Campus violence: jealousy, stress, sexual aggression leading causes, says report
A newly released federal study on campus violence finds that most attackers are men, and that most attacks are against "intimate partners."PHOTO UVA SPORTS/POLICE
In the wake of the Virginia Tech Tragedy, the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Department of Education were asked to study violence on college campuses. The study was completed in April, just a month before the alleged attack and murder of UVA student-athlete Yeardley Love, and its findings appear to suggest that American college campuses are sexually charged, stressful environments where men are most often the attackers.
Of the 272 incidents of assault studied, 161 of the attackers were current or former students. Of those killed, 190 were students and 72 were employees of the college. Of those injured, 144 were students and 35 were employees.
According to the study, 60 percent of campus attacks studied were against “current or former non-spouse intimate partners,” and 15 percent were against “current or former spouses.” Of the attacks, 94 percent were committed by men.
Among the factors that motivated attacks, some form of jealousy, revenge, stress, and sexual aggression top the list. Factors relating to “intimate relationships” lead the way, closely followed by sexual advances being refused and an obsession with someone.
Twenty-nine percent of the attackers harassed or stalked their victims beforehand, and in 31 percent of the attacks “concerning” behavior of the attacker was observed by friends, family, associates, professors, or law enforcement officials. As is the case with the Love murder, media reports following the attacks often uncovered “concerning” behavior that had not been widely observed by those who knew or were associated with the attacker.
40 comments
@Chloe
Huguely's brain is screaming "Give me a case of beer, or else!" There's no "why, why, if only, if only" going on. He'll rationalize that her death was her fault because she didn't give him what he wanted and deserved.
Lacrosse, like other "contact" sports, puts guys who apparently possess a propensity for violence in a position to nurture that trait. No surprise! Being a campus "hero" feeds the attendant narcissism. No surprise there either. Alcohol fuels both as does a sense of entitlement that undoubtedly started with his parents. Duh! Yep, we all know that. Why didn't Starsia? Why didn't he KNOW HIS players? Huguely isn't the only one of Starsia's players who has strayed over his tenure or has propensities. Huguely has just strayed the worst. Starsia is apparently the one who allowed the "perfect storm" to occur at UVA. His perceived permissiveness is at the center of this situation.
Other coaches at UVA have suspended or released student-athletes for bad attitudes, team rule infractions or aberrant behavior. Why not Starsia? Can you imagine what Brian O'Connor would do had two baseball players beat the cr@p out of each other or drank themselves silly several nights each week? Bernardino? Boland? Since physical violence and hard drinking aren't part of their sport, they would have really come down hard. Tony Bennett would not have put up with that behavior for even a nanosecond. What's the difference? Those coaches manage their programs. They know what's going on with their team. Their athletes are not out of control. If they are, they're gone!
Starsia's problem is that he has apparently talked himself into believing that violence, alcohol, swagger, etc. are accepted components of the lacrosse culture and he's apparently helped perpetuate them.
Starsia helped create the "perfect storm" paradigm, but someone else will be needed to dismantle it. Winning, at any cost, always has a price.
Mustang, such provincial insularity results MORE OFTEN in corruption and is an argument for making public the record, in my opinion. Often a judge, knowing the record is sealed and after imposing a gag order, will take liberties with their "judicial discretion", knowing that the legal reasoning will never be scrutinized by the public.
Gil Harrington’s thoughts from May 14th, 2010
The official response to violence on campus is kind of like the response of some authorities to 9/11. They were directing folks back into the buildings ââ?¬â?? unable to even conceive of a world where such an atrocity could occur. Acts of violence bigger and more lethal than had been seen before. The world has changed.
Another incident changed our assumptions about violence in schools, Columbine. The world has changed.
There has been a cluster phenomena of hideous violence in Virginia at both VT and UVA. The world has changed. You have been placed in a position where you can be prime movers on the forefront of devising an effective response strategy, or you can keep directing your students back into the burning building. Business as usual and squander more lives as well as an opportunity for greatness.
Virginians are reluctant to give up traditions, but the tradition and culture that tolerates violence in your midst must be addressed. The world has changed.
2 4 1
There is just to much TRUTH and FACT in Gil's words .
We, as both Virginians and humans are better than this !
Dakota
Well, not much happens in Central Virginia. Don't worry, Hawes will have a cracker-jack dredging story one of these days.
A little protection can go a long way. www.highteksecurity.com
pepper spray, stun guns, tasers, mace. Local
LOL. Love the locker room anthropology lecture going on here. Um, well, apparently, in a day and age with available birth control, women appear to be "wired" to seek out more than one sex partner. I would even argue that they have always done so. That why we have the word "cuckold." It's a real word. And it's been around a while. Look it up.
@YouBetcha "UVA attorneys are the lowest form ... Ivy League tuition for a state school"
Are you just completely oblivious to the facts? It's the number #10 ranked law school school in the nation, AHEAD of Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, and Northwestern, and in the top 5 for job placement. The only Ivy schools yanked higher than UVA Law are Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and Penn. It has the highest percentage of alumni giving than any other law school in the country. #2 is Harvard Law.
