Self-Reporting

How Many Wives Cheat?

Woman removing wedding ring (Mockridge Investigations)

Woman removing wedding ring (Mockridge Investigations)

I ran across an interesting article on “The Huffington Post” on cheating wives, and wanted to see what other numbers I could find on the topic.

The 2013 HuffPo piece cites a “Bloomberg Business” article (the link to which is now defunct) that supposedly goes into further detail about it. The findings were apparently taken from the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey, and found that women “had more affairs in the past two decades then in previous years.” The article doesn’t clarify how long the “previous years” timespan is.

But the study apparently found that “the percentage of wives having affairs rose almost 40 percent … to 14.7 percent in 2010.” This seems a little suspect, especially since we can’t see the original source. We’re dealing with self-reporting, so there’s bound to be some wonky numbers. And I don’t understand this “rising 40% to 14.7%” business. I feel like something got lost there, because there’s sort of no way that can be true.

HuffPo’s article mentions that for women, greater economic freedom makes it easier to cheat, since a financially independent woman isn’t trapped by her husband making all the household income.

Another study excerpted from the book “The Normal Bar” puts the number of cheating women at 19%, but this might also included unmarried women. A feature from “Fox News Magazine” claims the number of cheating wives hovers around 50-60%.

But which of these is correct?

It’s pretty impossible to tell. But it’s probable that the actual numbers might be higher.

There are so many varying statistics on this due to self-reporting issues that we’ll probably never get a concrete number of wives who admit to cheating on their husbands.

 

No Shit: Colleges Are Underreporting Sexual Assaults

UVA Rotunda (Wikipedia)

UVA Rotunda (Wikipedia)

This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one: A recent study published in “Psychology, Public Policy and Law” found that colleges underreport sexual assaults on their campuses.

Conducted by the American Psychological Association, University of Kansas researcher Corey Rayburn Yung analyzed data pertaining to on-campus sexual assault reports from 31 colleges and universities. (This data came via the Clery Act, a federal law that mandates how colleges self-report crimes.) He specifically looked at “large schools with on-campus housing and 10K students” that were audited between 2001-2012 by the U.S. Department of Education for meeting federal reporting standards.

Here’s what Yung found:

During the audits, the reported numbers of sexual assaults increased by approximately 44 percent on average from previously reported levels. After the audits ended, the reported number of sexual assaults in following years dropped to pre-audit levels, evidence that some schools provided a more accurate picture of sexual assaults on campus only when they were under federal scrutiny, the study concluded.

(The study notes that individual stats for each school weren’t provided, and some didn’t show a spike in reporting during this period.)

It makes sense that a school would be more vigilant in reporting assaults during a government-mandated audit. But holy shit that’s a huge discrepancy. (To his credit, Yung did say that the study’s initial hypothesis was that colleges were underreporting these numbers, so he wasn’t going into this super-naive.)

But here’s another troubling thing, taken from the study’s abstract:

The data indicate[s] that the audits have no long-term effect on the reported levels of sexual assault, as those crime rates return to previous levels after the audit is completed.

So these schools are only on top of things when the Feds are breathing down their neck. Basically you’re shit out of luck if you’re assaulted on-campus during a non-audit timeframe, college women.

It’s probable that issues influencing the underreporting are the schools wanting to cover up the assaults (obviously), and/or schools might attempt the resolve the cases in a timely manner during the audit.

This sheds light on how higher education institutions see sexual assault: more of a potential blight on their reputations than actual concern for victims. Said Yung:

The study shows that many universities continue to view rape and sexual assault as a public relations issue rather than a safety issue. They don’t want to be seen as a school with really high sexual assault numbers, and they don’t want to go out of their way to report that information to students or the media.

What happens to schools that don’t comply with the sexual assault reporting requirements? They’re fined $35K, which pretty much amounts to a student’s (or half a student’s) yearly tuition.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve long suspected this to be the case. A similar phenomenon occurs with reporting unemployment numbers: A person who doesn’t work is counted as “unemployed” only if they’ve been actively looking for work within that past four weeks. If they haven’t done so, they’re not counted at all. Whenever a new jobs report comes out claiming that the unemployment number has dropped, a lot of people who haven’t been looking get hopeful and begin to look for work again, and then the real unemployment number grows. (And then everyone wonders why it’s bigger than before.)

