Utah's sexual assault rate outpaces U.S. average

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | April 6, 2010 | Nate Carlisle

[P-Marlowe]

Your mother is no doubt proud of the swine she raised

the long march
Since Nov 20, 2008

I have not encountered a conversation with you before. I have been here for nearly 10 years and I think your post is the singular most vile post I have encountered on this forum since I first came here.

If this post and post number 33 directed to jimt, and post 35 directed towards me are what passes for acceptable discourse on this forum, then maybe I've outgrown this site and I think maybe I should ask that my account be banned. I don't want this forum to turn into a conservative version of DU.

Please be sure to take down my name so that you can avoid posting to me ever again.

I shall return the favor.

Adieu

[Elsie]

The REAL crime is the absolute FACT that HALF of the states, in this UNITED states of america are outpacing the National Average!

(But; what should we expect when 50% of our Doctors graduate in the lower half of their class...)

[Elsie]

Almost 52% were either family members, partners, or spouses.

Like they say in the Hogswallop clan - "Iff'n y'all ain't good enough fer family; who ELSE would wancha?"

[Elsie]

Ya think?? ;^)

[Elsie]

Depends...

Is the coppee 18 or 35?

[Elsie]

Did the study find any link between sexual violence and membership in the LDS?

It's UTAH!

---

GALLUP poll data:

 U.S. States With Most Mormons

State	% Mormon
Utah	67
Idaho	21
Wyoming	9

[Elsie]

Well...

It looks like SOMEone has encountered a SHORT pier!

[Mrs. Don-o]

I think we all knew that. The poll you cite shows 67% of Utahans are Mormon, while the statistic I cited said 60%. Same range. My question was, "Did the study find any link between sexual violence and membership in the LDS?"

The point being, the observation of "higher than average sexual violence" (remember, 49.5% of states are statistically "above average") and "highter than average number of Mormons" raises obvious questions, like "Coincidence? Correlation? Or Causation?" and it's precisely those questions I am interested in.

Until you have additional research, all sorts of hypotheses might be offered. I'll give you a few from the top of my head:

• Maybe Mormons are more likely to report incidents of sexual violence?
• Maybe Utah also has the highest percentage of ex-Mormons and anti-Mormons, and they're violent?
• Maybe conservative Utahans are more likely to define as "sexual violence" what liberal Manhattan subway-riders might define as "annoyance," e.g. leers, staring, aggressive sexual comments, frequent "oopsie" brushes and touches, obscene language?
• Maybe more Utahans live in small towns and isolated rural areas, and there's more sexual violence there?
• Maybe Mormons females are selectively targeted by non-Mormon sexual harrassers?
• Maybe the average age (in Utah, 28) is so much younger than the national average (in U.S., 36.7) that the crimes most likely to be perpetrated by young men get a statistical bump? (This is a possibility alluded to in the article.)

Answers? More research? I'm all ears.

[super7man]

Great questions in your post #48.

I can see a PhD thesis here for some psyc. student. Maybe somebody from BYU would want to take it up.

I think we have three categories of things that have come up in this thread that might need to be dealt with separately:

Sexual Assault: Might be as simple as a crude joke or some guy leering at a lady. Depends on how it is perceived.

Sexual Violence: Contact, touching, grabbing, contrary to the wishes of the one being touched.

Rape: Subset of above.

(A fourth thing might be the issue of “the long march” coming unglued. Hold for another day.)

I am interested enough to read are research report that deals with your observations and questions. Not so interested to do the research myself. I can imagine how I would do it though, comparing demographics of neighboring states.

[greyfoxx39]

One thing that may be missing in the discussion is that all "worthy" mormon males receive the "restored priesthood" at the age of 12. This leads to an attitude of superiority over not only women, but over all those who are not members.

This superior attitude may not be evident to non-mormons in day to day dealings, but it is always there in the background. Women are second-class vassals in mormonism.

I speak from personal experience with dealing with the "priesthood" holders of mormonism.

“The Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood,”

[Colofornian]

Maybe Mormons are more likely to report incidents of sexual violence?

No. Post #24 dealt w/reasons why not.

Maybe Utah also has the highest percentage of ex-Mormons and anti-Mormons, and they're violent?

(Keep going on this...the Lds apologists might like it...but statistically, it just doesn't pan out).

Maybe conservative Utahans are more likely to define as "sexual violence" what liberal Manhattan subway-riders might define as "annoyance," e.g. leers, staring, aggressive sexual comments, frequent "oopsie" brushes and touches, obscene language?

Nah. The report linked @ post #19 says half of these incidences are by repeat offenders to the same victim, so that, coupled with the reality that only 13% of these things were stranger-based, means that you need to take this out of an impersonal contact based scenario and place most of these things in a personal context...not that this comment doesn't cover the personal -- but since you started off with a subway context...just doesn't fit.

Maybe more Utahans live in small towns and isolated rural areas, and there's more sexual violence there?

Hmmm...not likely since in other states it tends to be an urban issue...but who knows in Utah?

Maybe Mormons females are selectively targeted by non-Mormon sexual harrassers?

Well, based upon the pix that was up @ post #35, not likely.

