My Old Major Professor, Articles about Studies, and Dangerous Parties

So I was thumbing through my feeds when what did appear?

The name of my major professor from my master's degree! But damn, reading articles about studies can be ever so confusing!

So, earlier this week, the Chronicle of Higher Education featured a study by Dr. Chadwick Menning,* “Unsafe at Any House?” (to be published in the October issue of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence). However, after reading the story there, I got the impression that the study was only about women and what made them feel unsafe. Partly this came from the focus on sexual assault, but it was also because of sentences such as this:

Chadwick Menning, an associate professor of sociology at Ball State University, asked respondents to name signals that make women feel unsafe at a party. They cited such things as suggestive dancing and and a disproportionately high number of men. But they did not mention alcohol, Mr. Menning said.

Then I checked for Ball State's news release, and got the impression that men AND women were asked what made them each feel unsafe. Partly this is because of sentences such as this:

A survey of about 300 students from Midwestern colleges and universities found male and female college students identified different signals that a particular party may be potentially dangerous, but drinking was not one of them.

Oh, and these:

Menning pointed out that males found parties with a high number of other males as compared to females problematic, leading to potential physical confrontations.

"When women go to a party with the music blaring and people are dancing, they may feel in danger when, in order to talk to a male partygoer, they have to go to a secluded, quiet area," he said.

Okay, so we're definitely clear that the students DIDN'T cite alcohol as a sign the party might be dangerous. I do want to point out, and it's not clear from these articles (but I'm sure it is in the official academic article being published later), that there is a difference between saying that going to a party where lots of people are drinking heavily is dangerous for your well-being (be it fights or rape you fear), and saying that getting sloppy drunk at a party is dangerous for your well-being. FAR too many rape prevention efforts focus on WOMEN and whether THEY are drinking;but last I checked, rapists are more likely to be drunk than rapees. Unfortunately, I'm findings some WILDLY different statistics on that point. Here's what the Ball State article had to say:

[N]ational research continues to show that the greatest risk to personal safety may come from excessive alcohol consumption, which has been linked to sexual assaults and fights.

Menning said it is noteworthy that this lack of concern about alcohol persists in spite of intensive efforts by college administrators to increase awareness about sexual assault and the dangers of intoxication.

"Women rank rape as their biggest fear, even bigger than death," he said. "However, attending parties that are centered on drinking puts them at risk for sexual assault."

Findings from the study suggest that acquaintance rape prevention and associated education efforts could be enhanced by highlighting the importance of warning signs, including those that students do not currently take into account, and the effects of the party atmosphere on individual behavior, Menning said.

So what I gather from this is that men see danger in the presence of too many other men at a party (fight waiting to happen), and women see danger in a sexualized atmosphere (suggestive dancing) and loud music (must be alone with boy to talk to him). I would say that it is the implied drinking that makes these things problematic. I seriously doubt a man would feel threatened by being in a group with a disproportionate number of men if it were, say, a conference session. And I doubt a woman will be quite as threatened by the idea of being alone in a room with a guy if the guy weren't drunk and they weren't at a college party.

Just as drinking increases the odds that two people will get in a fight or have sex, a sober person is also more likely to get punched in the face or groped on the ass if the men in the vicinity are wasted. But of course students aren't going to cite alcohol consumption at a party as a potential danger signal: like it said in the article, the alcohol consumption level is a given. It doesn't vary enough to significantly predict anything. Hence, secondary markers.

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*who Don Troop refers to as Mr. Menning. MISTER? Hell, I'm not even a Dr. Anomie yet and I bristle at the incorrect title use. But then, I'm status-conscious (i.e., I am on a quest for world domination), and I am a stickler for "correct" grammar (i.e., the way I talk).

[via Contexts Crawler]