To solve this problem, Yung calls for greater resources allocated to the issue, more frequent audits and greater fines for delinquent schools. I’d say that that’s a good step in the right direction.

The Numbers Behind Stanford University’s Sexual Assault Problem

Stanford University (Stanford)

Stanford University (Stanford)

Last week, Stanford University swimmer Brock Allen Turner was charged with raping an intoxicated and unconscious woman in January. Allen was discovered by two men, who then chased after him. The men tackled and held Allen to prevent him from escaping, while a third man called the police.

Since then, Allen has “voluntarily withdrawn” from the university (more likely, it was either that or face expulsion), and won’t be allowed to re-enroll. His profile has also been removed from the nationally-ranked swim team’s website. Stanford will also conduct its own investigation of the crime.

This is notable for a few reasons. Rapes on college campuses have made headlines recently, notably the “Rolling Stone” UVA article, and subsequent fraternity scandal. But this is the first time we’ve recently seen a school take a hard line against rape. The university made a swift and decisive action, leaving no room for public outcry.

Specifically for Stanford, this is a pretty bold move. According to the “SF Gate,” the school has been one of the schools called out for their sexual assault policies (as in, they’re not stringent enough). Stanford Law professor Michele Landis Dauber prepared a report on sexual assaults at the school, and found the following:

Between 1997 and 2009, just four of 175 reported sexual assaults were formally adjudicated at Stanford, with two of the alleged attackers held responsible.

Doing the math, only 2.29% of reported sexual assaults were tried over a period of 12 years. (And, with what we know about the reporting of sexual assaults, it’s probable that the sheer number of them that occurred was much higher.) The alleged attackers were only held responsible 50% of the time. Pretty shameful.

Dauber noted that the numbers have improved since the report: The university has been “more welcoming” to victims and followed through on investigations (which could mean following through on more investigations, and/or following through more closely). But of course, there’s always room for improvement.

Let’s hope that Stanford’s actions incite other colleges to make the right decisions when, not if, they’re faced with similar situations.

What’s the Most Dangerous Sex Position?

Girl on top (Ethnic Health Court)

Girl on top (Ethnic Health Court)

Happy Friday! Time for a Sex & Stats PSA: This weekend, as you’re getting it on with your partner(s), remember that some positions are more dangerous than others. (But that makes them more exciting, right?) Scientists have recently discovered that girl-on-top sex is the most dangerous position for men.

How did they discover this, you ask? Scientists in Campinas, Brazil (a city northwest of Sao Paolo) examined patients from three local hospitals to study penile fractures and their long-term influence on potential future deformities and erectile and voiding issues.

According to “Advances in Urology,” 42 of the 44 “suspicious cases” (95%+ of the total) were confirmed to be penile fractures. The mean age of the men was 34+ years.

The abstract notes that many of the men presented certain, um, signs of fracture:

Half presented the classical triad of audible crack, detumescence (i.e. becoming flaccid), and pain.

(I totally grimaced just typing that. And I’m a woman.)

The researchers found that most penile fractures resulted from heterosexual intercourse, which happened in 66%+ of the subjects. By contrast, homosexual sex brought on fractures only with 9%+ of subjects.

Now, the good stuff: With heterosexual couples, “woman on top” was the most common position, with 14 participants, exactly 50% of the pool. “Doggy style” was the next most common, with a sample size of eight participants, at 28%+. Four subjects reported that the cause of fracture was “unclear,” which sounds like they did a variety of things that, combined, led to the fracture, or were just too embarrassed to report their activities.

The researchers’ hypothesis on why cowgirl is so dangerous boils down to the fact that women can better control the movement, with her body weight resting on the penis. In this position, men are more liable to injury since they can’t control or stop the movement, and they have the potential for greater injury as a result of “wrong-way penetration.”

Let’s review: 42 cases of penile fracture. 28 people/14 couples participating in heterosexual coitus. “Woman on top” has a full 50% chance of resulting in penile fractures.

So go out and have fun, but don’t end up in the emergency room.

UVA Sexual Assault: Rape Punishments on College Campuses

UVA Rotunda (Hoo Stories)

UVA Rotunda (Hoo Stories)

On Nov. 19, “Rolling Stone” published a harrowing article on a UVA student’s 2012 gang rape, and its eventual social and political fallout and complications around the campus. The article goes into depth in detailing UVA’s culture of avoiding the topic of sexual assault, and terming any assaults mere “bad experiences.”

