Spaces with media outlets that 
use sexual assault victim-blaming 
language or include features that 
defend rape perpetrators report 
more cases of rape and fewer 
related arrests, a University of 
Michigan study found. Political 
Science Assistant Professor Yuri 
Zhukov helped lead the first big 

data analysis of newspapers from 
2000 to 2013 regarding media’s 
portrayal of rape in the United 
States.
“We used the tone and content 
of local news reporting as a mea-
sure of local norms toward rape, 
and found that there are more 
reported instances of rape in U.S. 
counties where news coverage 
of sexual assault is particularly 
insensitive and dismissive,” Zhu-

kov wrote in an email interview. 
“In such areas, police are also less 
likely to make rape-related ar-
rests.”
Zhukov began the study when 
he was working on his Ph.D at 
Harvard University. Partnering 
with Harvard officials, he created 
a machine learning algorithm 
that read and categorized media 
reports of all kinds. During the 
media coverage analysis, however, 
the researchers came upon a 
report of an Ohio gang rape 
case and decided to apply 
their algorithm explicitly to 
rape coverage.
“We used natural lan-
guage processing and ma-
chine learning to detect 
victim-blaming language and 
other types of content in over 
300,000 newspaper articles,” 
Zhukov wrote. “We then used 
various 
statistical 
estima-
tors to establish a correlation 
between such language and 
local sexual crime rates, and 
to exclude various alternative 
explanations for this relation-
ship.”
Zhukov’s data correlates 
biased news coverage with an 
increase in rape reports and a 
decrease in police response. 
An obstacle in his research, 
however, is that most sexual 
assaults go unreported and 
an increase in rape statistics 
might also be connected with 
an increase of more victims 
coming forward or an in-
crease in crime. Even in the 

aftermath of #MeToo, Zhukov 
claims his study disproves these 
uncertainties.
“Unless more victims are com-
ing forward in the exact places 
where justice is most elusive, what 
we’re likely seeing is a genuine in-
crease in rape,” Zhukov wrote.
At the University, sexual mis-
conduct reports have risen steadi-
ly in the last four years, even as the 
national reporting rates hovers 
around 20 percent of survivors 
notifying authorities of sexual as-
sault. This year, the number of 
reports received by the Office of 
Institutional Equity jumped by 27 
percent. 
Zhukov said this research can-
not determine news coverage 
causes rape because that goes be-
yond the scope of the data.
“The more plausible explana-
tion –– consistent with previous 
research –– is that local news 
reporting reflects local norms 
toward sexual assault,” Zhukov 
wrote. “To victims, these norms 
might dictate how costly it is to 
come forward and seek justice. 
And where potential perpetrators 
believe that rape victims are un-
likely to come forward, they may 
feel more impunity.”
Zhukov claims not covering 
rape stories does more harm be-
cause an increase in news stories 
regarding rape are associated with 
greater levels of police vigilance 
and victims coming forward. 

2A — Thursday, October 11, 2018
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