Fraternities and Sexual Assault

Did you know that fraternities are "the largest single provider of undergraduate housing in the United States?"  As such, fraternities have great power to influence the activities and culture on college campuses. 

In a recent story on NPR, I learned that fraternities are insured.  Through this insurance, some research has been done about how to decrease their risk.  The number one claim against fraternities is assault and battery and the second is sexual assault of young women. In fact, 55% of gang rapes on college campuses are committed by fraternities. Consider that with these numbers, fraternities cannot be backed by a usual insurance company, they have had to self-insure through the Fraternity Risk Management Fund.  Instead of changing their culture to fit society's, and business's, rules of behavior, they created their own insurance fund, so that they could still exhibit this behavior, but also be protected from the consequences.

If fraternities were made alcohol-free, the number of claims against their insurance policies would drop 85%.  What an encouraging number--if fraternities would actually become alcohol-free. 

Another interesting fact I learned was that if someone was in the fraternity house the night of an assault, and was doing a bad act, underage drinking for example, he too can be named in a civil lawsuit filed against the fraternity.  And, if the fraternity has since dropped him from their insurance, which is likely; his parents' homeowner's insurance is liable. 

I do not want to say that every fraternity is allowing sexual assault to happen within its halls.  Fraternities differ greatly in their cultures and their attitudes.  In a study done by the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, a study was done comparing members of groups (athletic teams and fraternities) dubbed as "high-risk" for sexual assault, athletic teams and fraternities that were viewed as lower risk and nonmembers.  They compared measures of sexual aggression, hostility toward women, and male peer support endorsing sexual aggression and compared across the groups.  Here are their conclusions from the study:

"there were stark differences between groups perceived to have parties that created a high risk for sexual assault and those groups perceived to have parties that created a low risk for sexual assault. Members of perceived high-risk groups reported significantly higher levels of sexual aggression toward women, hostility toward women, and male peer support for sexual violence toward women than members of perceived low-risk groups. These results help explain why other investigators have not found a consistent relationship regarding sexual aggression, fraternities, and athletic teams. Not all fraternities and athletic teams are equal in their propensity to engage in sexual assault"


Lots of fraternities provide needed support for charities, community organizations, and other philanthropic causes.  However, imagine if fraternities took a hardline stance against binge drinking, sexual assault, and risky behaviors.  How do you think the statistics would read then?