Drunk Campus Sex--it's often Rape

by Mara Gay

Yes, boys will be boys. But boys who rape women on college campuses are rapists. And nine out of 10 them are likely to be repeat offenders, according to a new investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity. The series, "Seeking Justice for Campus Rapes" has revealed an infuriating truth about rape on college campuses in the United States: serial rapists are responsible for the vast majority of sex-related crimes, and yet efforts to prevent rape have largely targeted women.

For 20 years, So Lisak, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, surveyed over 2,000 men on college campuses about their sexual behavior.

"Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they did not want to, because they were too intoxicated [on alcohol or drugs] to resist your sexual advances?" one question asked.

One out of 16 of the men admitted that they had.

Lisak calls these collegiate gentlemen "undetected" rapists, and says they're not much different than the serial rapists who are in prison.

"The predators on campus know that women who are new to campus, they are younger, they're less experienced," Lisak told NPR. "They probably have less experience with alcohol, they want to be accepted. They will probably take more risks because they want to be accepted. So for all these reasons, the predators will look particularly for those women."

Of course, as NPR notes, these collegiate gentlemen don't think of themselves as rapists. And astonishingly, most universities don't treat them like they are either.

Why not?

Alcohol is involved in most campus rapes, and schools are more likely to decry the "irresponsible behavior" of the female students who have been drinking than they are to criminally prosecute male students for their sexual crimes.

She must be asking for it.

The result? One out of five women will be sexually assaulted in college, only 5 percent of rapes are reported, and universities across the United States have adopted policies and programs that - even while seemingly well-meaning - blame women for their assault.

On its "Rape Prevention" website, for example, the University of Texas police department's advises students to "drink moderately."

"No one who experiences a sexually-charged assault is ever to blame for the actions of their attacker, but alcohol use makes everyone more vulnerable to becoming a victim. Alcohol impairs your judgment, reflexes, and response time, so you should drink in moderation and always have a trusted group of friends around when you drink."

The campus police at the University of Michigan, where this reporter went to school, have offered a helpful list of things women can do to prevent being victimized, which includes being "careful not to let alcohol or other drugs decrease your ability to take care of yourself and make sensible decisions." One of the suggestions? "Practice saying 'no' clearly --don't hint, don't expect anyone to read your mind," they suggest. "Be aware of situations when you do not feel relaxed and in charge."

Don't get me wrong. Empowering women is a nice thing to do. It makes us feel good, it makes us feel safe, and for campus police departments, who generally have jurisdiction over sexual crimes on campus, it's a whole lot easier than prosecuting the men responsible for the assault.

In an analysis that has a Mad-Men era feel to it, Stetson University law professor Peter Lake suggested to NPR that the promiscuous behavior of college women may be part of the problem.

"It's very common for them to go out Wednesday through Saturday at a minimum, drink fairly heavily and hook up sexually with people that they may not know particularly well, may have met for the first time that night, or had been introduced through friends, or MySpace or Facebook."

Despite federal laws criminalizing rape and sexual assault, colleges would prefer to deal with rape on their own. And for rapists, that means a far lighter punishment. According to the Center for Public Integrity study, most of them are allowed to continue to go to class as though nothing has happened.

Jill, of the Feministe blog, spells it out in plain English.

"Men who rape on campus are repeat offenders in large part because they can get away with it."

At Indiana University, for example, only one out of 12 men held responsible for sexual assaults in the past four years were expelled. Pamela Freedman, IU's associate dean of students, told the Center for Public Integrity that the school's "basic philosophy is not to expel." After all, Freedman said, "they're not all predators."

Then what are they, exactly?

Apparently, they're wealthy, college-educated men who cannot be criminals, and so therefore must be "misunderstood" instead.

Mara Gay contributes to AOL news and previously worked for The Atlantic.  Her stories have appeared in The Washington Post and The Root.  She lives in New York.