Analyze a survey assignment

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Survey shows there is immense sexual attack at U.S top universities
By Nick Anderson and Susan Svrluga (The Washington Post- 9/21/2015)
A nationwide survey done by the Association of American Universities was conducted from November 2014 to February 2015. The survey was done in 27 prominent universities in the United States 26 of which are AAU member universities. More than 150,000 students had their responses taken during the survey. The primary target in the survey was the students in the prominent universities who gave their responses on the sexual misconduct and assault in the universities (Anderson and Svrluga, 6). The general results obtained from the students were through web survey which focused on the use of questionnaires having a response of 19 percent. The margin of the sampling error in the survey is between one and three percentage points with the error of margin being two percentage points.
The survey conducted by interviewing 150,000 students and above indicated that 20 percent and above female students from the 27 prominent universities are suffering from the sexual harassment and misconduct. Undergraduate men and women have been victims of the non-consensual sexual contact with 23 and 5 percent respectively admitting the actions. The assaults are due to the sexual touching and even penetration which is due to the use of force or incapacitation. Of the undergraduate women, eleven percent confirmed to have been victims of attempted penetration or the non-consensual penetration.

Sexual assault and harassment among the females have a higher rate than the males (Anderson and Svrluga, 56). Female students are deemed to be vulnerable to the incapacitation.
In 2005, the College Sexual Assault study (CSA) conducted a web survey just similar to the AAU survey. It was mainly performed with the undergraduate students who were attending two large public universities.CSA indicated that there were higher incapacitation and penetration by force rate of 14.3 percent compared to the 11.3 percent of AAU. The similarity between the two surveys is that the range of estimates according to the CSA was within the estimates of the AAU done across the 27 universities. In 1997, The NCWSV (National College Woman’s Sexual Violence Survey) conducted national telephone survey for the college 18 to 24 years’ old college students (Anderson and Svrluga, 14). The survey, however, did not screen the acts that involved incapacitation. It had the rate of 2.8 percent for the behaviors that included both attempted and completed actions. This rate was almost similar to the AAU which gave the rate of incapacitation to be at 2.9 percent.
The comparable estimates between CSA and AAU had the ranges falling within each other.8.8 percent of the female graduates or professionals admitted to having been sexually assaulted compared to 2.2 percent of the male graduates and professionals. The rate between the two surveys indicated a percentage of 5 versus 5.4 percent of male undergraduates being sexually assaulted for CSA and AAU respectively (Anderson and Svrluga, 15).
The survey also indicates that non-heterosexual students tend to report to be more victimized than their fellow heterosexual students. 60.4 percent of both lesbians and gays state having been sexually harassed compared to the 45.9 percent of students who are heterosexuals. Students with disabilities have a higher level of victimization than those without disabilities. 31.6 percent disabled female undergraduates report to have gone through nonconsensual sexual contact that involves the physical force of incapacitation. Female undergraduates without disabilities only reported being 18.4 percent which is lower than their disabled colleagues (Anderson and Svrluga, 122).
Regarding race, most forms of sexual victimization have a lower percentage of Asians being victimized. 37.9 percent of Asians report having been sexually harassed in the universities compared to the 51.3 percent for white students. However, other race groups show no consistent differences. For the professional and graduate students, most of the married students report having less likelihood of being sexually harassed. 2.1 percent of the married female professionals and graduates say having been sexually assaulted at the universities compared to the 6.3 percent of those who had not been married (Anderson and Svrluga, 58).
As much as the survey has shown the universities efforts to combat the problem of sexual assault, the results are disturbing, and thus there is the need for us to redouble our efforts to save the situation. The occurrence of such behaviors is contrary to our fundamental values. The actions threaten the students who want to join universities, the learning institutions, and even the community’s sense. It is quite disturbing that most of the students opted to keep quiet and never reported the incidents even when they had the choice to. Sexual assault and harassment are detrimental to our societal growth, and the future cannot lie on such disturbing foundation. With the past being full of sexual assaults and harassments in the universities, there is need to create a strong base for the efforts which will see that the future has a difference from what is being experienced currently. Sexual assault and harassment is a health and safety problem which also threatens the academic mission of our learning institutions. These students who have been assaulted have suffered academically and thus for the future to be bright, creating awareness in the universities and among the students is the way to go.
The full report can be found here:
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/local/association-of-american-universities-campus-survey-on-sexual-assault-and-sexual-misconduct/1747/
Works cited
Anderson, N, and Svrluga, S. (2015, September 21). Association of American Universities campus survey on sexual assault and sexual misconduct. The Washington Post. Page 1-288. Retrieved from :http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/local/association-of-american-universities-campus-survey-on-sexual-assault-and-sexual-misconduct/1747/