By Sarah Luckett
“[Athletes] are taught they are winners from the time they first show talent on the practice field. What they want is there for the taking – that may include women they meet along the way,” said Alison Moran, co-host of “The Weekend Sports Report” on WKRS-AM 1220 in Chicago.
In the last decade, it seems like not a season goes by that one professional athlete or another isn’t involved a sex scandal. They’re about as sure as injury reports. But in a culture where sexual assault allegations in sports have seemingly become commonplace, do Americans forget the seriousness involved?
“I would say that there is a culture among athletes that promotes a belief that they are ‘untouchable’,” Moran said.
“All celebrities get to do what they want,” said Jim Reedy, sports editor of Gaper’s Block, a Chicago-based news website.
“I think you can have a discussion about the idea that there is a physicality or hyper-masculinity or a brutality in some of these sports that kind of runs contradictory to being sensitive towards ladies.
You spend all of your time around your male teammates and other guys…sometimes a male group mentality can develop than can play a role as well,” Reedy continued.
Jeanette Castellanos Butt, director of sexual violence and support services at YWCA Chicago said that the issue with sexual assault claims against athletes not being taken seriously has a lot to do with how we, as a society, conceptualize a perpetrator.
“We tend to visualize them as fringe individuals, aggressive, easily identifiable and possibly with criminal histories,” she said. “But in reality, they are more likely to be accomplished, charming, even admired individuals, and athletes are often seen in this light.”
Butt said that the image our society has of athletes is inconsistent with the image we have of sexual perpetrators, so there is often a reluctance to hold them accountable.
While it’s often the professional athletes that receive the most media attention when it comes to sexual assault, studies show that aggressive sexual behavior is prominent amongst male college athletes as well.
A 2008 study conducted by Violence Against Women suggested that collegiate athletic participation amongst males increased sexual behavior and negative attitudes toward women.
Further, the highest scoring athletes on the team were significantly more likely to display sexual aggression and be more sexual active.
Tracey Cox, communications director for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center said that 90 percent or more of sexual assault victims on college campuses never report their assault, and that most perpetrators are known to their victims.
She also said that fear of hostile treatment or disbelief by police prevents almost 25 percent of college rape victims from reporting.
If celebrity status, even on the campus level, plays a role in instigating sexual assault, it seems to continue through the legal process as well.
A 2003 USA Today report stated that research of 168 sexual assault allegations against professional athletes in the past dozen years suggests sports figures fare better at trial than defendants from the general population.
Of those 168 allegations, involving 164 athletes, only 22 saw their cases go to trial, and only six cases resulted in convictions. In another 46 cases, a plea agreement was reached. Combined with the six athletes convicted at trial and one who pleaded guilty as charged, that gives the athletes a 32 percent total conviction rate in the resolved cases.
More than two-thirds of athletes were never charged, saw the charges dropped or were acquitted.
John Collins, partner at the sports law firm Collins and Collins, said that stigma associated with women bringing forth sexual assault allegations has everything to do with whether the allegations themselves are true – regardless of whether or not the allegations ever see a court room.
“A claim could get dropped for a variety of reasons, one could be there’s no evidence to support, it could be a false claim, it depends on the situation as to what it was, there could have been a settlement or some other reconciliation…there’s so many basis on which it could be withdrawn or dropped,” Collins continued.
While the numbers are clear on where the law stands, members of the media seem torn. While Moran thinks the public sides with the athlete, Reedy doesn’t agree completely.
“I think [public opinion] varies widely what the assumption [of guilt] is right away,” Reedy said. “I wouldn’t say that, from what I’ve seen, that the athlete these days is always given the benefit of the doubt immediately. However, there are definitely plenty of cases, especially if the guy had a really great reputation and this is the first we’ve heard of him doing something bad, then that question pops into peoples’ minds.”
Reedy blames the tales of money-hungry groupies when the public quickly turns against alleged victims.
“You do read feature stories about sports groupies, and the apocryphal tales of young women literally scheming of having athletes’ babies and getting rich off of child support money,” he said. “I’m sure that’s a minuscule percentage of people, probably even a small percentage of groupies.”
“But then again there’s also a pretty miniscule percentage of shark attacks every year and people are scared of that, too,” Reedy said.
Moran said that, from a reporting perspective, it’s crucial to find as much information about the accuser as possible to present a fair and accurate story.
She suggests turning to the Internet to find all information available and utilizing social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.
“Use whatever information you could find out there, instead of jumping to conclusions. Or, try to talk to the woman's attorney. That brings the fair and balanced reporting that is necessary in cases like that,” said Moran.
Reedy said that, from a media perspective, handling sexual assault allegations is a struggle. He suggests sticking to reporting just the legal facts and actions taken.
“I think you see individual media members and media outlets wrestle with these questions all the time,” he said. “It’s such a difficult position to be in as a media member, because realistically the two major possibilities are almost total opposites.”
“In a situation like that, it’s either a player is being unjustly accused and it’s an absolute crime against him that his reputation is being totally shattered, or he did rape this woman which is the opposite end of the spectrum,” Reedy continued.
Reedy said that it’s difficult for members of the media to remain neutral when public opinion is so loudly discussed, but that sticking to the facts is key in reporting on such sensitive topics.
“As a media member or a member of the public you really have no idea what the truth is,” Reedy said. “Media members try to split the difference by just saying what the facts are, but there are story narratives that get talked about and all of this other stuff that its kind of hard to know how to handle or frame that.”
Regardless of how balanced media reporting is, the public opinion of athletes and the women who accuse them of sexual assault will always lean on way or the other. According to Moran, in the public eyes, the blame lays on the victim.
“I think that oftentimes, we tend to believe our sports ‘heroes’ before we have all the facts,” she said.
Butt, who advocates for the victims of such assaults, agrees.
“There is a problematic focus on how punishing [athletes] will ruin their future or potential, instead of focusing on the damage they’ve done to another person by committing this crime,” she said.