In the wake of student demonstrations in recent weeks, calling for more security for hundreds of female rape drug victims on premises, a new poll reveals a systemic problem of misogyny among UK youth. A survey of 554 students, cited by the Guardian, showed the high incidence of rape, sexual assault and other harassment within the country’s universities.
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Although this is not a simple comparison, it seems that the rate of sexual assaults in the university world is considerably higher than that found in the community of the country. It is estimated, in fact, that at least one in five university students in most developed countries will be the victim of at least one sexually aggressive act during her studies. These crimes have high-impact, long-term physical, psychological and economic consequences, which, according to US estimates, result in a lifetime cost of $ 122,461 for each rape victim.
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The title of the study, by University of Kent researchers, is ‘Understanding Sexual Aggression in UK Male Undergraduates: An Empirical Assessment of Prevalence and Psychological Risk Factors’. The investigation starts from the assumption that sexual assault in universities is a widespread phenomenon and a public safety problem, but that there are still no exact size assessments or psychological indicators to classify the aggressors.
The authors first produced a questionnaire, addressed to those who appear to be the main perpetrators of the abuses in universities: heterosexual male students. Participants were asked questions about different sexual scenarios – including some very violent ones, such as having sex with unconscious women, under the influence of drugs or alcohol – and personal questions about relationship and romantic habits. Subsequently, they were asked to report any sexual offenses they committed. On the basis of the data collected, psychological profiles were then drawn and an attempt was made to establish the rate of violence.
The research included two online surveys, one in 295 students from 100 UK universities and another in 259 students from a university in south-east England. Of the 554 male students surveyed, 63 reported having committed 251 sexual assaults, rape and other coercive and unwanted acts in the past two years.
In the first survey, 30 boys said they had committed 145 sexually aggressive acts in the past two years, the other 33, resulting from the second study, reported 106 in the same period. The most common is unwanted contact in 37 cases, followed by sexual coercion in 32 and rape or attempted rape in 30 witnesses. For a third of them, this is almost an established habit, with assaults committed three or more times over the past two years. Although the victims are almost always women and the attackers all defined themselves heterosexual, five of them declared that their acts were aimed at both men and women and another only at men.
“Some of these crimes would have been perpetrated shortly before they started college, even while they were in high school,” said co-author of the report, Samuel Hales, a researcher for the University of Kent’s Center for Forensic Psychology Research and Education.
In almost all cases, people who had committed violent acts also had strongly misogynistic views and violent fantasies, for the most part absent, however, in those who had not committed crimes. Recurring, for example, is the idea that drunk women are to blame for being raped and sadistic sexual fantasies, rape or torture have been repeatedly encountered. Thus, a close link is highlighted between toxic masculinity and sexual violence, as was already revealed in a considerable body of work carried out by American university researches.
The sexual aggression of male university students can therefore be explained by their negative views on women, which result from an internalization of the traditional social role attributed to them. Professor Nicole Westmarland, director of the Durham Center for Research on Violence and Abuse, confirms the thesis, stating “We have always believed that sexist beliefs, misogyny and toxic masculinity lead to predatory behavior. The importance of exposing the culture of rape throughout society should not be underestimated. “
One solution, Hales points out, could be to appoint staff to work with sexually aggressive students. Many of these, in fact, are simply banned from campus for a short period, only to return without adequate measures that reduce the risk of recidivism. Change, contrary to what is often promoted, must start with the aggressors and not with the victims. “We help men and boys to become well-informed role models who have the courage to be proactive, to report behavior and to empower their friends.”