Furthermore, Fran Lawrence went to W&L.
Please feel free not to contribute anything to this board until you have some factual basis. If you have some information about your Farmington Club theory please share, otherwise you're just another conspiracy theorist nutjob.
RTR: Just to put my two cents in: On the other hand, MEN who can remember what the SHEETS look like in more bedrooms than they can count on their two hands by the time they leave college, don’t seem to have much of a moral focus either. And MEN will quickly state what they want in a significant other with words like Caring, Loving, and Thoughtful, but oddly enough, are attracted to the "PERFECT FEMALE" and then spend the rest of their lives complaining about their choices. - Just trying to put the shoe on the other foot...as far as GH being the epitome of a neanderthal, agree completely...but somehow I think he is in good company.
Agreeing is irrelevant. Stating a fact. Men are wired to have sex with as many women as possible. Women are wired to pick a mate that will give a child the best chance for survival. Venus and Mars my friend.
The only thing being on the highest ranking list is that the lawyers that come from uva are the cream of the crop when it comes to screwing up america. Most lawsuits are because of poorly written contracts written by .....LAWYERS.... most court cases consuming millions of dollars that could be put to better use are made complicated by LAWYERS.
The best thnig to come along in the last few years is LEGAL ZOOM.
We will need way less lawyers because if it.
That will make the world a better place.
Lawyers are people who get in the middle of dispute and determine that the best way to settle it is to run at least one of the parties out of money.
By the way, one other list lawyers are at the top of, is the highest incidence of cheating spouses...
Jake - The defense attorney doesn't have to be present when the prosecutor made the request of the judge if the three of them made the agreement seal the records over drinks at the Farmington Club. UVA attorneys are the lowest form, Ivy League tuition for a state school degree buys guaranteed high grades.
@DOT
"I could be wrong, but all I’ve read indicates that there wasn’t domestic abusive during the actual period of them dating."
The reported reason they broke up was because he got drunk, beat her up and didn't remember a thing.
SI Article
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/magazine/05/11/virginia.lacrosse/i...
People Article
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20368740,00.html
As I said before, this case is just another bread and butter case of primal rage unleashed by sexual jealousy and alcohol. It happens everyday in America, multiple times and in multiple locations, and the only thing making this different is the perp was a "golden boy" rather than the expected white trash.
This is actually sort of typical jock behavior, gone to extremes in this case, but typical nevertheless. Young, Dumb, and full of ***.
That the behavior is so typical makes me wonder why any of us are still talking about this. A century ago he'd have been tried by June 1st, given a fast and fair trial and a nice hanging. The whole matter would over with by July. Should be too.
"jealousy, revenge, stress, and sexual aggression" top the list. No kidding. What insight.
UVA is a very good law school. The issues you may have with lawyers do not come from UVA lawyers. UVA 2L - go study for exams, and good luck if you've got a summer gig. All others - hate your spouse's divorce lawyer all you want. UVA is turning out smart lawyers who go on to good things (David Baldacci and Tim Finchem, on the non-legal side, and countless managing partners of law firms). All of us law grads miss Charlottesville and are horrified at the recent bad things happening there.
@JJ Malloy
Some men have obviously not evolved beyond the "grab their hair and haul them off" mentality of the early male neanderthals. Lacrosse apparently nurtures that kind of behavior and the coaches do nothing to control it on or off the field.
"Boys will be boys" is a bunch of BS that needs to end now.
What's with all this talk of Neanderthals? You may have missed the recent discovery that all non sub sahara Africans have neanderthal ancestry. So unless your gene pool hails completely from the Zulus or some similar group with NO outside influence, you have some neanderthal in you.
Lets not play boys vs. girls ;-)
There hasn't been any indication that he was actually abusive DURING the relationship. Sounds to me like he only got this violent with her after the break up. I believe this because in one of this articles it said that friends were quoted saying, "the relationship had gotten volatile in recent weeks."
I could be wrong, but all I've read indicates that there wasn't domestic abusive during the actual period of them dating.
Everyones trying to find lessons to learn from this. And as great as that is I think we are jumping guns. In time I think the true lessons will be in preventing things like this that happen SO FAST. No one saw this coming. There might have been warning signs but they're the kind that you only realize in hindsight. These kids were so ready to graduate and live their lives that everyone thought this little George problem would just be something in their past that faded. But it didn't.
I don't want to call this an "accident" like the defense..but how do you prevent these things? In the position of friends..
You betcha
UVA attorneys are the lowest form
I must disagree with your statement . Placing people in a box to categorize them is dangerous . You can easily throw the good people in the wrong box.
I say this as my best Male friend is proudly a UVA Attorney , he spent t 3 hours on my front porch last evening discussing recent events in Charlottesville . I can't speak for them all but I will for at least one who has dedicated his life and career fighting for victims and leaving the defense of slime balls to the lowest forms .
Dakota
How many random articles are you going to print trying to link it to this case? You've noticed this case is bringing a lot of traffic to your website and a lot of comments so now you're trying to write as many articles as possible about it.
