Thread by @MSS3RosaFerreum

@MoiraDonegan It's a "bad faith and factually false assertion that rape … 'have no gender'"? There's a feminist academic who disagrees with you. I'm not sure what data you're basing your statement that "[n]early all rapists are men; the vast majority of victims are women," but I can guess.

@MoiraDonegan Consider “The Sexual Victimization of Men in America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions” by feminist Lara Stemple and epidemiologist Ilan H. Meyer published in 2014 in the _American Journal of Public Health_, volume 104, issue 6, on pages e19–e26 (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…).

@MoiraDonegan "[F]ederal surveys detect a high prevalence of sexual victimization among men—in many circumstances similar to the prevalence found among women."

Am J Public Health. 2014 June; 104(6): e19.

Contrary to your assertion, the vast majority of rape victims are not women.

@MoiraDonegan "[I]n 2011[,] …the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), …found that men and women had a similar prevalence of nonconsensual sex in the previous 12 months (1.270 million women and 1.267 million men)."

Am J Public Health. 2014 June; 104(6): e19.

@MoiraDonegan "However unintentionally, the CDC’s publications and the media coverage that followed instead highlighted female sexual victimization, reinforcing public perceptions that sexual victimization is primarily a women’s issue."

Am J Public Health. 2014 June; 104(6): e19.

@MoiraDonegan What Lara Stemple and Ilan H. Meyer are referring to can be seen in Table 1 from the September 5, 2014, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss…, p. 5). @CDCgov doesn't think men can be "raped."

Thanks, @melliflora, for collecting and editing the graphic.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora So this raises the question, why does the @CDCgov separate out male rape victims into a separate category of "made to penetrate" rather than including male victimization in the "rape" statistic proper? The answer relates to the @FBI's problems with data collection regarding rape.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI Note that "Methodological Issues in the Use of Survey Data for Measuring and Characterizing Violence Against Women" by Martin D. Schwartz (researchgate.net/publication/24…) is cited by the @CDCgov in that Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss…, p. 18).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI Professor Schwartz cites Dr. Koss.

Martin D. Schwartz wrote "Methodological Issues in the Use of Survey Data for Measuring and Characterizing Violence Against Women" which was published in August 2000 in volume 6, issue 8, of _Violence Against Women_ (journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI "North American researchers have tended to follow… Mary Koss's lead in dealing with sexual assault by asking behaviorally specific questions." Violence Against Women. 2000 August; 6(8): 816.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI "[W]ithin the field of violence against women, there has been a great deal of controversy over the wording of questionnaires[, which] has consisted of attacks on Mary Koss's Sexual Experiences Survey (SES), which has been heavily used by other researchers…." Id. 829.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI The work of feminist and American Regents' Professor, Mary P. Koss, Ph.D., has made a mess of the statistics kept by @CDCgov and @FBI involving raped men and that undermined a lot of the studies based upon those statistics (as the work of Lara Stemple and Ilan H. Meyer reveals).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI American Regents' Professor Mary P. Koss, Ph.D., wrote “it is important to restrict the term rape to instances where male victims were penetrated by offenders. It is inappropriate to consider as a rape victim a man who engages in unwanted sexual intercourse with a woman.”

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI The above quote is from Mary P. Koss' "Detecting the Scope of Rape: A Review of Prevalence Research Methods" that was published in June 1993 in Volume 8, Number 2, of the _Journal of Interpersonal Violence_ on pages 206–207 (which is available at t.umblr.com/redirect?z=htt…).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI To see the extent of Dr. Koss' influence on academic and professional scholarship as well as her influence within the government, see her curriculum vitae:

publichealth.arizona.edu/sites/publiche…

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI @FBI wasn't counting lack-of-consent-rape as rape until 2012 (justice.gov/archives/opa/b…), but one could be prosecuted for lack-of-consent-rape by the American federal government regardless of gender since 1986 (congress.gov/bill/99th-cong…).

@FBI wasn't using the legal definition.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI To demonstrate what I am talking about hereinbelow is the federal rape statute I referenced earlier. Federal law uses "Sexual Abuse" rather than "Rape" as the term of art for the crime of rape (congress.gov/bill/99th-cong…) due to Senate Bill 1236 (in the 99th United States Congress).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI 18 U.S.C. § 2242(1): “Whoever … knowingly … causes another person to engage in a sexual act by threatening or placing that other person in fear ….”

