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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