Recently a mass email was sent to presumably all students at my school inviting them to a survey concerning non-consensual sexuality activity and sexual violence among college students in an effort to construct an educational program, presumably around the risks and misconceptions associated with it. The survey was only for those a certain age group and I was not part of it, but I did raise some questions to the instructor regarding the survey:

  • The potential sampling problems of restricting it to such an age group, which could distort the reality of the situation.

  • How a distinction would be made between being a victim of sexual violence as a consequence of being in college(e.g. being on campus, college dating culture, etc) and simply being a victim while in that age group, as well as distinguishing between being victimized while in that age group and being a victim at some point in their life while being survey as a member of that age group.

  • While it invited both men and women to participate in trying to get a complete perspective, I posed the possibility that it is not what is considered assault that may be the problem, but what constitutes consent to those surveyed.

She seemed open the points I brought up and perhaps having future surveys/modifying the survey(or at least considering the points in the data analysis), and invited me to keep in touch in seeing the results of the survey. I know I have been prone to giving people too much of a benefit of the doubt but I think she was genuinely trying to get good data to make an effective program. It may be possible I get to work more with this program to be inclusive in helping establish a more complete picture and one that helps the most people, but that would be pretty optimistic of me at this point. In any case I'm happy to see I was able to contribute a little in a way that hopefully helps reduce victimization without demonizing another group.