[Wamvan] WSJ editor says intoxicated sexual assault victims just as guilty as their attackers

[Joanna Chiu]

Media Matters just posted a blog on this (text copied below):
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/10/wsj-editor-intoxicated-sexual-assault-victims-a/198007


If you'd like to reach the editor, you can tweet him @jamestaranto or email
him at James.Taranto at wsj.com

Does anyone know about his work previously? What's his deal? Is he a raging
misogynist? This is the first time I heard of him.

*WSJ* Editor: Intoxicated Sexual Assault Victims Are Just As Guilty As
Their Attackers Blog  <http://mediamatters.org/blog>››› 4 hours and 12
minutes ago ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY

*Wall Street Journal *editor James Taranto claimed that cases of "'sexual
assault' on campus" that involve alcohol are really victimless crimes in
which both parties are equally guilty.

In his February 10 *WSJ
*column<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304558804579374844067975558>,
Taranto baselessly argued that men are often unfairly accused in sexual
assault cases on college campuses, particularly when both men and women
involved in the case were drinking (emphasis added):

*What is called the problem of "sexual assault" on campus is in large part
a problem of reckless alcohol consumption, by men and women alike. *

*[...]*

*If two drunk drivers are in a collision, one doesn't determine fault on
the basis of demographic details such as each driver's sex. But when two
drunken college students "collide," the male one is almost always presumed
to be at fault. His diminished capacity owing to alcohol is not a
mitigating factor, but her diminished capacity is an aggravating factor
for him.*

*As the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education notes, at some
campuses the accuser's having had one drink is sufficient to establish the
defendant's guilt ... In theory that means, as FIRE notes, that "if both
parties are intoxicated during sex, they are both technically guilty of
sexually assaulting each other." In practice it means that women, but not
men, are absolved of responsibility by virtue of having consumed alcohol.*

While it is true that reckless alcohol consumption can play a
role<http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/10/college-men-stop-getting-drunk.html>
in
encouraging damaging behavior, and that male and female college students
(particularly underage students) could probably benefit from learning to
moderate their drinking for a variety of
reasons<http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/16/it_s_the_rapists_not_the_drinking_to_prevent_sexual_assault_on_college_campuses.html>,
Taranto's accusation that women who drink -- and then are forced to have
sex against their will -- are not only equally at fault for their assault
but are guilty of an equivalent crime takes victim blaming to a new and
dangerous low.

Taranto's victim-blaming approach furthers his attempts to disingenuously
redefine the problem of sexual assault as a problem of alcohol. The problem
of sexual assault on college campuses, as elsewhere, is entirely a problem
of *sexual assault*, in which a victim *does not consent* to sexual
relations with the aggressor. Studieshave
shown<http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-1/43-51.htm> that
alcohol consumption doesn't cause sexual assault, nor does it serve as a
defense. According to a literature review from the National Institutes of
Health:

*The fact that alcohol consumption and sexual assault frequently co-occur
does not demonstrate that alcohol causes sexual assault. *

*[...]*

*[M]en are legally and morally responsible for acts of sexual assault they
commit, regardless of whether or not they were intoxicated or felt that the
woman had led them on previously. The fact that a woman's alcohol
consumption may increase their likelihood of experiencing sexual assault
does not make them responsible for the man's behavior, although such
information may empower women when used in prevention programs. *

Other studies similarly found that some college men who acknowledge
committing sexual assault -- which included 25 percent of male students
surveyed -- may have used
alcohol<http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/media/journal/118-abbey.pdf>
to
"have an excuse for their behavior." Other variables, like peer pressure,
"may lead some men both to drink heavily and to commit sexual assault," but
the researchers found no evidence to place the blame solely on the presence
of alcohol.

Moreover, just because both women and men are drinking in a particular
situation does not necessarily place them on equal footing. As Ann Friedman
has noted<http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/10/college-men-stop-getting-drunk.html>,
"The biological reality is that women do not metabolize alcohol the same
way as men do, and that means drink for drink women will get drunker
faster." The idea that women who get drunk and then are forced into
nonconsensual sexual experiences are equally at fault in the situation
misses the reality of assault, particularly as it involves physical
force<https://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-offenders>
of
some kind in a majority of cases.

If Taranto is concerned about the treatment of men in such cases, he could
have written about male sexual assault victims, who are a
smaller<http://www.rainn.org/get-information/types-of-sexual-assault/male-sexual-assault>
but
nevertheless important portion of victims. But when men are sexually
assaulted the perpetrator is usually also
male<http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/media/journal/118-abbey.pdf>;
in fact, 98 percent<http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/sexual_assault_report_1-21-14.pdf>
of
all perpetrators are male. The "double standard" Taranto is worried about,
in which men are more often the accused, isn't a double standard at all --
it's just reality.

The insistence that victims are equally responsible for their assault
contributes to a dangerous
stigmatization<https://www.pcar.org/realities-sexual-violence>which
keeps many victims from reporting these
crimes<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/06/18/wsjs-taranto-dismisses-military-sexual-assault/194498>
--
particularly because victims who do report canbecome the targets of vicious
attacks<http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/23/2826331/victim-blaming-rape-ohio-university/>.
Previously, Taranto's victim-blaming has included insisting that efforts to
address the growing problem of sexual assault are attacks on men and male
sexuality<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/06/18/wsjs-taranto-dismisses-military-sexual-assault/194498>
.

But no matter how many times he uses the *WSJ *to blame victims and push
sexist attacks<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/06/the-sexism-of-this-wsj-editor-keeps-getting-wor/197448>,
his concern that women take advantage of using alcohol to falsely accuse
men of assault just doesn't match the facts. According to the FBI, people
falsely report sexual assault at the same low rate as other comparable
crimes: only 3 percent of the
time<https://www.pcar.org/realities-sexual-violence>
.
 *-- *
*Joanna Chiu | [image: Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/joannachiu> [image:
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