Posted by Sal at unit11.iwr.msu.edu on February 24, 2000 at 16:45:32:
In Reply to: Before you get flamed (and you will) posted by Rena on February 24, 2000 at 15:35:48:
First off, thanks to worm for his/her rational thinking.
The responses around here are often far astray of the
original point.
I am not, or would never suggest that women are not
victimized in our society. Nor would I ever suggest
that 1 in 3, 1 in 5 or 1 in a million is an acceptable
rate of occurence.
For the record, I do know women that have been
raped. My mother is a nurse, and my sister a social
worker, so I am quite aware of the evils of society.
My simple point was that the use of the word
FACT can be a bit misleading. We often hear
stats shouted out to us, and rarely investigate their
legitimacy. When one does track down some of these
dubious statistics, their origin is a bit mindboggling.
And yes I do understand that many women or men
for that matter would never report an assault, not
even to their most trusted friends/lovers/family, etc..
: and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that
: the 1 in 3 number relates to the number of rapes reported divided by the
: number of women in the area being surveyed.
This is just my point, we don't know the methods used to come
up with this statistic, or if it was even a scientific study
at all. It could have been a comment made by any individual
that was picked up by the press and cirulated as fact.
thats my only point. maybe it is not important. Quite
obviously the important thing is that some PERSON is
suffering this kind of act on the planet, and it should be stopped.
sal
p.s. one should be able to have a rational discussion about a serious
topic sometimes even challenging the commonly accepted
arguments. This is not a bad, it is a good thing, and may lead to better understanding.