Bloomberg News
6.4.15 | Megan McArdle
Rape is at the center of the national debate, and it's no wonder: the Obama administration's push to crack down on campus rapes through the Civil Rights Act, the notorious and retracted story alleging a gang rape at UVA, the raft of accusations against Bill Cosby. Naturally, statistics about rape have been an important part of this conversation. Unfortunately, these statistics are hard to agree upon; what you get is a duel between conflicting sets of numbers, which should be resolved by careful analysis but instead leads each side to turn up the volume and wave its favored research harder.
The "careful analysis" option turns out to be grueling. Human sexuality is complicated, and has defied almost every society's attempt to neatly divide it into two piles labeled "right" and "wrong." Wherever one draws the line, it's going to create difficult boundary cases. I've been groped in a crowd more than once, and I'd call that "disgusting," not "sexual assault." Nor would I think of applying that name to the birthday reveler who grabbed me in a bar one night and kissed me. On the other hand, what if he'd slipped his hands up my shirt, or under my skirt? At some point it progresses to something that everyone in the country can agree was sexual assault -- but where is that point? Some activists would say that the kiss was an assault. Others will draw the line someplace very different.
More Here...
------------------------------------------------------------------
