On November 19th, Rolling Stone published an article about an alleged gang rape which was said to have occurred at a frat house at the University of Virginia. The story had a widespread effect, both for those within the UVA community and those watching across the country. The University’s President shuttered all campus fraternities for the remainder of the fall semester while promising to look into the allegations and the way sexual assault allegations are handled at UVA. Online more articles were written looking at the piece, and UVA’s response, as a clear sign universities across the country would be forced to look at the growing problem of sexual assaults on campus. But today, Rolling Stone published “A Note to Our Readers” explaining serious doubts have arisen about whether the assault actually took place. As the note explains:
“In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced. We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.”
Anyone who has spent any time on the internet can already imagine the sexist backlash from the darker corners of the web, taking this instance of a possibly false allegation as proof that most sexual assault allegations were fabricated. This is completely incorrect; only between 2% to 10% of sexual assault allegations are false. Commenters on Twitter were also quick to point out Rolling Stone’s note was very vague, and inconsistencies in a rape victim’s account of the violent act could easily be attributed to trauma, not lies.
Even if it does come out that the victim completely fabricated the entire attack, the important take away is that sexual assaults do occur on college campuses across the country and are often not treated as seriously and compassionately as they should be. If this story proves false, then the only thing we’ve learned is Rolling Stone and its journalist need to be more diligent with their work; it will do nothing to disprove the severity of the problem of sexual assault on college campuses.