The article cites UVA’s honor code culture that also functions to keep sexual assault quiet. It points out that 183 students have been expelled for violating the honor code since 1998, but there have been no expulsions resulting from reporting sexual assault (which is arguably more prevalent, from anecdotal data).

This isn’t just a UVA issue. Last year, Yale allowed five students guilty of “nonconsensual sex” to continue their education at the Ivy institution without suspension or expulsion. (The sixth one was suspended and future probation.) Instead, they were given punishments ranging from sensitivity training to a reprimand.

The “Rolling Stone” article notes that one in five women will be sexually assaulted during their time in college, but only 12% will report an assault to the police. So it’s clear that the actual numbers are much higher than those being reported. Hopefully, this UVA case will spur on more open discussions on sexual assault, particularly on college campuses, and urge universities to hand out heavier punishments for assailants.

Women’s Opposite-Sex Friends Leads to More Sex in Relationships

Woman and Men At Work (via Black Enterprise)

Woman and Men At Work (via Black Enterprise)

Happy Friday! A recent study from the Journal of Comparative Psychology revealed something interesting: Attractive, heterosexual women who report more male friends also report more sex within their relationships.

The study surveyed 393 men in committed sexual relationships who described their partners as attractive. The more male friends their female partner had, the more sex they had in their own relationship. The men clearly were subconsciously reacting to competing with other (platonic) males.

As the abstract notes:

“This research is the first to empirically investigate the number of potential male rivals in the local environment as a cue to sperm competition risk in humans.”

Too bad the self-reporting didn’t extend to finding out who generally tended to initiate sex within the relationship.

Mutual Masturbation: How Common Is It?

Couple at sunset

Couple at sunset

I learned an interesting stat last night: According to The Kinsey Institute, 85% of men have masturbated with another person in the room, while 66% of women have done the same. The sex educator who told me this said the numbers were higher than previously  thought, and could be higher still due to self-reporting.

What do you think? Are you surprised by these stats?

Fetishes: Where are the Numbers?

BDSM Fetish-gear

BDSM Fetish-gear

Earlier this week, I was curious about finding statistics on fetishes of any kind. Guess what? It’s pretty hard to do for a few reasons.

The biggest one is that data from sexual studies is self-reported by the participants. Of course, these participants can easily lie. Maybe they’re ashamed of their fetish, or unwilling to give that information to a complete stranger. (Side note: I personally find it easier to lie to someone I know compared to someone I don’t, but that’s just a personal preference.) Either way, there’d be a large margin of error since the studies can’t account for those unwilling to tell the truth, and so fully participate.

The only way to get around this would be to subject male participants to a penile plethysmograph, which measures bloodflow to the penis. But this would obviously take a lot of time and investment into new practices. There’s also no female equivalent, so there’d be no way to compare.

Another reason is that something a study identifies as a fetish might be pretty vanilla for someone else. So there can be gaps between what two people believe to be fetishes, and that may play into their answers.

With the answers, part of the problem may lie in how the questions are phrased. If a question is leading, a participant may get flustered and answer the question in a way that diverges from what they actually feel and/or do.

But the overall question is: what is “normal” sex? There’s no agreed-upon baseline, so what exactly constitutes a fetish is hard to determine.

Faking It: Who’s Doing It?

Maybe she will, maybe she won't.

Maybe she will, maybe she won’t.

Women faking orgasms have been a staple of pop culture for, well, probably forever. (I’m sure there’s a cave painting illustrating this somewhere that’s yet to be discovered.) But just how common is it?

A recent study finds that 80% of women fake their Os. At first glance, this seems high, doesn’t it?

Like many sex stats, the data is self-reported. I’m wondering if even more women fake it, but didn’t admit to it during the study. Of course, there’s no way to confirm this, short of doing another survey, since some women might (understandably) lie.

There’s also the issue that the majority of women can’t come purely from vaginal intercourse. Did the study ask women if they can (by which I mean physically able to) come from vaginal penetration? The study’s abstract doesn’t elaborate on this point, but it might be within the whole study.

Either way, a large number of women are faking it for a variety of reasons.