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Rapes go up, ‘unwanted sexual contact’ goes down in University of Oregon professor’s survey

Jennifer Freyd, a University of Oregon psychology professor, is no stranger to College Fix readers.

Her controversial research purports to show high levels of sexual misconduct and violence on campus, particularly in Greek life, but it has clear deficiencies.

The school even questioned her methods when releasing its own recommendations on fighting sexual assault.

In a comparison of her 2015 survey with last year’s survey, the Daily Emerald points out Freyd’s new survey had a whiter survey population and still samples more women than men.

What’s interesting is students seem less hyped up about sexual assault than last year:

Only 43 percent of women and 36 percent of men felt the survey was “definitely important,” compared to 65 percent of women and 60 percent of men last year.

Under Freyd’s rubric, “unwanted sexual contact” goes into the sexual-violence category, and it’s falling:

In 2014, 10 percent of female students reported being raped — defined as unwanted, completed penetration. This year, the number rose to 13 percent. The most all-encompassing category however, completed or attempted unwanted sexual contact, fell from 35 percent to 27 percent of female students.

Despite (or perhaps because of) more attention paid to campus sexual assault in the past year, more students are blaming their schools for poor responses to alleged victims:

In 2014, 41 percent of sexual violence victims reported that they were subjected to some sort of institutional betrayal [UO did wrong against someone dependent on it]. This number moved to 44 percent this year.

The most common form of betrayal indicated in 2014 was the university creating an environment where the victim’s experience seemed common. During that year, 70 percent of victims believed this. “Type of betrayal” was not broken down in the 2015 survey, but a similar question, asking if students felt “safe from sexual harassment” on campus, showed that only 42 percent of female undergraduate students felt safe on campus.

Most students still believe UO would “not take the report seriously” if a victim reported sexual violence. (That might have something to do with the university’s admitted access of an alleged victim’s counseling records to defend itself against her lawsuit claiming that it endangered her.)

Another possible factor in the dip in sexual violence outside of rape is the fact that Freyd’s new survey included graduate students, who report lower rates.

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About the Author
Associate Editor
Greg Piper served as associate editor of The College Fix from 2014 to 2021.