First off, my apologies if I offended anyone here.
I figured I might, but reluctantly went ahead with my post anyway. I debated leaving well enough alone and not posting anymore in this thread, but I didn’t want to be accused of an internet hit and run so, well, at the risk of upsetting people further, here goes …
- Yes, that was snarky
- Regarding your second point, neither of those links you posted refer to a murder (I’m not saying one didn’t happen, I don’t know - just referring to what you posted). Both links refer to the incident from last night, and my advice would be the same that I gave my daughters as I send them off to college: don’t open your door if someone knocks at 3AM, simply call the police immediately.
- I never said anything about whether either victim was a student or not and I don’t think it matters. In my opinion, whether the victims were students or not, the perpetrators deserve more punishment than I can comfortably express in a public forum.
@50N40W
I think you may have inadvertently ended up using extreme samples for your comparison. Using the site you linked to, for lack of a better methodology I looked up all Big Ten schools based on the two you selected. Here’s the forcible sexual assaults for the same time period you used:
Purdue 7
Nebraska 7
Northwestern 9
UIUC 22
Minnesota 22
Iowa 24
Maryland 28
Rutgers 37
UW 44
OSU 45
IU 47
MSU 47
UM 54
PSU 73
Also, as a point of note, since you focused on the state of Indiana, sexual assaults were reported opening week of the current semester at IU, Purdue, Ball State, and Notre Dame. All of them. And to follow up on your comment, I don’t think the number of murders on ANY campus is acceptable.
And yes, by all accounts, sexual assaults (possibly even the majority) on college campuses are under-reported:
https://uwcampusassaults.■■■■■■■■■■■■■
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/university-of-kentucky-survey-finds-most-sexual-assault-cases-on-campus-go-unreported_55e4b335e4b0c818f618cc37
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/four-five-acts-campus-sexual-assault-go-unreported-police/
Deciding exactly to what degree each college under-reports is something well beyond my ability for number crunching. And actually, I don’t even know if anyone has gathered information that specific. And it’s not just the victims, but might actually be that schools are turning a blind eye:
http://www.vocativ.com/usa/education-usa/sexual-assault-on-college-campuses/
Which all brings me to my points that I tried, but obviously failed, to convey in my first post (this is not intended directly for any of you): I am NOT downplaying anything going on at IU or trying to defend anything going on there. Is IU an extreme case? Possibly. But data from the website provided by @50N40W suggests that it might not be uncommonly so. Which is a very sad statement.
The cold hard truth is that, unfortunately, IU is not that much different than most campuses. That doesn’t mean it’s OK. None of them are - the entire culture is a mess. At any college campus, getting drunk can lead to date rape and walking alone at night can lead to assault. I’m just afraid that parents/students might let their guard down if they think they’ve made a safe choice, and keeping their guard up is the only things potential victims have control over - not putting themselves in high risk situations.
My apologies again for any offense I’ve caused.