Survey on sexual harassment and sexual assault in climbing

Alpinist Magazine, The American Alpine Club, and the Access Fund are distributing a survey on the occurrence of sexual harassment and sexual assault in the climbing world with the goal of quantifying the extent of these problems.

Responses are important, whether or not you've experienced sexual harassment or assault. The survey is anonymous, quite brief, and does not require details unless the respondent wishes to provide them.

Survey is here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUeLKkTx_5PEDmod9yqq-V5IjY8WN3ZhFvgFsTRLFoAwjzVQ/viewform

Details are here:
http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web18s/newswire-sexual-harassment-survey

Note: I recognize that sexual assault and harassment are not exclusive to women. However, I have posted this in the women's forum as these issues disproportionately affect women. Further, I know that this forum is more actively moderated than others, which I'm hoping might curtail any particularly vitriolic comments.

Edited to add:

For methodological concerns, here's a few peer-review journal articles posted downthread on reducing selection bias in internet survey response sampling:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27919830?seq=14#page_scan_tab_contents
https://file.scirp.org/pdf/OJEpi_2015070913284831.pdf
One of the author's contact information is also available at the Alpinist link above for further direct queries/concerns.

For clarity about what constitutes rape, the federal Uniform Crime Report has a pretty good definition: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/updated-definition-rape 
Legal definitions for sexual assault vary by jurisdiction but generally include non-penetrative physical acts of a sexual nature.

Summary of a previous though less rigorous survey of gendered experiences in climbing: https://www.outsideonline.com/2099921/how-gender-affects-your-experience-climbing-gym
The incidence of rape and sexual assault in the U.S. is quite high, affecting 1 in 5 to 1 in 6 women and approximately 1 in 71 men. Consequently, it is likely that sexual harassment and sexual assault exists in climbing as it is not likely that climbers are any more or less aware of these issues or more or less likely to perpetrate sexual harassment, sexual assault, or rape. Summative U.S. data here:
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf
I recognize that while mountainproject is based in the U.S., there are users from elsewhere in the world. Worldwide data suggests an incidence of sexual assault as high as 1 in 3 women:
http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women

Regarding incidence of PTSD following sexual assault:
PTSD is defined here: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/ptsd-overview/dsm5_criteria_ptsd.asp
Estimations of the rate of PTSD following sexual assault vary from as low as 38% of female survivors to as high as 95% of female survivors. See:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2323517/#b10-mjm0902p111
http://www.facesofptsd.com/rape-ptsd/
https://www.rapevictimadvocates.org/what-you-need-to-know/effects-of-sexual-violence/ 

I'd exhort everyone to keep the conversation respectful and productive. Given the above numbers, there is a very strong chance that those participating in this thread have directly experienced sexual harassment and sexual assault and I'd ask we keep that in mind and be sensitive to this throughout the thread.

Finally, if you've experienced sexual assault and wish to speak to someone about your experience, the national sexual assault hotline is 1-800-656-4673.
https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline

Done.  I am happy to say that in 38 years of climbing, I have never experienced any harassment.  All my male climbing partners have been, without exception, wonderful human beings.

I don't really understand, it sounds like some heavy weights are involved:

Analysis will be done by two independent data scientists: Dr. Callie Rennison, renowned victimologist, and leading expert in statistical and survey methods; and Charlie Lieu, trained computational biologist with nearly 25 years of big data and decision analytics experience, often in clinical context requiring HIPAA privacy and security.

But how can one be confident of any analysis done when the participants in your survey select themselves?

r m wrote:
But how can one be confident of any analysis done when the participants in your survey select themselves?

That's a great question and I'm not entirely sure of the answer. I had a similar thought about the sampling but figured it probably wouldn't hurt to share. At a minimum it provides an opportunity for survivors to be heard, which itself can have value. 

wonder if this survey is a result of ... "the will mayo story"

r m wrote: I don't really understand, it sounds like some heavy weights are involved:

Analysis will be done by two independent data scientists: Dr. Callie Rennison, renowned victimologist, and leading expert in statistical and survey methods; and Charlie Lieu, trained computational biologist with nearly 25 years of big data and decision analytics experience, often in clinical context requiring HIPAA privacy and security.

But how can one be confident of any analysis done when the participants in your survey select themselves?

It’s a bane of all survey-based studies. They probably have a correction factor to account for self-selection bias, for example by comparing it to general population stats, ie they will probably weigh the results to compensate. 

Or maybe just report the relevant self-selection biases in their study. 

wonderwoman wrote: One incident of unwanted touching.  A fair share of sexism and mansplaining.

If we included Mansplaining in surveys the Internet would melt down.

(This is a joke, guys.)

wonderwoman wrote: One incident of unwanted touching.  A fair share of sexism and mansplaining.

Same here.

I always said, rock climbing is not somehow magically different from the rest of the world. There is no more sexism/harassment in the climbing community than in the society at large, and there is no less, either. Climbers are people, and they act in a variety of ways, like all people.

wonderwoman wrote: What does strike me is how many posts in this thread, just today, have had to have been removed due to making jokes about / light of sexual harassment.  All made by self-identified males.

Jokes about sexual harassment are not funny.  Just about every woman you meet has been subject to sexual harassment or violence.  Many have PTSD.  It's not funny.

I believe that is one of the themes of Dr. Rennison's research.   She was brave enough to point out that someone not convicted of rape should still be called a rapist.  People need to understand that rape and mansplaining are on the same spectrum.  The hurt can come all at once or accumulate over time.

