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Originally Posted by The RAINN Report quoted by honorgal
While it is helpful to point out the systemic barriers to addressing the problem, it is important to not lose sight of a simple fact: Rape is caused not by cultural factors but by the conscious decisions, of a small percentage of the community, to commit a violent crime. . . .
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This seems like a false dichotomy to me. Without a doubt rape is caused by conscious decisions, but those conscious decisions, like all conscious decisions, are often shaped, at least in part, by cultural factors.
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By the time they reach college, most students have been exposed to 18 years of prevention messages, in one form or another. Thanks to repeated messages from parents, religious leaders, teachers, coaches, the media and, yes, the culture at large, the overwhelming majority of these young adults have learned right from wrong, and enter college knowing that rape falls squarely in the latter category.
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An oversimplification and overgeneralization, it seems to me. Yes, the culture at large says rape is wrong, but the culture at large isn't the only culture at play. Coaches, for example, may say one thing, but what does the athletic peer culture say? And which culture wins?
The Duke lacrosse case comes to mind. False accusations, but false accusations dropped down in a context where they were all too easy to believe, at least until the accusations started to unravel, because of the culture of the lacrosse team. I have no doubt that those guys had 18+ years of being taught right from wrong, and yet some of them thought it was okay to call in strippers for a party and to make sexually suggestive statements to them.