To the Editor:
Yesterday's article titled "Many Rape incidents occur yearly at College" is chilling (Feb. 6). The number of sexual assaults on campus is high -- far too high. Furthermore, there are aspects of the article, and the National Institute of Justice's "Sexual Victimization of College Women" study, that make little sense.
According to reporter Amanda Cohen, citing the NIJ study, "Of the college women who had been victims of rape in the victimization study, only 46.5 percent considered the action rape, while 48.8 percent did not, and 4.7 percent were unsure." Thus, according to this study, less than half of the people who were "raped" according to the NIJ definition did not believe that they had been a victim of rape.
Expanding the definition of "rape" so that nearly 50 percent of its so-called victims do not recognize it as rape accomplishes nothing positive.
At the same time, it makes college women seem as if they somehow lack the critical faculties to determine if they are victims of rape.
The statistics cited by the NIJ are clearly intended to shock and raise awareness. Unfortunately, they have the effect of making rape seem less like the heinous crime that it is and more like an act so vaguely defined that even its victims don't recognize it.