I respect that you're trying to bring awareness to possible problems (campus attacks and the like) but some of them are starting to be a little tacky (like Lacrosse's worst case scenario.)
Did they really need to waste money on a study like this? Sounds like an afternoon of googling to me.
Maybe they could commission a study to find out who orders the most take out pizzas on campus during the playoffs.
Or perhaps another one to figure out why more whites than blacks frequent tanning salons.
How about an article making it clear what the relationship is between the defense attorney and the judge. Washington Post ran an editorial today questioning why the records have been sealed in this case. She is a good judge, but also a friend of that lawyer's I believe.
Charlottesville is a small town and the defense attorneys and the Judges involved are all familiar with each other....there is nothing underhanded about sealing the record.
things are different on campuses than they were 10 or more years ago. Technology has advanced so fast that we have not been able to develop social appropriatness. Remember when *69 busted drunk late night hang ups? Imagine drunk texting? Imagine drunk facebook stats updates? Anyone over 35 never dealt with this in college! I believe technology contributes to the stress. Everything is instant - feelings are instantly shared, anger is instantly conveyed. THERE IS NO COUNTING TO 10 AND BEING ALONE TO THINK ABOUT IT anymore. I am not making excuses. I am saying technology has now interfered with dealing with emotions.
I have to chuckle a bit over the sock puppet of 'Small town, small minds' because of the insight you give us about yourself. :) I'm not trying to be critical, but if you give it some thought you might chuckle too.
As far as the modern neanderthal, George is certainly a prime example by exhibiting the distinguishing characteristics: big fists acting like indiscriminate clubs, alcoholic filled brain feeding the primal instincts, and a moral standard that has no limits, or boundaries. Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' comes into focus. And if the legal system keeps George out of the gene pool then he will have met the requirements for a Darwin Award.
On the other hand, women who can remember what the ceilings look like in more bedrooms than they can count on their two hands by the time they leave college, don't seem to have much of a moral focus either. And women will quickly state what they want in a significant other with words like Caring, Loving, and Thoughtful, but oddly enough, are attracted to the bad boys and then spend the rest of their lives complaining about their choices.
How many times are we going to continue to discuss this sealing of the record issue before we again realize that it was the prosecutor who made the motion to have them sealed and the defense attorney wasn't present for the motion nor had any part in it?
One thing you fail to state 'jbo'. Men are driven by instinct to remember as many sheets as possible. Thousands of years of natural behavior will not be wiped out by a few newspaper articles or behavior classes.
Whatusay, so then it's okay for men, but not for women? interesting...
Lacrosse has nothing to do with it, Small Town-Minds. Human aggression/jealousy occurs across socio-economic and gender lines and Huguely is another example of one who caught up in a "perfect storm" scenario. The perfect storm is usually 1. an individual with a propensity towards aggression 2. alcohol/drugs 3. sexual jealousy/mate guarding. It has nothing to do with lacrosse players and their coaches. It has everything to do with being human. "Human?" - "What's human about Huguely's behavior?" you are now asking yourself aloud. Everything is human about it. Go pick up a David Buss book and you'll see that the wiring for both love/kindness/altruism AND aggression/self-interest etc. have evolved in ALL of us. Huguely's aggression/self-interest region of his brain won out that fateful night and he'll have many many a moment to ponder this in his cell. What's more to say?? I would venture to say that now that he is sober and she is gone, other regions of his brain are screaming out "Why why why...if only if only if only!!!"
Thank you dot.
Dot.... two words.... who cares?
Don't read each new article if you're getting bored.
I hope they keep printing articles until something is done to change the paradigm. I'm sick and tired of controlling men abusing women in our society.
Women are not chattel.
Women are not objects.
Men are callous.
It's going to take a lot of effort to change neanderthals into human beings.
Off topic but it is my intuition that the records are sealed because the defendent is from a well to do family with high powered lawyers who want to control the message. I am sure there is some element of not wanting to taint the jury in such a high profile case, but I'd like to see The Hook do a piece comparing this case and the judge's early decision against other killings in the area on which the judge has made early rulings on records, if any. Also a comparison to other killings under other judges in the area concerning sealed records. If it is a broad trend, okay, that makes it a little less suspect. If it is an anomoly, that may give us pause.
RTR,
Stick a sock in it! How's that? :)
Whatusay, while I don't agree with the general statements made about men "Men are callous" by an above poster, I do think that they have a mind and free will and can make a choice. If you excuse men in general for "instinct" then you have just put them back to the neanderthals they are being accused of. I like to think that we have come beyond that. However, I didn't pick my "mate" on the premises that he could give my children the best chance of survival. I can and have managed to do that without the man being present and accounted for. No instict required.
Not an excuse. Picking mates is more than conscious thinking and reasoning. Even preferred body types is more about perceived ability to sire and birth children. Primal instints are what made the human race thrive. They may not be as strong today as they were in the beginning but we still carry every single one. Some people can control them better than others.
Nice talking with you. Have a great day. :)
I went from being a Hook fan to being BORED. How about something other than beating this story over and over and over and over.
Are there ANY reporters left at the Hook?
deleted by moderator