I'm not from the US nor do I live there - so I definitely have no idea what life on US campuses is like.
In recent years I've heard occasional news stories about supposed prevalence of sexual assault of (mostly?) female students on US campuses, with implicit or explicit accusations of there being a culture conducive to these, e.g. in male fraternities; or with university authorities looking the other way etc.
On the other hand I've also occasionally heard claims to the contrary, e.g.:
- I've overheard some researchers in conferences I attend describe how US campuses are now supposedly extremely restrictive in speech and expression, and that what you say or do very often and very easily gets construed as harassing or micro-aggressive. Consequently, perhaps the bar for characterizing actions as sexual assaults, or the willingness to file complaints about assaults when they occur, is higher.
- I've heard claims that many accusations of sexual assault or rape often leveled against males (specifically male students) involve cases in which a male and a female get drunk and end up having sex, with the question of consent being somewhat muddled and implicit - and that these situations may be used to supposedly "stack" the statistics of sexual assault.
Now, I know that in general, sexual harassment and assault happen much more often than I would imagine as a male (see also this question here on skeptics.SX); and that much of those cases is not officially reported for various reasons (feelings of shame, fear of retribution, fear of social stigma, pressure by the harasser, lack of trust in the police and the courts etc.)
Still, my question is: Is the solid statistical evidence for higher prevalence of sexual assault on US campuses, that :
- is broken down by type and/or severity of assault, to be able to check for the claim of "up-playing", and
- includes some credible model of estimating unreported vs reported assaults
If there isn't, I guess the question mark remains.
