30% Would-be Rapists? Researches that Went Wrong.

I recently read an interesting research article, Denying Rape but Endorsing Forceful Intercourses: Exploring Differences Among Responders” (Edwards, Bradshaw and Hinsz, 2014). In this article, the researchers were committed to classifying their research responders into three different types and then discussed about the possibility of rape prevention.  

By applying Luker’s Concept of “Sampling, Operationalization, and Generalization” to this research, we can analyse the research illustrated as follows:

l  Sampling

Participants of the research were composed of 86 male college student who were over 18 and most were juniors in college. The majority of them (>90%) were identified as Caucasian, heterosexual, and with prior sexual experiences. They were offered extra credit for their participation.

l  Operationalization

The research distinguished between “rape” and “using force to obtain intercourse” by stating that some men would endorse “forceful intercourse” while denying “rape”. However, no explicit definitions of the two terms could be found throughout the article.

l  Generalization

The researchers hypothesized about three groups: men who do not endorse any intentions for sexual aggression; men who openly endorse intentions to rape women; men who only endorsee intentions to use force but deny rape.

The conclusion of the research was that the three groups do exist, and there is “no one-size-fits-all approach to sexual assault prevention”.

This research is clearly what Luker defines as “canonical research”. On the one hand, the sampling is planned to represent the larger population, not the larger phenomenon, as the researchers explicitly stated in the article that the composition of the participants was “consistent with the general student make up” at the university. Further, the sampled population was too monotonous to produce convincing results. There were no in-depth interviews nor comparisons carried out to bump up its level of generalization (Luker, 2008). And the fact that participants only said yes to the research because they could earn extra credit also weakened their credibility.

Meanwhile, the whole process of operationalization and the generalization seemed to exist only for the sake of its existence. To put it in other words, the researchers have already confirmed their conclusion even before the conduction of the research. And this incredulous research result became the keynote of a news article, “1 in 3 University of North Dakota Men Surveyed Would Rape a Woman If They Could Get Away with it” (Clark, 2015).

Well, in my opinion, further researches need to be done to give back men at University of North Dakota their reputation.

Reference

 Clark, F. (2015 January 12). Appalling results from a small study of college men highlight a public safety emergency. Retrieved from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/01/12/appalling-results-from-a-small-study-of-college-men-highlight-a-public-safety-emergency/

 Luker, K. (2008). Salsa Dancing Into The Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-glut. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press. 99-128.

Edwards, S. Bradshaw, K. and Hinsz, V.B. (2014). Denying Rape but Endorsing Forceful Intercourses: Exploring Differences Among Responders. Violence and Gender. 1. DOI: 10.1089/vio.2014.0022