1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Survey: MORE than 1 in 5 are victims of sexual misconduct

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by MisterCreosote, Sep 21, 2015.

  1. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    According to the latest from the Association of American Universities, the oft-derided 1-in-5 number is actually slightly low:

    Survey: More than 1 in 5 female undergrads at top schools suffer sexual attacks

    They canvassed 27 universities with surveys, and received 150,000 responses. That's a pretty good sample size, yet it does acknowledge that non-respondents were much less likely to be victims themselves.

    Here's the data broken down by school surveyed:

    What a massive sexual assault survey found at 27 top U.S. universities
     
  2. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Oh, come on.

    They get to the problem with the study in the second paragraph:

    Researchers acknowledged the possibility of an overstated victimization rate, as there was evidence that hundreds of thousands of students who ignored the electronic questionnaire were less likely to have suffered an assault.
     
  3. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

  4. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Polls on the presidential election have a sample of about 1,000 voters, out of 100-something million.

    I'd think it's more than fair to believe 150,000 students, from some pretty diverse schools, is a pretty representative sample size for something like this.
     
  5. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    You mocked a "Drudge" poll just the other day:

    Republican debate thread 9/16 | Page 13 | SportsJournalists.com

    I assumed is was not due to the sample size, which was 680,000, but because it was a self selected, unscientific poll. (Which is actually just what our elections are, and what the Iowa caucus is an extreme example of.)

    This study doesn't even try to claim that its sample size means anything. They specifically state thatt.

    And, all this is before we get to the definitions, questions, and answers.
     
  6. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    The survey doesn't actually say what the headline says it does. The survey says more than 1 in 5 suffer sexual assault or sexual misconduct, which often does meet the legal definition of rape or sexual battery. So a girl who suffered a non-consensual kiss by a drunken frat bro at a party then said no and left would report that as an instance of sexual misconduct. That kind of situation stretches the definition of a "sexual attack."

    The headline sensationalizes some pretty sobering research that doesn't need to be misrepresented to be terrifying. Regardless of the recent trend to quantify campus sexual assaults at a rate of 1 in 5 women, whatever the actual number, it's far, far too high and probably unquantifiable.
     
  7. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    No. I mocked that poll not for its methodology but because I couldn't believe that many people thought Trump won the debate.
     
  8. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Fair point, and edited to clarify.

    However, all the 1-in-5 talk all along has essentially referred to any nonconsensual sexual acts, even to include things like sexual harassment.
     
  9. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Do you believe they believe it?
     
  10. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    The difference between a survey and a poll shouldn't be that hard for journalists.
     
    Dick Whitman likes this.
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    It's not more than fair to believe that. Not whatsoever. You don't conduct a scientific poll by sending out a questionnaire and then just counting the ones that come in. That's like assuming that the comments at the end of newspapers stories are representative of readers at large. "But there's a lot of comments!"
     
    franticscribe and amraeder like this.
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Tell me what was wrong about that statement. Still haven't heard your brilliant take on it, SGITR.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page