Mona Charen: Who created the rape culture?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Some of my conservative/libertarian sisters have pointed out that the statistics on sexual assault are wildly inflated. Christina Hoff Sommers notes that the “one in five women are victims of rape” statistic that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention popularized is wildly at odds with Department of Justice crime victimization surveys, and is based on poorly worded questions and unrepresentative samples. Heather Mac Donald asks whether we are to believe that 20 percent of college women are rape victims when only 0.05 percent of Detroit residents report being raped.
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The “rape culture” advocates think they’ve found the problem: We haven’t “taught men not to rape.” Zerlina Maxwell, writing in Time magazine, argues that we live in a rape culture that blames the victim.
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Of course the culture must teach men not to rape. Western culture has been doing so for thousands of years. But rape is also notoriously difficult to prove — especially if the victim shows no bruises. The false accusation of rape is almost as serious as the crime itself. Serious, non-ideological people recognize that this most intimate crime can be an excruciating legal thicket.
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The current climate has encouraged the worst instincts among some young men and without doubt confused many others. Some may find themselves accused of sexual assault when they got mixed signals. Others are predators who pick off easy prey in a world without guardrails. Women have been brainwashed into thinking that this sexual sewer is empowering.

Mail your thank-you notes to the left.'