Manhattan Institute’s March 10 panel discussion of “The Truth About Campus Sexual Assault”

Edited transcript here. Excerpt:

'HOWARD HUSOCK: We have been told that a crisis of sexual violence grips college and university life. By some accounts, including that of President Obama himself, one in five female undergraduates is said to be likely to experience a sexual assault over the course of their college years. Prominent feminist and Guardian columnist, Jessica Valenti, has referred to the epidemic levels of rape on university campuses. Others, however, see the cry of crisis as exaggerated, and point to the debunking of such stories as that which appeared in Rolling Stone alleging that the University of Virginia had failed to act on a woman student’s charges of fraternity gang rape.

I’m going to turn first to Heather Mac Donald. Put this in context for us, Heather.

HEATHER MAC DONALD: Let’s look at these numbers, Howard. The most common statistic thrown out these days by President Obama, Vice President Biden, on down is that one in five women will be the victims of sexual assault during their college careers.

Detroit is America’s most violent city. Its violent crime rate for all four violent felonies—that’s rape, murder, aggravated assault, and robbery—is 2%. Its rape rate is 0.05%. A 20% crime rate for any crime, much less one as serious as rape, is virtually unheard of. Not even in Africa’s most brutal civil wars has anything been experienced in human history like a 20% crime rate. And yet despite a rape rate that is allegedly 400 times that of Detroit’s, sophisticated, highly educated baby boomer mothers are beating down the doors of campuses to try to get their daughters in.

The frenzy of college admissions begins earlier and earlier each year. Here in Manhattan, parents are paying $200 an hour for tutoring for prekindergarten, all in the hope of getting their little darlings into Harvard 14 years later.'