Lena chita wrote:

It’s a bane of all survey-based studies. They probably have a correction factor to account for self-selection bias, for example by comparing it to general population stats, ie they will probably weigh the results to compensate. 

Or maybe just report the relevant self-selection biases in their study. 

I wondered that, if you could somehow correct or compensate. But I can't think of any means that would have robust assumptions.

I suppose time will tell! I am certainly interested in how this data is analysed and presented.

señdera la reina wrote:

...She was brave enough to point out that someone not convicted of rape should still be called a rapist....

Wait what? This is deserving of a thread all of its own!

r m wrote:

Wait what? This is deserving of a thread all of its own!

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/11/17/16666290/brock-turner-rape

Dr. Rennison's put a photo in her textbook of a rapist.  Rape apologists complained that just because the person in the photo was not even charged with rape, he can't be called a rapist.  People need to understand that rape, sexual assault, unwanted touching, suggestive comments, mansplaining, etc. are basically the same thing.

señdera la reina wrote:

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/11/17/16666290/brock-turner-rape

Dr. Rennison's put a photo in her textbook of a rapist.  Rape apologists complained that just because the person in the photo was not even charged with rape, he can't be called a rapist.  People need to understand that rape, sexual assault, unwanted touching, suggestive comments, mansplaining, etc. are basically the same thing.

I don't think you're a troll, but I think you risk doing what a good troll does -  derail a thread with one comment that incites argument for the next ten pages.

I did mean it when I said it could be its own thread...(It was sort of a hint, to start that thread rather than discuss it here...)

señdera la reina wrote:

I believe that is one of the themes of Dr. Rennison's research.   She was brave enough to point out that someone not convicted of rape should still be called a rapist.  People need to understand that rape and mansplaining are on the same spectrum.  The hurt can come all at once or accumulate over time.

Holy shit

Holy shit. 

señdera la reina wrote:

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/11/17/16666290/brock-turner-rape

Dr. Rennison's put a photo in her textbook of a rapist.  Rape apologists complained that just because the person in the photo was not even charged with rape, he can't be called a rapist.  People need to understand that rape, sexual assault, unwanted touching, suggestive comments, mansplaining, etc. are basically the same thing.

They are NOT basically the same thing. It takes very little human experience to understand this. They are all bad things that should be obliterated, but no way is getting raped basically the same as someone mansplaining me how to jailbreak my phone. 

Further, I know that this forum is more actively moderated than others, which I'm hoping might curtail any particularly vitriolic comments.

instead it just creates a vitriolic environment that is rather like the survey in question.

there's no place in the survey for the man's point of view..  perhaps the survey would have more scientific weight if it also included a question like "if you're a man, how many times has your normal unintended behavior been construed by a female climber as sexual harassment?"

and hey mods, guess what.  i'm a man who's been raped by a man that I thought was a friend and I had known since highschool.. I didn't even have to go climbing, it happened in my own room... and he's since deleted me from my life without ever being man enough to hear a word from me.. so yeah. it's not funny and I know what it feels like..

J Squared wrote:there's no place in the survey for the man's point of view.. .

The survey is not limited to women.

 I'm a man and I've been sexually harassed multiple times. 15 times that I can remember off the top of my head, covering a range of methods.

Alicia Sokolowski wrote:

They are NOT basically the same thing. It takes very little human experience to understand this. They are all bad things that should be obliterated, but no way is getting raped basically the same as someone mansplaining me how to jailbreak my phone. 

They are on the same spectrum.  Did you read the article I linked?  It explains these concepts well.  Dr. Rennison is the author of the survey and has done much for victims of all forms of rape, even though you joke about it.  It doesn't matter that Brock Turner was not charged with rape.  Callie knows that he is a rapist, we all know he is a rapist.  We can't let courts who are mostly men decide these things.  Some will try to lessen the impact to the victim and claim that there are lesser degrees of assault, but it's all on the spectrum.  We should not let semantics prevent us from calling these men what they are and from helping victims heal.

And please do not attack my personal experiences, which is exactly what this survey is trying address.

I'm glad the Access Fund is supporting it.  It's important that women know what is out there.

señdera la reina wrote:

They are on the same spectrum.  Did you read the article I linked?  It explains these concepts well.  Dr. Rennison is the author of the survey and has done much for victims of all forms of rape, even though you joke about it.  It doesn't matter that Brock Turner was not charged with rape.  Callie knows that he is a rapist, we all know he is a rapist.  We can't let courts who are mostly men decide these things.  Some will try to lessen the impact to the victim and claim that there are lesser degrees of assault, but it's all on the spectrum.  We should not let semantics prevent us from calling these men what they are and from helping victims heal.

And please do not attack my personal experiences, which is exactly what this survey is trying address.

I'm glad the Access Fund is supporting it.  It's important that women know what is out there.

You are talking about an opinion, the law is different and is how we, in a civilized society, settle matters of dispute.

The survey in question is obviously political and aimed to serve the interests of it's creators. Which is how most "surveys" work, so depending on your position on the issue take the "survey" as you see fit.

"People need to understand that rape, sexual assault, unwanted touching, suggestive comments, mansplaining, etc. are basically the same thing"

Statesments like ^^ is is why we can't have nice thiings.  

I'd love for you to go into great detail to show us what a perfect politically correct non-rapey courtship ritual where a climber guy wants to fuck a climber girl and they wind up banging with perfect social justice. Really flesh out the scene for us, the reader.