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According to a recent study of 27 schools, about one-quarter of female undergraduates said they had experienced nonconsensual sex or touching since entering college, but most of the students said they did not report it to school officials or support services. Now Natasha Singer reports at the NYT that in an effort to give students additional options — and to provide schools with more concrete data — a nonprofit software start-up in San Francisco called Sexual Health Innovations has developed an online reporting system for campus sexual violence. One of the most interesting features of Callisto is a matching system — in which a student can ask the site to store information about an assault in escrow and forward it to the school only if someone else reports another attack identifying the same assailant. The point is not just to discover possible repeat offenders. In college communities, where many survivors of sexual assault know their assailants, the idea of the information escrow is to reduce students' fears that the first person to make an accusation could face undue repercussions.
"It's this last option that makes Callisto unique," writes Olga Khazan. "Most rapes are committed by repeat offenders, yet most victims know their attackers. Some victims are reluctant to report assaults because they aren't sure whether a crime occurred, or they write it off as a one-time incident. Knowing about other victims might be the final straw that puts an end to their hesitation—or their benefit of the doubt. Callisto's creators claim that if they could stop perpetrators after their second victim, 60 percent of campus rapes could be prevented." This kind of system is based partly on a Michigan Law Review article about "information escrows," or systems that allow for the transmitting of sensitive information in ways that reduce "first-mover disadvantage" also known to economists as the "hungry penguin problem". As game theorist Michael Chwe points out, the fact that each person creates her report independently makes it less likely they'll later be accused of submitting copycat reports, if there are similarities between the incidents.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 21 2015, @09:47AM
I don't think there's all that much real "risk" involved. Men are men, women are women, and probably the same old proportions of each are good and bad, or better and worse. The problem is, they are all taking "sensitivity training" instead of "assertiveness training". I've an idea that if they would just encourage people to take self defense courses, and get the females to take assertiveness training, things would settle out pretty well. That is, stop teaching girls to be submissive, and leave the boys the hell alone.
How many times have we read stupid assed advice from police, women's rights groups, and just about everyone else who weighs in on the subject, telling women to just submit to a rape, then report it after the fact? The woman has still been violated, and the rape won't just be forgotten after the jackass has gone to jail/prison for some few months or years. Teach the women how to say "NO" forcefully, while at the same time teaching them how to cripple a determined assailant.
But, no, we can't do that in our politically correct society - everyone needs to report to the police, so that the police state can be better implemented.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday November 21 2015, @09:53AM
Say... what?
Is this really what they advice on Planet America? Seems outlandish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Marco2G on Saturday November 21 2015, @11:14AM
Uhm, you're both right and wrong.
See, on the one hand, there's a real problem of females and males communicating. If a female does not want to have sex with a male, females often think if they look him in the eye and say no, that this will be a clear signal. It's not. Males are predators. Eye contact is a challenge. It is very, VERY ingrained into our instincts. (Vera Birkenbihl mentioned this in one of her lectures, available on Youtube in German)
So for starters, we need to stop with the bullshit about "we've evolved beyond base instincts". We need to acknowledge that we are animals and that certain actions will trigger reactions. Now, let's agree on the fact that a lot of rape start off as consensual things. Very few men actually go outside the house with the intent of finding someone to rape. The ones based on miscommunication are avoidable.
Where the males actually do go out trying to find someone to rape? Yeah, there the advice of not putting up a fight is very sane. This particular male is already beyond the ethics or whether or not he wants to do you harm. Putting up a fight WILL get you hurt more.
We men are pretty poor bastards in current society. We don't have rites of coming of age. We are bombarded left and right with demands heaped upon us. Be good at sports, have a good income, be handsome, be a gentleman... don't be yourself, obviously, nobody would want that. We need to grovel at the feet of females to prove, not exactly worthy of them but not unworthy enough to withhold attention. If you're too masculine, you'll be flagged as a chauvinist. If you're too feminine you're girlish. Most men deal with HUGE insecurities. And when a female keeps giving off signals of interest, as unintentional as that might have been (or worse yet in a demonstration of superiority), some men will break and they'll try and prove their being a MAN! Because MEN don't take none of that kinda crap!
Women organise their support in networks. They will find other women they have things in common with and hop from one support group to another. Men are horde individuals. They need strict rules and hierarchy. They need to feel acceptance of other men. Back when, that was easy to get. When women didn't have much say in their sexuality, a male would prove himself manly to the father! Today, men have to prove themselves to women who very often are looking for a girlfriend with a penis, basically. So men need to play the feminine game to get sex and on the other hand play the masculine game in order to have a support group. Now what happens when the two interests clash? What if your friends SEE you ducking your head to your girlfriend?
You ALL know which sitcom cliches that happen every day in real life I'm talking about. The ribbing that will follow is merciless and will happen under the guise of friendly banter. However, it hurts a male's self-worth to be singled out like that.
To sum this up, we have a very serious problem in how males relate towards each other and how males and females relate. We have not yet found a social construct wherein males and females are both free to act as their characters need while still paying respect to the instincts we are born with.
Unless that changes, we will keep dealing with these issues, no matter how patriarchial or matriarchial our society may be.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Saturday November 21 2015, @07:21PM
What a bunch of self-pitying, "please love me, I'm not a complete asshole!" whiny bullshit.
