Climate of Fear

In a first of what may be many parts, we are going to address a cultural paradigm. A paradigm that is accepted by both “liberals” and “conservatives” in America. It is a cultural paradigm of fear. A fear, a dissolution of community, that Vance Packard warned us about 40 years ago, it has many facets, and many effects, including the relations between men and women, let alone among people generally.

We will begin with a fearful subject: rape. Yes, I know as a man, even an academic, I should be cautioned about speaking on this subject, but that too is one of the problems: if one is considered unqualified to comment merely because of gender, we have gravitated into silos of dismissive ignorance. Rape has gone from caution and awareness about it, to pandemic fear of it or concern over it. Do statistics bear this out? Let’s look:

Since rape is an underreported crime, researchers have used careful surveys to meld data and get a more accurate picture of rape in America. However, the statistics cannot reliably factor out undiscovered wholly false reporting (which, according to researchers, when it does happen, happens for a surprisingly wide range of reasons, depending on the individual). They cannot reliably factor out rebuffed non-coercive/non-harassing advances later reported as rape. The statistics also do not factor out consensual sex later reported as rape. Although all three of these would reduce the actual incidences of rape (it being obviously statistically impossible that all reports are genuine), researchers presently have no reliable method to estimate false reporting of these types: some sources say it is as little as 2% of the cases, others (law enforcement and prosecutors, especially) say it is closer to 50%. Whatever the actual rate is, researchers are hopeful that their survey methods can filter out at least some of this false reporting.

Researchers estimate about one-sixth of rapes are reported. The most recent reported U.S. rapes averaged, rounding up, about .03% of the general population, or about .06% (again, rounding up) of the female population, disregarding gay rape. This therefore gives us a figure of up to .36% actual rapes against females (including female on female rape, which cannot be separately factored at present). This figure is less than the figures derived from the older National Women’s Study (NWS) survey; however, even despite general agreement by most researchers that incidences of rape have declined by up to 60% since the survey, we shall liberally use the higher figures from the survey, which indicated:

.7% (7 out of a 1000) of females in the U.S. are raped in a year
29% of these are below the age of 11
32% are 11-17
22% are 18-24
7% are 25-29
6% are over 29
4% experience rape in multiple age categories or are otherwise not age accounted

There is deep tragedy in the just-above statistics. Yet they also bring to light something else: while research indicates college age women are fearful about rape, research also indicates that the most fearful group about rape are women over the age of 29. Yet, as the above statistics point out, this group has the lowest rate of any of the groups.

The NWS dispelled the common myth that most women are raped by strangers:
Only 22% did not their attacker or did not know them well
9% were victims of husbands or ex-husbands
11% by fathers or stepfathers
10% by boyfriends or ex-boyfriends
16% by other relatives
29% by non-relatives such as friends or neighbors

These statistics give strong suggestion that under-reporting is heavily related to the fact that most rapes occur by non-strangers. It also explains much of the previous set of statistics about age groups, especially the very youngest: much of this is happening inside the close circle of extended family and friends.
Another clarifying facet: Incidences and prevalence of rape are two different things. A fair number of women turn up as repeated rape victims (40%), and class, drugs, alcohol, profession, etc. often play large roles.

Another aspect is that psychological/emotional trauma is more likely than physical injury:
70% of women reported no injuries
24% reported minor injuries

What then to make of all this? Well, before we start, let us make something clear: Rape prevention, rape reporting, and care for the dignity of the victim, all continue to need attention to.

But the climate of fear is wrong. It is not reality. This climate has an effect on society, and in turns gets an effect from society.

Even women who have not been raped are affected by the fear that they may be raped in the future (Gordon & Riger, 1989). This fear affects women's quality of life by restricting their movements (Valentine, 1992; Warr, 1985) and, as a result, their capacity for work and leisure (Green, Hebron, & Woodward, 1987; Riger & Gordon, 1981; Riger, Gordon, & LeBailly, 1978; Stanko, 1990).

Where does this fear originate? In many places. Fear is related to, among many females, increasing time alone without a male or a reliable male, in moving to new neighborhoods without an adequate sense of community, our highly individualistic society of disconnected “self-reliance,” excessive promotion of independence, opportunity, and expectation, lack of simple, even platonic, male escort that was standard in the past, of the overburdened and time-jammed males—even fathers and brothers—of our society who do not and cannot “be there” often enough, of overburdened and time-jammed females of our society who similarly cannot wait, coordinate, or even have enough connection, of mixed messages of modesty, freedom, sexual expression, absence of dressing norms, etc. thrown into a volatile mixture of confusion, frustration, and sometimes even anger.

As if our culture needed any more dysfunction between the genders, or any more social disconnection or lack of community.

Here is the simple, frustrating, and complex reality:

1. The majority of men, the VAST majority of men, are not sexual deviants, predators, stalkers, rapists, abusers, etc. Despite what the culture tells us, despite what that cable channel promotes, despite the constant shallow “statistics” promoted by a shallow media and the chattering class to promote agendas and jobs of those “specialists” only too willing to believe what they want to believe.

2. Yet this climate of fear overshadows so much. Not only are men insulted and degraded, they may even get a little emasculated by this climate. The insidious message that they cannot be trusted to be non-rapists, and worse, the feeling from females that the men cannot be trusted to be non-rapists, damages both genders. Blind fear causes us to stumble into bad effects across the general population, thus self-punishing the many out of excessive fear of the few.

3. Still, our disconnected, excessively individualistic society of fractured “community” means that we don’t know and have little familiarity with far too many of the individuals that surround us, or that pop in and out of our lives and change with dizzying regularity. Aside from a pretty close circle, we don’t know who we can REALLY trust, and so we have to be cautious.

The caution should be focused, selective, and wise however.

For example, you can promote awareness with sayings like “Normal people know the difference between consensual social interaction and assault. Do you?” When one wants to make a point in an organization or society and set or restore good order and discipline, you make examples of the few; the majority, who already believe in what’s right anyway, will not feel punished, and the remaining few deviants will be cowed into line.

We desperately need to put some glue back into the civil society. If, as appears likely, economic fracturing is on the horizon, we will need that glue to get through it.