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI 18 U.S.C. § 2242(2): “Whoever … knowingly … engages in a sexual act with another person [who] is… incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct; or… physically incapable of declining participation in, or communicating unwillingness to engage in, that sexual act….”

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI Compare that to the definition of rape the @FBI used to count rapes prior to 2012 (which the @FBI termed "forcible rapes," which seems to be similar to the common law definition of rape with which most people seem familiar), which sounds like Dr. Koss' definition.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI "Forcible rape… is the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Assaults or attempts to commit rape by force or threat of force are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded" (ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u…, p. 23).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI In this context, the @FBI and @CDCgov using an alternative definition of rape from the rest of the federal government, Congress, and the states is really weird, but in line with the scholarship of feminists like Dr. Koss (whose contributions are well documented).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI For example, Dr. Koss received the 2000 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy because "[h]er work has had a profound impact on public policies at national, state, and local levels" (psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-14…).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI The @FBI and the @CDCgov using these alternative definitions to count rapes fuels feminist propaganda supporting falsities (like the"vast majority of [rape] victims are women") as noted by feminist Lara Stemple and Ilan H. Meyer. Am J Public Health. 2014 June; 104(6): e19.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI Let's return to the critique of feminist/scholar Lara Stemple and scholar Ilan H. Meyer regarding the study by the @CDCgov influenced by feminist Dr. Koss' scholarship.

As Lara Stemple and Ilan H. Meyer point out, Dr. Koss' scholarship negatively impacts the equality of men.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI "[T]reating male sexual victimization as a rare occurrence can impose regressive expectations about masculinity on men…. The belief that men are unlikely victims promotes a counterproductive construct of what it means to 'be a man.'"
Am J Public Health. 2014 June; 104(6): e20.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI "[F]actors that perpetuate misperceptions about men’s sexual victimization [include]: reliance on traditional gender stereotypes, outdated and inconsistent definitions, and methodological sampling biases that exclude inmates."

Am J Public Health. 2014 June; 104(6): e19.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI In federal prison, women can be quite rapey toward male inmates. Let's look at some data.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Justice Department considers rape (pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 2241, 2243, and 2244) of federal inmates a huge problem (oig.justice.gov/special/0504/i…).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI “As the statistics below indicate, the scope of the problem also includes female staff with male inmates, male staff with male inmates, and female staff with female inmates. … The following chart describes the gender breakdown of allegations investigated by the OIG…:”

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI Although male staff commits 51% of the rapes (perpetrated by staff against inmates), a man is more likely to be raped by a woman in prison: 47% of the rapes committed are female staff raping men and 8% of the rapes committed are male staff raping men (oig.justice.gov/special/0504/i…).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI Also note that men are the majority of victims of prison rape (i.e., 55% of victims): 47% of the rapes committed against men are female staff raping men and 8% of the rapes committed against men are male staff raping men (oig.justice.gov/special/0504/i…).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI Having finished my digression on the prison rape statistics, let's return to the study by feminist and @UCLA Law School Assistant Dean Lara Stemple and psychiatric epidemiologist Ilan H. Meyer.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI @UCLA "Overreliance on [male rapist/female victim model] stigmatizes men who are victimized, risks portraying women as victims, and discourages discussion of abuse that runs counter to the paradigm, such as same-sex abuse and female perpetration of sexual victimization." Id., p. e25.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI @UCLA "[S]ome contemporary gender theorists have questioned the overwhelming focus on female victimization, not simply because it misses male victims but also because it serves to reinforce regressive notions of female vulnerability." Id., p. e20.

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI @UCLA Unfortunately, as Conor Friedersdorf wrote on November 8, 2016, "[t]o date, no existing clinical studies examine large numbers of female sexual perpetrators" (theatlantic.com/science/archiv…).

@MoiraDonegan @CDCgov @melliflora @FBI @UCLA Given the data, @MoiraDonegan, is it "bad faith and factually false" to assert "that rape … 'ha[s] no gender'" or is it "bad faith and factually false" to assert that "[n]early all rapists are men; the vast majority of victims are women"?

Rape is not really a gendered crime.