Getting off isn't worth playing games or dancing some dance to someone else's tune. There's a simple solution -- masturbation.
If it's not just physical, and you want someone to share with, man or woman, just be who you are. The people who are worth a damn (to you at least) are those who will appreciate you for who you are. Maybe I'm an anomaly, but I only want to be around people who want to be around me -- and not all of those, either.
And if you find yourself in an ambiguous situation, the choices are simple -- state your desires honestly and respect the response, or back off.
That leaves aside the whole issue of impairment -- if someone (regardless of gender) is impaired, they aren't able to consent. Period. End of story.
Most of the rest is about impulse control. That's a big problem for many people, especially (but not limited to) young men. And that situation is why we have sexual assault laws.
tl;dr: Love and respect yourself. If you don't, why should anyone else? Be with/around those who want to be with/around you.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Marco2G on Wednesday November 25 2015, @01:21PM
If you think masturbation can replace partner-sex, then I pity you... ejaculation does not equal orgasm... If you haven't learned that yet, that speaks volumes about your sex-life.
Also, I doubt you could actually live that self-fulfilling life you're pandering here. Humans are seldom lone wolves. We need acceptance of a group. If you don't think that's true, I suspect any psychologist worth his salt would find sociopathic tendencies in you.
Last but not least, what ever gave you the idea you were a prototype? Just because YOU could do it like you describe does not mean most other humans could or would want to.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday November 25 2015, @05:24PM
I'm sorry, but that's a load of crap. Sounds like you don't know how to masturbate. If you bother to actually practice and get good at it, it is a pretty damn fine replacement for a partner. The trick though is that you have to actually bother to get it right. Anybody can wank off and ejaculate, that's hardly difficult. The difficult thing is getting good enough that you're getting the full benefit.
You have to have a certain amount of patience to achieve a proper orgasm out of it. That means knowing when to hit the brakes and for how long. But, with proper techniques, it's a pretty amazing experience.
(Score: 3, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 21 2015, @11:29AM
Did you know that only a very small percentage of rapes attempted are actually accomplished when the woman is armed and resists? I forget what percentage exactly. See Lizotte, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 1986 and/or Kleck, Social Problems, 1990 if you feel like looking it up. I'm not bothering until I've had more coffee. Further, only around 2% of defensive gun uses end with the user needing to pull the trigger at all.
SJWs though, they want people to be victims or they have to go through the extra work to convince them of bullshit statistics like the ones that include unwanted touching and intoxicated consensual sex. Drunk sex, by the way, is perfectly legal unless one of the participants is actually unable to say the word "no"; not "Oh shit, I did who?" the morning after but either passed out or too sloshed to speak.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 21 2015, @11:43AM
I know that I am inclined to back off, if some woman with a weapon challenges me. Although I'm not a psychopathic rapist type of guy, I imagine that most men would do the same. Walking down city streets, I've found myself behind a female at night. Being a guy, I may or may not take notice of that fact, but if that woman acts fearful, and especially if she challenges me, my reaction is to cross the street, or otherwise put some distance between us.
One instance (amusing in retrospect), I had spent the night at a bar, chatting up the waitress. She gave me an address, and told me to be there after 1:00. Turned out to be an apartment building, about 8 floors high, and her room number was on the 5th floor. The stair well was a little odd - you top one flight, you walk out into the hallway, and around to the next flight. On the third floor, I came face to face with some woman who seemed a bit irrational. She was holding a rather large butcher knife, 8 or 9 inches, maybe longer. She said something barely intelligible, something about "bothering me all the time". Hell, I did an about face, and got the hell out of dodge! That sweetheart two floor further up wasn't THAT SWEET! Whatever that other woman's problems were, she wasn't asking me for help, and I felt threatened, so it was none of my damned business.
A guy shows me a weapon, my fight or flight reaction tends to fight. A woman shows me the same weapon, my reaction tends to flight.
I know that I probably don't speak for all males, but that's me.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Francis on Saturday November 21 2015, @12:48PM
Running from women is, unfortunately, the safest strategy. No matter who starts it, the man is the one that's going to be arrested. Barring a slip up where there are actual witnesses willing to testify that the woman started it, the man is the default criminal to convict.
Same goes for domestic violence. If the wife is hitting you, the safest response is to put your arms across your chest and get the hell out of there before the police arrest you for domestic violence. Even then, it's a bit of a gamble that they won't arrest you anyways.
It's really about time that women started checking their privilege, because this is hardly the only area where they get unwarranted special rights.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @02:49PM
How many times have we read stupid assed advice from police, women's rights groups, and just about everyone else who weighs in on the subject, telling women to just submit to a rape, then report it after the fact?
I dunno, how many times have we read it?
Oh yeah, that advice comes from the other side of the spectrum. [salon.com]
> That is, stop teaching girls to be submissive, and leave the boys the hell alone.
Wow. "Boys" are not responsible for their actions. Classic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:45PM
Testosterone is a hell of a drug.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:42PM
The problem is, they are all taking "sensitivity training" instead of "assertiveness training".
There is some data to back this up, actually. I can't find the study off hand but it was in the news recently. When the prevention training involved some self defense (think GTFO, not Karate Kid) actual incidents were reduced significantly.
But, no, we can't do that in our politically correct society
Ugh, enough with the persecution complex. This stuff is being actively investigated.