Andy Chalk said:
Therumancer said:
Sitting here and saying there is a clear reduction in rapes in the USA is stupid, because anyone who has bothered to actually look into the subject (which I did when this first came up) will find that there are contridictory claims, with research and statistics backing both sides of the equasion.
Well dude, I don't know where you get your numbers but mine come from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_01.html [http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_01.html]
Well some of the sources are simply from Nationmaster, which compiles a lot of statistics about differant things based on nations:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap-crime-rapes
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita
Human Rights Watch (as of 2008)
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/12/18/us-soaring-rates-rape-and-violence-against-women
Another older set of statistics going back as far as 1992 from a Rape Crisis organization:
http://www.stoprapevermont.org/statistics/national.html
A current set of statistics from a New Mexico Crisis Center, claiming the rate of rapes is 25% (1 in 4) of women, and 5% (1 in 20) of men in their state.
http://rapecrisiscnm.org/index.php
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This is only the tip of the iceberg, do some searches on the subject and while you CAN find things that will reinforce your point, you WILL find things that will reinforce what I am saying as well. The point here not being me supporting either "side" specifically, but rather pointing out the vast differances in information.
Now yes, the quality of sources DO tend to vary greatly. The FBI is a good one, but then again so is New Mexico's crisis center (and this is just one of them, I believe I used a differant crisis center last time I did links).
The reason why it's such a big mess is that everyone has a vested interest. The FBI wants to make it look like rapes are down because it's a sign of them doing the good job, and helps reinforce the perception that the people in charge of it right now should stay there. On the other hand rape crisis centers employ a lot of people, and draw on a lot of funding, their success is dependant on there being a clear and present need for their services.
In a funding meeting someone looking to cut state spending is going to go around and make cases like "well, the FBI is doing a good job, and says that rape is down, so I guess we can lower the amount of state dollars going into our rape crisis programs", and of course the programs on the receiving end are going to say the FBI is wrong and counter with their own statistics and research (and pointing out the FBI's interest) to justify their own funding. As an outsider, all I can say is that all aspcts of this can bring weighty sources to their defense, as far as who is actually right is beyond me.
Personally, while I don't agree with Nationmaster in all things because it has a chip to grind with the US at times (or so it seems to me), I can't see much of a motivation for this one especially seeing as on a per-population basis there are a number of nations it seems to play (comparitive) favorites with ahead of the US.
The bottom line is that when we're #9 for the rape-to-population, and #1 in overall rapes (given our larger population than other nations), even if we have the lowest rate of rapes in 20 years it's pretty bloody disgusting, and makes bickering with her point about the rape rate rising seem pretty bloody petty.
I'm not saying that I agree with video games having anything to do with this, because the problem has existed before video games were this mainstream, but I think the grounds she's being attacked on are wrong. Choosing the wrong front to oppose something like this on, and running with it, is exactly how fandom creates it's own problems.
