Journal Articles

The Rape Prone Culture of Academic Contexts: Fraternities and Athletics

---

About two decades ago, feminist sociologists stopped focusing on rape and sexual assault even
though rapes and their destructive toll on girls and women did not end. Rape did not diminish
appreciably and neither did the legal justice system dramatically improve its treatment of victims.
Perhaps this is why 80 percent of women college students and 67 percent of non-college women
fail to report being raped to the police (Langton and Siznocich 2014, citing National Crime Survey
data). We now know that the great majority of rapes in the United States—about 80 percent—are
perpetrated by someone known to the victim, not by a stranger who jumps out of the bushes. This
pattern suggests that rape often is not a random event but, in many cases, a planned one. While
some men are more apt than others to commit rape, some social contexts also are more
amenable to rapes. Two such contexts that inhabit U.S. academic institutions—men’s social
fraternities and athletic programs—are the focus of this essay. These contexts can be understood
only within the wider parent institution—the contemporary college or university (Stotzer and MacCartney 2015). Thus, the qualities and dynamics of multiple contexts must be addressed.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

Gender & Society

Call Number

-

Publisher

Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications., 2016

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

08912432

Classification

NONE

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Volume 30, Issue 1, February 2016, pp. 30–43

Subject(s)

-

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment