from various populations, mostly in Asia, as a result of sex-selective abortions, infanticide or neglect. (UN Study On The Status of Women, Year 2000)
Fact #32: Globally, at least one in three women and girls is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime. (UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2/28/00)
Fact #33: A recent survey by the Kenyan Women Rights Awareness Program revealed that 70% of those interviewed said they knew neighbors who beat their wives. Nearly 60% said women were to blame for the beatings. Just 51% said the men should be punished. (The New York Times, 10/31/97)
Fact #34: 4 million women and girls are trafficked annually. (United Nations)
Fact #35: An estimated one million children, mostly girls, enter the sex trade each year (UNICEF)
Fact #36: A 2005 World Health Organization study reported that nearly one third of Ethiopian women had been physically forced by a partner to have sex against their will within the 12 months prior to the study. (WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, 2005)
Fact #37: In a study of 475 people in prostitution from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia):
62% reported having been raped in prostitution.
73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.
92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately.
(Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426)
Fact #38: The most common act of violence against women is being slapped—an experience reported by 9% of women in Japan and 52% in provincial Peru. Rates of sexual abuse also varies greatly around the world—with partner rape being reported by 6% of women from Serbia and Montenegro, 46% of women from provincial Bangladesh, and 59% of women in Ethiopia. (WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, 2005)
Fact #39: So-called "honour killings" take the lives of thousands of young women every year, mainly in North Africa, Western Asia and parts of South Asia. (UNFPA)
Fact #40: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that 2002 saw a 25% increase in “honor killings” of women, with 461 women murdered by family members in 2002, in 2 provinces (Sindh and Punjab) alone. (Pakistan Human Rights Commission, 2002)
Fact #41: More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision or other forms of genital mutilation. (Heise: 1994)
Fact #42: In eastern and souther Africa, 17 to 22% of girls aged 15 to 19 are HIV-positive, compared to 3 to 7% of boys of similar age. This pattern—seen in many other regions of the world—is evidence that girls are being infected with HIV by a much older cohort of men. (UNICEF/UNAIDS 2007)
Fact #43: : A 2005 study reported that 7% of partnered Canadian women experienced violence at the hands of a spouse between 1999 and 2004. Of these battered women, nearly one-quarter (23%) reported being beaten, choked, or threatened with a knife or gun. (Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2005)
Fact #44: In Zimbabwe, domestic violence accounts for more than 60% of murder cases that go through the high court in Harare. (ZWRCN)
Fact #45: a study in Zaria, Nigeria found that 16 percent of hospital patients treated for sexually transmitted infections were younger than 5. (UNFPA)
LINKS TO STATISTICS:
The following are a selection of other web sites at which to find and verify violence against women statistics:
* Bureau of Justice: Crime and Victim Statistics
* Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women
* Family Violence Prevention Fund
* RAINN Statistics
* Violence Against Women Online Resources
* World Health Organization: Gender Based Violence
One of the many things
One of the many things troubles me about this incident only a few miles from my home is the bystanders failure to do or say anything to mitigate the situation. Failure might be the wrong word as it implies some level of attempt.
What level of objectification or detatchment prevents people from dialing 911 or calling an ambulance, or even saying "stop or I'll keep saying stop."
Is violence so easy to accept that we can walk away from a 15 year old girl laying injured on the ground?
Bystander effects
Chris, you ask: Is violence so easy to accept that we can walk away from a 15-year-old girl laying injured on the ground?
I think the question is more complicated. The "we" is a specific we there. It isn't "all or any of us" - it's a group of high school students, mostly boys from the sound of the story. Talk about a group where peer effects are strong!
There is a general group size effect that sociologists call "the bystander effect" and is most famously associated with the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens over forty years ago. The idea is that the more people there are who witness something bad happening the less likely any one individual is to do something about it. Genovese was attacked by a man with a knife and when she screamed lights came on in the apartment buildings around her. The attacker fled, the police never came, and then the attacker returned and killed her. Turns out the police never came because none of those neighbors called them. Why not? One important part of the explanation is tha they all saw that a lot of people were witnessing what they were. No doubt the assumption was that someone else would act. Any other individual's action adds nothing and could cause problems for the individual.
In the story you linked above the situation is worse: Lots of people are watching and some are participating and you get a "I'm not going to say anything if nobody else is going to say anything" kind of group conformity effect intersecting with a bit of the bystander effect. You have some guys who are intending the attack, others who decide its okay to participate because their friends are and yet others who say to themselves "it must be okay if nobody is saying anything. I can't be the only one who speaks out."
