Wait, There's More

From U.S.News and World Report, October 7, 1991.

"A 1990 national survey of more than 12,000 students by the Campus Violence Prevention Center at Maryland's Towson State University found that about half of all reported acquaintance rapes were committed by fraternity members and athletes."

As the article notes, a number of fraternities have put together anti-rape programs; there is no evidence, however, that these programs have had any impact on fraternity rape rates.










From http://www.now.org/nnt/03-95/rapesurv.html

An article in the Idaho Falls Post Register estimated that 80 percent of college victims are acquainted with their attackers, with 47 percent of those raped on a date. A study by University of Illinois researchers Mary Pat Frintner, MSPH, and Laurna Rubinson, Ph.D. found that 55.3 percent of the women and 67.5 percent of the male offenders had been drinking at the time of the incident. The researchers also uncovered that 47.6 percent of the male perpetrators of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault were members of a fraternity, while 20.2 percent of the men were members of a sports team or sports club.

And More...

"Sexual assault is increasingly recognized as an urgent and pervasive problem on university campuses. Women's fear of sexual assault is similarly significant and widespread. Among women, college is a high-risk period for sexual assault by male acquaintances. Evidence has been presented to support the theory that fraternity men are particularly prone to be sexual victimizers of women on college campuses. More rapes occur in fraternity houses on college and university campuses than the general public knows about. Over 90% of all gang rapes on college campuses involve fraternity men."

From: Martin, Patricia Yancey and Robert A. Hummer. "Fraternities and Rape on Campus." Race, Class, and Gender. Ed. Margaret L. Anderson and Patricia Hill Collins. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1988. 490-503.

from http://phoenix.edc.org/hec/pubs/acqrape.html

A number of schools offer workshops on sexual assault at the request of local Greek chapters. Because fraternities are often required by their national office to provide education programs on risk management, they sometimes request workshops on acquaintance rape to meet the requirement. On other campuses, however, very few Greek chapters request presentations on sexual assault, and, when they do, attendance by members is often voluntary and sparse. At one school with 55 percent of its students in Greek life, only two fraternities have invited the sexual assault prevention program to conduct a workshop.

And More...

"Sexual aggression (initiating sexual contact by using sexual coercion, abuse, or physical force) is common on college and university campuses. I believe that it is important to define some other commonly used terms. Rape is sexual intercourse against a victim's will and without consent from the victim. If the victim says no, it is considered rape. If the victim is unable to give consent due to drugs, alcohol or retardation, it is also considered rape. Sexual assault is a general term that describes all forms of unwanted sexual activity. Acquaintance rape is a rape in which the victim and the assailant know each other, regardless if they are friends, spouses, lovers, or acquaintances. Date rape is another form of acquaintance rape, but is used to describe rape that occurs while the victim and the assailant are on a date."

Leandra Lackie has noted a moderate relation between fraternity membership and sexual aggression. Men wish to socially and sexually dominate women, and the author has speculated that fraternity men bond together in part to collectively achieve the domination to which they believe all men are entitled. Fraternities are concerned with masculinity. They want to present a "macho" image and avoid any suggestion of homosexuality. As a consequence, many fraternities consist of highly masculine men whose attitudes and behaviors predispose them to sexual coercion of women.

Alcohol is associated with the risk of sexual assault among women and with the increased risk of experiencing completed rape once attacked (Ullman, Karabatsos, and Koss, p 603).

Alcohol use is a correlate of sexual aggression because it reduces inhibitions against violence, including sexual violence. In particular, a study done by Ullman, Karabatsos, and Koss shows that alcohol use prior to sexual assault by both offenders and victims may affect the severity of the sexual victimization experienced by women. Their study showed that both victim and offender alcohol use prior to attack were directly associated with more severe sexual victimization to women as measured by the Sexual Experiences Survey. This study suggests that alcohol plays both direct and indirect roles in the outcomes of sexual assaults.

Alcohol use is normal among fraternity members. Unfortunately, many of these men use alcohol pervasively as a tool to gain sexual favors from women. They provide the women with excessive amounts of alcohol in order to get them drunk. Once the women's ability to respond effectively has been impaired, they can be easily taken advantage of. Therefore, there is a strong link between sexual assault and extensive alcohol use (Schwartz and Nogrady, p 152).

Athletic involvement is also a predictor of sexual aggression. Most major commercial sports, such as football and basketball, accept women only as spectators or cheerleaders. According to Boeringer, there is a "greater rape proclivity" in athletes. Since most fraternities are concerned with masculinity, they prefer to recruit bigger, more athletic members. Ironically, a fraternity's reputation and status depend on them having masculine qualities, such as the athleticism and the physical size of the members; not on good grades, campus leadership, and community service.

Unfortunately, many of the rapes and sexual assaults against women that occur in the fraternities go unnoticed because loyalty and secrecy take precedence over morals and judgements. Fraternity members must be loyal to the fraternity and to their brothers. They avoid trouble for their fraternity by keeping all of the issues to themselves. Therefore, secrecy becomes a common practice. They will often lie and not cooperate with police. Many fraternity men know that they will possible get away with their crime because the secrecy level is so high. This gives them a bigger incentive to commit the crime. According to Bohmer and Parrot, 25% of all female college students will experience some sort of sexual assault before they graduate; and approximately 5-8% of college men know that raping is wrong, but choose to do so because they know that the odds of them being caught are very low, and the odds of them being convicted is even lower.

In conclusion, the gender-stereotypic organization of fraternities contributes to the high rate of violent sexual assaults against women. They offer male-bonding and stress masculinity and anti-femininity. With the high value of secrecy, many of these assaults seldom come to the attention of outsiders. In order to prevent future sexual assaults, the values and fundamental structures of our fraternities must be altered. They need to compose a new version of masculinity, which does not ostracize femininity and feminine qualities."

Works Cited:

Boeringer, Scot B. "Influences of Fraternity Membership, Athletics, and Male Living Arrangements on Sexual Aggression." Violence Against Women, 2(1996): 134-148.

Bohmer, Carol and Andrea Parrot. "Sexual Assault on Campus: The Problem and the Solution." (journal, etc.)

Lackie, Leandra. "Correlates of Sexual Aggression Among Male University Students." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. Sep 1997 v37 n5-6 p451(7).

Martin, Patricia Yancey and Robert A. Hummer. "Fraternities and Rape on Campus." Race, Class, and Gender. Ed. Margaret L. Anderson and Patricia Hill Collins. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1988. 490-503.

Schwartz, Martin and Carol Nogrady. "Fraternity Membership, Rape Myths, and Sexual Aggression on a College Campus." Violence Against Women 2(1996): 148-163.

Ullman, Sarah E., George Karabatsos, and Mary P. Koss. "Alcohol and Sexual Assault in a National Sample of College Women." Journal of Interpersonal Violence. June 1999 v14 i6