lewak@sdcsvax.UUCP (George Lewak) (06/19/85)
I am posting this as a request from a friend. Responses may be sent via postnews, or via email to me, Victor Romano (CO: George Lewak), at ...!sdcsvax!lewak. ------------------------------------------- I have been following the rape/security discussion and have an observation to make. This is PURELY ANECDOTAL; I don't claim to have done a statistical study. I live in a student house in a not-too-safe neighborhood (we've had one break-in and a number of prowlers in the past year, and one *reported* rape took place nearby; also, the police get called to the apartments next door quite frequently). When I moved in, I asked that whoever is the last person up lock the doors (and turn down the heat, shut off lights, etc...). It has been the case so far that male housemates are more forgetful about this than female ones. Why? There are three suggestions: 1) (tying in to the discussion more) is that man are not raised to fear intruders as much as women, so they aren't as conscious of the possibility and how to reduce its likelihood. 2) My male housemate think (perhaps unconsciously) that their mere presense is an effective deterrent to criminals. This is partially true, but in the case of the break-in, the man came in through the garage and threatened the woman living in the basement without any of the people upstairs finding out until "after the fact." 3) The male housemates have been more wealthy than the female ones; perhaps the men were raised in better neighborhoods where one doesn't have to worry about locking doors, so they aren't "indoctrinated" in security issues. The anti-feminists out there may grab #3, but I know of several coed houses that have had the same problem, where people's income levels have been random with respect to gender. Ann