I would agree that our culture is a contributing factor (I dislike the term "rape culture" because I think it's an over-simplification) but behaviour has many complex causes (says the guy who hasn't quite finished his Psych degree yet) and culture is just one of them. And I think, in many cases, culture is only a minor factor in molding behaviour.

and most other cultures, to greater or lesser degrees. call it rape culture, call it acceptance that women are going to face sexual violence if they do X,Y, and Z, amounts to the same thing.

Although, you are very wrong about culture being a minor factor in behavior. We are social animals, and generally seek to conform to social norms.

I'm agnostic on the subject of social constructivism. But what I'm saying is that, in a few cases, culture was only a minor influence because one cannot possibly see the offender as having been influenced by their culture. Dennis Nilsen for example. I can easily see him internalising an attitude that gay men are disposable, especially from the culture of the time, but I can't see him ever getting the message from his culture that it was acceptable to eat them. In most cases, I fully concede that culture is a fairly important factor in the make-up of the individual psyche, I would just caution against considering that as a universal rule.

I'm not sure if I'd agree that our culture harbours a hostility toward women so much as a deep ambiguity about women and female sexuality. Our culture is both entranced by the feminine and, at the same time, afraid of it. Now, I'm not saying that rape is a crime about sex (except in the sense that sex is used as the weapon) but the reason, in my view, that sexual violence is minimised is because our culture is afraid of female sexuality and so, assumes that violence is a legitimate, or at least understandable, reaction to that fear.

black people or gay people a hundred years and now, think of how unacceptable and deviant the same behavior would be.

I agree with you about the ambiguity, much research shows that to be true. Women are liked more than men, but considered less competent.

... but not in every single case. That's all I'm saying, that it's a mistake to consider the influence of culture an inviolable, concrete, rule. Were it true in every single case, one might ask where the occasional "feral" child acquired their ideas, given that they grew up in the absence of human culture entirely.

and other motivations matter.

Can you suggest any names or articles I should look for?

the wiki page is pretty well built out and has references that you could use if you wanted a more indepth understanding

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambivalent_sexism#Theoretical_framework

But bookmarked for later. Thanks for the rec.

Why does the fact of rape culture make you so defensive?

"In any event, it's hard to justify escalation of the hammer of Thor approach directed at the innocent 97% of college men."

Nowhere in the OP is anything like a 'hammer of Thor approach' even hinted at... Or are you saying 3% of college men being rapists is OK and we should just accept it? What exactly is this 'hammer of Thor approach' you are crying about?

... kind of depends on one's definition of "effectively," doesn't it?

-- Mal

We'd all like it to go to zero - today - but history has shown that steady progress is a worthy goal.

You need to remember to check the sources for your statistics before making claims.

Your data is using reported rapes. And rape is notoriously under-reported. Mostly thanks to rape culture. "What was she wearing", "did she lead him on", "why was she out alone so late" are so commonly asked that many women won't report their rape. Why are those so commonly asked? Rape culture.

Has the rate of rape gone down? Probably. All other violent crime has. Doesn't mean there is no rape culture. Rape is not dependent on rape culture.

I've noticed you show up in any thread that mentions rape culture and try to prove it doesn't exist. This personal for you?

Since 1973, the US Bureau of Justice has collected data through the National Criminal Justice Survey. Each year, they ask roughly 90,000 households to answer questions related to their perceived victimization (both personal and property), regardless of whether they reported the crime.

In 1994 (the earliest year for which the data is published online), 7.7 women per thousand responded that they had experienced rape or sexual assault as defined in the survey. In 2012, 1.6 women per thousand said that they had. Is the data subject to under or over reporting? Sure, but the 2012 data is no more or less reliable than the 1994 data.

Now that I've given you the link, you can become familiar with the data too.

NCVS doesn't capture all rapes. People lie.

The victimization rate has trended down, each year, in mostly a straight line.

If that trendline isn't real... if rape really is as common as it was 20 years ago, it must be because 2% more women lie each year on the anonymous survey than did the previous year, and that 80% of women who are raped or assaulted each year (would have been honest in 1994) now lie to the anonymous survey.

In other words, roughly 350 women (out of 45,000) reported in 1994 that they had been raped or assaulted. In 2012, roughly 75 did. It is implausible that changes in the rate at which respondents lie to the survey can account for the difference.

I agree with all you said.

Most folk will never engage in any of the heinous behavior/ acts you describe ... yet many will not speak out when they see others engaging in racists, sexist, homophobic ... speech or acts. This emboldens the very deviant among us to engage in horrific acts that almost all of us abhor!

why this is so hard for people to understand?

Agree with your post 100%. REC.

Thank you for this articulate and well thought out OP.

Yes!

- YES!

Exactly. I don't get how people don't understand something so basic.

And is SO very basic. UGH!

culture contributes to behavior.