It's interesting that the person who actually reported the crime was a person who overheard a conversation and not someone who was directly involved. That supports the idea that the group norm of those involved really reinforces the notion that what they did was somehow ok at least within that group. It took an outsider to do something.
All of this is horrifying of course. It brings to mind other examples of horrible behavior that get defined as "okay" by a group. Abu Ghraib prison comes to mind. Other gang rapes come to mind. I don't want anything I said above to be interpreted as my saying that violence is okay. I'm just trying to explain how it can occur in group settings without anybody objecting.
Actually, all of this group effect stuff really points to something some of us have been saying for a long time: Willingness to be deviant - to defy the norms of the group - can sometimes be a very good thing.
...because public space really matters!
Elizabeth
...And then there are also
...And then there are also rape deniers, who claim that anything from 50%-99% (90% seems to be the most often used figure) of reported rapes are really women who are just pretending so that they can either get sympathy from the community or revenge against the accused. Those people are mostly male, and it seems to be a minority view, but nevertheless they do exist. This may complicate things a bit further.
Also, random musing - I wonder if the "bystander effect" isn't wholly social, that it might have at least partial roots in herd instinct - if one of your group is being savaged by a bear, there isn't much you can do to help them, so the best bet is to let them suffer and die but be alert for the possibility that you may need to keep the bear away from yourself or someone else in the group... and then the ideas like "someone else will deal with this" and "no one else is acting, so maybe I shouldn't either" might just be after-the-fact rationalizations, since most people don't actually have any idea why they did or didn't do something at the time during unsual situations if they didn't plan it in advance. In that case, if someone is alone (or nearly alone) or has personal ties to the victim, it might dampen the instinct enough that more rational thought has the chance to dominate. (Even then, they still might rationally decide not to get involved, but that's another issue.) Again, this is just an idea I just had, so it might be completely wrong, but it still might be worth thinking about.
Source: Melissa Farley?
"Fact #37: In a study of 475 people in prostitution from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia):
62% reported having been raped in prostitution.
73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.
92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately.
(Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426)"
WHAT? THE? FUCK?
This blog is now posting Melissa Farley's statistics as "fact"? Is this the same Sex in the Public Square that I've been reading for the last few years? The one that's been saying that people like Melissa Farley and Donna Hughes give inaccurate statistics about sex workers lives?
Re: Source: Melissa Farley?
In retrospect, I phrased that kind of harshly, and its not even the main focus of this post – my apologies. Its just that I found the Melissa Farley "fact", here of all places, rather off-putting.
No apologies, IACB. So did
No apologies, IACB. So did I.
I just did not want to call the whole post into question because of a single fact. I am glad you called that fact into question though.
I am happy to see any single fact in any post questioned here. In the case of Melissa Farley's research the biggest problems are around generalizability. Her research is to some degree good as far as it goes. The problem comes when she wants to generalize from the 475 people she interviewed to all the rest of the people who are involved in prostitution worldwide.
It is important to realize that Melissa Farley tends to find her interviewees in clinics and other places where she is likeley to run in to troubled people.
Since the post contained lots of important informationa and since it did not claim to generalize from its facts more than to say that rape is a problem worldwide (and who can argue with that) II decided to let one citation slide. I am nonetheless happy you drew attention to it.
I am about to talk to Melissa Farley on a panel at Harvard Law School in a few weeks. Do you have questions you'd like me to ask?
...because public space really matters!
Elizabeth
Farley and methodology
I think the most obvious problem with Farley's work is the selection bias you describe. If you look at Farley's papers for what populations of sex workers were surveyed, they are clearly all economically disadvantaged ones. In particular, the American and Canadian studies in particular were done on the abolutely most marginalized street workers, though this represents far from a majority of prostitutes in First World countries. A related problem is that Farley looks at women who often had mixed histories of sex work, including street prostitution, stripping, and massage parlour work, and uses this to say blanketly that her statistics apply accross the board for all types of sex work.
Another is a lack of transparency on how the data was gathered. After reading her methodology section, no copy of the survey that was used is provided and its unclear how the interviews were conducted.
