On Tuesday, I posted (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) on a bogus "study" out of North Dakota University contending that "almost one in 3 college men would commit rape 'if nobody would ever know and there wouldn’t be any consequences.'" Media exposure from favorable and unfavorable outlets continues to grow.
In that post, I noted that the study disqualified itself from credibility by uncriticially relaying the thoroughly discredited "1 in 5" statistic, namely (quoting the study's opening) "Federal data estimate that about one in five women becomes the victim of sexual assault while in college," and took that as a clear indication that the trio of academics involved "are not dispassionate researchers, but instead are agenda-driven individuals who are not interested in facts, but are instead looking to reach desired conclusions." In an exchange with the Washington Examiner's Ashe Schow, study leader Sarah Edwards confirmed my assessment, and ratified the idea that any media outlet which takes their work seriously is deliberately spreading disinformation (bolds are mine throughout this post):
More problems with the '1 in 3 men would rape' study
Sarah Edwards — the lead author of a recent study purportedly showing that one in three men would rape if they could get away with it and so long as it wasn’t referred to as rape — really, really believes that one in five women will be sexually assaulted during college.
Despite significant flaws in the 2007 study that produced that one-in-five figure — as well as more representative studies showing the rate to be much lower — Edwards, a University of North Dakota assistant professor of counseling psychology, wholeheartedly believes the study. In an email to the Washington Examiner, she said that those who deny the higher rate just can’t handle the information.
“I think people are more interested in ways to rationalize away results of a study like that because it helps them deal with the emotional impact of hearing such statistics,” Edwards said. “It’s emotionally easier to try to rationalize than take in the results, and really think about what this means for all of these women, at these universities, as well as women all over the U.S., who experience sexual aggression in college.”
Edwards did not respond to an Examiner follow-up question about whether she was engaging in the same behavior by trying to rationalize away the flaws in that 2007 study
In other words, she's going to believe what she wants to believe, no matter what the verfiable facts are.
To remind readers, George Will took apart the "1 in 5" claim in June (as have others too numerous to mention), demonstrating that its truth is mathematically impossible:
... The administration’s crucial and contradictory statistics are validated the usual way, by official repetition; Joe Biden has been heard from. The statistics are: One in five women is sexually assaulted while in college, and only 12 percent of assaults are reported. Simple arithmetic demonstrates that if the 12 percent reporting rate is correct, the 20 percent assault rate is preposterous. Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute notes, for example, that in the four years 2009 to 2012 there were 98 reported sexual assaults at Ohio State. That would be 12 percent of 817 total out of a female student population of approximately 28,000, for a sexual assault rate of approximately 2.9 percent — too high but nowhere near 20 percent.
Schowe didn't note — and should have — that Department of Justice statistics refute and therefore debunk the "the 1 in 5" claim, showing that, in the words of Kristine Marsh at her mid-December NewsBusters post, "Instead of a whopping 20 percent of female college freshmen and sophomores, the new, more expansive stats put that number at just 0.61 percent – or 6.1 per 1,000 students."
Back to Schowe's column:
Further, Edwards readily admitted she hopes this study gets her grant money. Following this study, which was clearly designed to elicit eye-catching headlines, Edwards hopes to broaden her “research” by conducting the same study on a national scale.
“[W]e have a plan to launch a nationally based study, which samples 50 men from each state with a similar paradigm in order to generalize our results,” Edwards said. “However, in order to engage in such an effort, we are seeking out funding and grant opportunities.”
Edwards said she believed the men whose questions were analyzed took the survey seriously, but declined to provide the Examiner the actual questions that were asked during the study. Edwards also said that the men surveyed were not students at the University of North Dakota (despite the study claiming the men received extra credit) but didn’t tell the Examiner what university provided the extra credit. (so much for transparency — Ed.)
... By seeking eye-catching headlines instead of truth, studies like this do a disservice to the men and women affected by the sexual assault discussion. This study, along with the one-in-five myth, have resulted in policies that define nearly all sex as rape and have allowed dozens of young men to be branded as rapists with no evidence beside an accusation.
To return some semblance of sanity to the discussion, studies purporting to show that huge populations of American males are monsters (far out of line with actual crime statistics) need to be taken with a grain of salt and not accepted as outright fact without any critical thinking.
A more proper treatment would be to totally ignore them. Failing that, they should be fodder for late-night comedy routines. Sadly, we're not that fortunate. Establishment media outlets will slowly but surely attempt to mainstream the new 1-in-3 would rape if they would get caught statistic, just as they have the original 1-in-5 assault claim.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
