Male rape victims should not be ignored
In her submission “Don’t restrict women with fear ““ teach men not to rape,” (Viewpoint, May 24) Sascha Cohen downplays the frequency of male rape victims and female perpetrators by citing national crime data showing nine out of 10 rape victims are female and about 97 percent of rapists are male.
However, crime data looks only at reported rape, which is misleadingly low, especially for males because they tend to underreport. Sociological data ““ which is behavior-based rather than crime-based ““ shows a completely different picture.
The latest fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control cites the following figures: “In the United States every year, about 1.5 million women and more than 800,000 men are raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner.”
That makes men at least 36 percent of intimate partner violence victims. And while this doesn’t separate rape from other abuse, it indicates the problem is very significant for males overall.
When we include statutory and prison rape, the figures on male victims increase even more. Last year, a student survey in The News & Observer (North Carolina) showed that 43 percent of teacher sex abuse came from female teachers even though 92 percent of prosecutions were of male teachers.
In correctional institutions, rapes of men are not infrequent, and not just by male rapists. Last month, the San Antonio Express-News reported that, since 1999, there were 460 sexual abuse claims against female corrections staff and 431 against male staff. Fifty-seven claims against female staff and 37 against male staff have been confirmed.
Then there is the psychological rape that comes from false accusations. In “The Myth of Male Power,” bestselling author Warren Farrell, Ph.D., cites U.S. Air Force and other data showing that false accusations of rape ““ as in the Duke case ““ account for between 25 and 50 percent of rape accusations, mostly against males. However, false accusers are almost never reprimanded or prosecuted.
It is good to raise awareness about sexual violence. It is wrong, however, to do so in a way that is aimed at bashing men or that downplays male victims because they don’t fit a certain ideological model.
Marc E. Angelucci
UCLA School of Law Alumnus
President of the National Coalition of Free Men, Los Angeles Chapter
Possible L.A. subway needs more lines
In regards to “Possible L.A. subway system in the works,” (News, May 23) it is great to hear of the developments on the Purple Line extension, but one transit line does not make a system.
We need perpendicular north-south corridors connecting this line. One such line can start right in your backyards by planning and building a short 2-mile elevated branch from the future Expo Line Light Rail down the old Sepulveda Railroad right to UCLA Lot 36 at Wilshire Boulevard and Gayley Avenue. That lot can be then turned into the campus transit center with a park-ride and that space can be preserved as a station portal for a future Purple Line subway.
This would serve students and faculty at UCLA who use the off-campus housing in the Palms and Culver City area and workers in Westwood who use the Expo Line. Most importantly, it would provide the beginnings of a north-south route that can continue north up through the Sepulveda Pass to the San Fernando Valley on Van Nuys Boulevard and south toward Los Angeles Airport, then feeding this future Purple Line. That would be a network that would encourage more people to use mass transit.
Jerard Wright,
Los Angeles
Disabled Students Union deserves office
The editorial “New council should follow its own rules” (May 25) stated that the Disabled Students Union should not receive office space because of the newly established Office Space Allocation Committee guidelines. I write to urge the community to reconsider this notion and see this issue from disabled students’ perspective.
Disabled students are marginalized, and lack of office space would make disabled students even more invisible to the campus community. UCLA administrators and student leaders have worked actively to integrate students from different backgrounds, whether this difference is in gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability.
DSU represents students who would otherwise be put at a disadvantage in all academic and social aspects. Many DSU members need special accommodations and support from the community to achieve the same level of academic and social success. Having an office would give us the same level of respect and strength as other student groups on campus. Alternative solutions that further tie disabled students to administrative care would not work in integrating these students with the rest of campus.
I firmly believe the council can maintain its integrity and simultaneously ensure that the newly reestablished DSU can continue to use its office space. Next year, DSU plans member and programming expansions. We want to implement programs such as “Alternate Your Abilities,” an interactive and educational event, and work toward the implementation of the Disabilities Studies minor.
Without an exemption from USAC, it would take years for DSU to return to Kerckhoff, and the ongoing rebirth of DSU would be unnecessarily hindered.
Michelle Tang
DSU president-elect