In a landmark study, 63 male students have confessed to rape and sexual assault

The students admitted nearly four sexual offences each to the academics running the study


As part of a landmark survey, 63 male students at UK universities have admitted to committing rape, sexual assault or other coercive actions over the course of the past two years.

The offending students committed 251 acts between them, meaning that on average, each student owned up to four incidents.

In total, 554 male students were surveyed, meaning that 11 per cent of respondents confessed they had perpetrated acts of sexual aggression.

The landmark study, conducted by the University of Kent, aimed to shine a light on sexual violence on campus.

Two surveys were conducted as part of the research, both of which involved questions about sexual scenarios and participants’ attitudes towards women.

The first involved 295 students from 100 universities, while the second involved the same number of students from just one university.

In the first survey, 30 respondents said they’d committed 145 acts of sexual aggression over the course of the past two years. Sexual coercion was the most common act, followed by rape, attempted rape and unwanted sexual contact.

The second survey found that 33 men had committed 106 acts of sexual aggression over the course of the past two years.

Sam Hales, co-author of the paper and researcher at the University of Kent, told The Guardian: “Of the 63 perpetrators who took part in either the first or second study, 37 reported perpetrating unwanted sexual contact, 32 sexual coercion and 30 rape or attempted rape.

“Some of these offences would’ve been perpetrated just before they started university, including while they were at school.

“Perpetrators were significantly more likely to endorse offence-excusing myths associated with rape, eg victims are to blame for being assaulted, and to have more negative sexist and hostile views about women, eg believing that many of their troubles were the fault of women, and to report sexually fantasising more about harmful, such as physically hurting their sexual partner when they didn’t have consent to do so.”

The founder of Everyone’s Invited, Soma Sara, was quick to comment on the report. “We have always believed that sexist beliefs, misogyny and toxic masculinity leads to predatory behaviour,” Sara told The Guardian. “The importance of exposing rape culture across society should not be underestimated.

“Sexism is part of a continuum of violence and when any individual is dehumanised they become vulnerable to violence.

“Let’s help men and boys to become well-informed role models who have the courage to be proactive, to call out behaviour and hold their friends accountable.”

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Everyone’s Invited founder: ‘Students need to challenge rape culture in real time’

• The Tab X Our Streets Now: Take our Student Safety Survey 2021

Girls are reporting being spiked by injection – I’m terrified to go clubbing