Maybe the average age (in Utah, 28) is so much younger than the national average (in U.S., 36.7) that the crimes most likely to be perpetrated by young men get a statistical bump? (This is a possibility alluded to in the article.)

At first glance, this appears quite sociologically correct...but then, if this is a reality, you realize one stark thing: And that is, the % of young people in Utah is due to the presence of Mormons. (It's not the non-Mormons, for the most part, who've been having the large families & driving down the avg. age). So if this correlation is true, it's directly due to the presence of Mormons.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thank you for showing how many ways the statistics can be played out.

So Utah has a much younger demographic profile than the U.S. average, AND that is linked to Mormon faith and practice (more kids), AND a younger demographic profile is in turn linked to a higher rate of crimes. So you can note a Mormon-young-crime connection, but that connection is not a matter of direct causality. It's likely because aggression, and especially sexual aggression, is overwhelmingly committed by young males.

Other states with a relatively young demographic profile also have a crime bump (e.g. Alaska and Texas.)

Maybe there's sometimes sexual aggression at Senior Centers in Florida. But not much.

[Colofornian]

So you can note a Mormon-young-crime connection, but that connection is not a matter of direct causality. It's likely because aggression, and especially sexual aggression, is overwhelmingly committed by young males.

Right. But note this: Mormonism may be no real barrier to committing these crimes.

IOW, yes sexual aggression is there...and you would expect it to be mitigated by Mormonism...but based upon these and other stats, it doesn't appear to be.

#1, there's something about Utah itself: The Salt Lake Tribune reported last Fall that in 2005, Utah ranked 16th in the nation for teacher sex offenses...why has Utah as of the years since 2000, consistently has ranked between 14 & 18 re: rape rate? Why as of 4 years ago, was Utah #8 in the nation for its sex offender rate?

Likewise, yes, the relative youthfulness of Utah has contributed to a higher suicide rate in the state (suicide is simply aggression turned inward):

Utah has the country's highest suicide rate for males between the ages of 14 and 25. That grim statistic is given a name and a troubled family in Carol Lynn Pearson's impassioned ‘Facing East,’ now at the International City Theatre in Long Beach. Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2285528/posts

For more than 10 years, 15- to 34-year-old males in Utah have had suicide rates markedly higher than those seen nationally. In fact, in the early to mid-1990s, suicide was the number one cause of death among 25- to 44-year-old men in the state and the second-leading cause of death among men aged 15 to 24. Source: http://www.adherents.com/largecom/lds_LowSuicideRate.html

Now, this article actually says being active Lds "helps" in comparing rates. But this and another study I saw actually says when you compare the suicide rates for active Lds, inactive or less-active Lds, and non-Lds, the middle category is by far the highest:

In addition, the risk of suicide among males aged 15 to 19 was three times higher among the less active church members than among their active peers, but the rate among the active youth was comparable to the national suicide rate.

So...this article not only says suicide risk is 3x higher among less active Lds than active Lds (among 15-19 yo), but that the suicide rate for active Lds 15-19 yo is no different than the national suicide rate!!!

My point: Mormonism is no barrier to the suicide rate for teens, and in fact, jeopardizes more teens (the less active ones)! I think this may apply to sexual criminal behavior as well!

[restornu]

must be exers!)

[aurum]

Though the suicide rate for teen males aged 15 to 19 had been found to be about the same as the national average, active LDS young men (aged 20-34) had a far lower suicide rate than the national average (2 to 3 times lower). In this group, being LDS has a protective effect against suicide. But suicide rates in non-members, and inactive LDS in Utah had significantly to much higher suicide rates than the average national male in age groups. The study referred to in the second-hand media report is "Suicide Rates and Religious Commitment in Young Adult Males in Utah", full text is here: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/155/5/413.short Reasons why non-members and less actives have higher suicide rates ought to be explained by things like pressures of conforming to society, increased alcohol and other substance abuse, etc.

As to why active LDS in that age group have much less suicides is due to social networks. Things like having larger families, children and having a spouse in the first place. Then other social connections. Religious principles play a role also. The study cited above concluded similarly.

Another thing that likely drives up Utah's suicide rates is the significant number of white males in the state. White males have the highest suicide rates (comparable to or after American Indian males, depending on the age group). The white male suicide rate overall is 2 to almost 3 times higher. Utah also has a quite significant white female population. Those also kill themselves the most out of all other ethnic groups (except, again, after American Indians). Source is CDC's Injury Mortality Reports: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html. These can drive up the suicide rate for the whole state.

Areas, especially rural Utahn areas which are overwhelmingly Mormon have a lower forcible rape rate (sometimes non-existant rape rate) than those which have much more non-members, this is fairly consistent. For the year 2007: http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_08_ut.html In those areas with the highest amount of members, forcible rape rates tend to be below the national rate. A less rural example here would be Provo (24.3 forcible rapes per 100,000) versus Salt Lake City (64.0 forcible rapes per 100,000). In 2007, the national forcible rape rate was 30.0 (disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm), less urban comparisons are typically much more drastic. So when talking about Utah statistics, and implying Mormons, it only would make sense to actually talk about Mormons and non-Mormons living in Utah .