Also very importantly, the study is totally uncontrolled. While questions concerning the experience of prostitution itself cannot be compared to non-sex workers, things like sexual abuse history, rate of post-traumatic stress, and the like can be compared. Asking the same survey questions and PTSD evaluations on non-sex workers from comparable social classes really was called for, both to confirm what the baseline is for the population in question, and also as a check of the methodolgy itself, which might actually be over-determining the incidence of abuse and PTSD.
Certainly, Ronald Weitzer has nailed down the problems with her research in the exchange they had in the journal Violence Against Women several years back.
As to what I'd wish to ask Melissa Farley, it would be hard for me to think of anything that isn't downright confrontational, really. But actually, I really would like to put to her the findings in Elizabeth Bernstein's study published as her book, Temporarily Yours. Bernstein's study was conducted in San Francisco, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. These were deliberately chosen as cities of similar size and demographics, but three different legal regimes. Bernstein found a simlar shift from street prostitution to indoor prostitution in all countries, and suggests that trends in prostitution are really more determined by larger socio-economic factors than by particular legal regimines toward prostitution. Which, of course, suggests that Farley's "attack demand" strategy, at least as practiced in Sweden, has not actually made the difference Farley is claiming it does – street prostitution is in decline in most developed countries, and the "Swedish model" cannot claim credit for this.
Melissa Farley is beside the point
Iamcuriousblue I understand your concern When I asked Wendi Deetz (the author) if I could repost here, she agreed. While I felt that the list of "facts" was perhaps precipitously gathered and given more weight toward accuracy than the studies cited, the main intent of the post was laudable. I reposted Wendi's entire post because I felt that to edit her list of facts would be dishonest and not in the open spirit of this forum. To me it was appropriate to relay her post in it's entirety and I have to say that this citing of a study that I have little doubt was skewed was tertiary to the point of the post.
In a study of 475 people in prostitution from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia):...
This is an absurdly small sample to span five continents. South Africa alone is likely to skew the results in favor of violence and rape. If you were to limit a study of high school teachers to those found in inner city hospitals after having been treated and asked similar questions the results would likely not represent the general population of high school teachers let alone inner city high school teachers.
That being said the post was moving and did not rely on Farley's cited study as a case against prostitution but rather relied on a broad base of reasoning and body of evidence to rail against violence against women and very specifically a young woman 15 years of age that was brutally gang raped in public in front of a gathering of people.
Re: Melissa Farley is beside the point
Wendi Deetz' own words, of course, were a meaningful response to the subject she was writing about. However, the list that followed I actually think was not helpful - the list is a cut-and-paste – I see the exact same list reposted over a number of websites. Their a mix of real statistics and probably some dubious ones, notably the one I highlighted. More importantly, while some of the points listed underscore the point Deetz is trying to make, many don't really speak to the situation in question, and in some cases (like the one we're talking about here) distract from it. The indiscriminate copying of lists and talking points as a response to a tragedy or other situation has the unfortunate effect of dragging in a lot of things that are beside the point.
I wondered about the list also
As you did, I thought the list was actually not helpful. Having read Chris's reasons for not wanting to excerpt the post, I understand better now why it was left there. And really, I think it IS better to leave something intact and discuss it rather than to simple excise the portions we find objectionable.
Drawing attention to the problem of rape (the intention of the post in general, I think) is an important goal. Drawing attention to the problems surrounding rape statistics is also important. Perhaps the list can be useful in that way.
It is also useful to discuss the problems of online discussions of controversial issues more generally. I agree that the overcirculation of lists of stats or facts without context or factchecking muddies all kinds of waters. One of my hopes for this site is that it be a place where everything can be questioned and held up to the scrutiny of readers with a range of expertise so that in the end we know more than we did when we started.
...because public space really matters!
Elizabeth
Statistics
Hi all,
Thanks for bringing attention to the issue regarding the statistics - I *did* just copy and paste the list from a source I thought to be credible, but probably did not give enough weight to my decision to do it. Truthfully, I was angry at the time and not as focused as I may have been regarding the accuracy of the statistics if I'd posted it with a clearer head. I have no problem with them being removed. I'd hate for them to distract from the real message I wanted to convey, although, I agree they seem to have sparked some interesting diaglogue!
WD
Hi Wendi
Thanks for coming by, truth be told even statistics that misrepresent can still be informative as an insight into myth creation, superstition and spin doctoring.
I think that while stats can reveal truth they can also obsfucate and mislead. a well crafted study should have some level of surpise potential for the people conducting the study. If questions and methods preclude answers other than those expected by those conducting the study then the study is fatally flawed.
Chris O
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