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LISA DREHER

Journalist

Education reporter for the Laredo Morning Times in the Texas border city of Laredo. Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2018 with a journalism degree and history minor. Interned at hyperlocal news site, the Austin Monitor, and Austin’s main legacy paper, the Austin American-Statesman. I was a senior news reporter for The Daily Texan, UT’s official college newspaper, for which I have covered state and local politics. Print journalist skillfull in multimedia tools, such as video and audio storytelling using Adobe Suite

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'Afraid to be vulnerable’: A male student opens up about being a sexual assault survivor

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Editor’s note: The name of the source has been changed to protect their privacy.

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James wasn’t sure what to think walking back to his apartment after a one-night stand with a man he met on a dating app his freshman year at UT. All he knew was he felt more vulnerable than ever before.

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“At first I didn’t classify it as rape because it didn’t feel like rape, but then it was like, ‘What does rape feel like?’” James said. “But if a friend told me that experience, I would probably just say ‘rape,’ but I wouldn’t talk about it. I was afraid to be vulnerable around men for a long time after that.”

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As a man, James said he struggles sharing his story because of the stigma that male sexual assault survivors are weak or were not assaulted to begin with.

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“It affected who I was fundamentally as a man, because being violated is not necessarily the description of what you would consider a man to (be),” he said.

Thirty-nine complaints alleging sexual assault were filed by men to UT’s Title IX Office for the 2017–2018 academic school year, according to information obtained by The Daily Texan through a Texas Public Information Act request. During the same year, 171 complaints alleging sexual assault were filed by women. 

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James said he did not report his incident to police for fear of a long and painful legal process. 

 

Research shows these gaps are consistent with the typical ratio of reports by men and by women, Title IX Office Coordinator Krista Anderson said.

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“If someone who is male-identifying has been victimized, the likelihood they’ll likely come forward is greatly reduced because of social norms, cultural norms of men and masculinity,” Anderson said.

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Organizations and services such as UT’s Counseling and Mental Health Center, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and the organization 1in6 — which specifically helps male and male-identifying survivors — offer multiple resources such as support groups and hotlines for survivors on campus.

Seth Stewart is the development and communications director for 1in6, named after the statistic that 1 in 6 men will be sexually assaulted or abused.

 

Men often do not come forward because of social norms about masculinity, Stewart said.

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“They’ll call it hazing, they’ll call it humiliation,” Stewart said. “Part of that is sort of putting it in a certain box to preserve a certain kind of strength or confidence or masculinity.”

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James said he blamed himself for the incident and worked out more to try to fight the idea that he was too weak to fight off the perpetrator. He now does not feel comfortable being alone with men.

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“Before it happened to me, I never thought how large a guy could be, how he could overpower me,” James said. “That’s probably a thing that many women think about a lot, but for me, that never was. I started working out a lot after I was assaulted. I think about the fact that I was probably scrawny then … like it was my own fault for not being stronger.”

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James said he did not disclose the incident to many friends, and he anticipates mostly negative reactions after sharing because society frames sexual abuse and harassment of men as humorous or not at all something to be taken seriously. 

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“For me, I’m bisexual, and I would never talk about this with a girl I was interested in because of masculinity,” James said.

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The fact that men are less likely to report being sexually assaulted, as well as typically being the perpetrators of sexual violence on women, both contribute to the discrepancy between reports by men and women, Anderson said.

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“I think because we see a higher rates of victimization of women, that in itself is going to be a disproportionate number of complaints from women,” Anderson said. “When we do see men have been victimized in some way, shape or form, they feel less comfortable coming forward. And not that everything is men-on-women (or) women-on-men, we see same-sex violence as well.”

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About 15 percent of female UT students and 5 percent of male students reported being raped at UT, according to the 2017 Cultivating Learning and Safe Environments survey.

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Men are often are left out of the dialogue about sexual assault, which should include discussion about more men without taking away from women’s experiences, Stewart said.

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“There can be — and not all the time of course — sometimes the automatic assumption that men are bystanders watching this happen to women or they’re perpetrators,” Stewart said. “So, thinking about a man as a survivor is not the first place that some people’s minds go to.”

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Using alcohol and drugs to cope with sexual assault often occurs during college, Stewart said. James said he drank and used drugs to deal with his trauma.

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James said he is currently doing better after time has passed, but he knows the psychological effects will follow him. He hopes more people have empathy, not only when survivors disclose but when they are coping with the trauma in their daily lives following the assault.

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“People have a tendency to treat male victims of sexual assault like ‘it’s your fault for not being man enough. It shouldn’t really have affected you that much. Why is this a big deal?’” James said. “Especially if you’re a straight guy, it’s like, ‘You got sex, why are you treating this like it’s a bad thing?’”

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Meechaiel Criner’s defense attorney awaits DNA reports

  • Writer: Lisa Dreher
    Lisa Dreher
  • Nov 17, 2016
  • 2 min read

The defense attorney for Meechaiel Criner, the 18-year-old charged with the murder of UT dance freshman Haruka Weiser in April, said he is waiting for DNA results that have been delayed by the Austin Police Department’s DNA lab backlog. 


Photo Credit: Chase Karacostas | Daily Texan Staff

“It’s delaying my ability to investigate my case and advise my client and do all the things I need to do,” said Ariel Payan, Criner’s attorney. 


According to official documents, biological matter from the crime scene was swabbed for analysis. Tom Vinger, press secretary for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in an emailed statement that five individual evidence reports were written and released in April and May of this year. Vinger said a report related to the trial is due sometime this month, but the department cannot confirm that the test results Payan is looking for will be included in that particular report because it is an ongoing case. Criner is scheduled to stand trial on March 27, 2017.


Since APD’s forensic lab was shut down in June due to use of improper and outdated methods, the overflow of forensic tests sent to the DPS has slowed evidence testing and recording of the results. 


“When you have a major metropolitan’s lab fail, that’s caused us a ripple effect through the whole system,” Payan said.


Vinger said law enforcement and prosecutors may still request testing of evidence as the case moves along. After an evidence report is sent to him, Payan said he has to personally review and evaluate it.


“The problem is when I get it, I have to do all my fact-checking to make sure they did it correctly, and that’s going to take a while too,” Payan said.


Austin City Council voted Nov. 3 to approve sending an undecided amount of APD’s tests to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas to alleviate the backlog. 


Vinger said their lab in Austin currently processes about 20 of APD’s cases per month and averages more than 1,200 cases a year.


“[The] DPS … works as quickly as possible to address the high demand at our crime labs within existing resources,” Vinger said in an email.


David Gonzalez, adjunct professor of law at UT and a defense attorney, said Payan could file a speedy trial motion, claiming Criner’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy and public trial is being violated by the delay. Gonzalez said despite the backlog, DPS should not rush its procedures because it could lead to mistakes.


“I think most importantly on a capital murder case, you want the integrity of the evidence and the science,” Gonzalez said. “Especially in this case where that evidence exonerates him because it’s not his DNA.”


Payan said a Travis County case was dismissed because the defense attorney filed a motion for a speedy trial due to the backlog, but doing so could further stall Criner’s case.

“It doesn’t really [move] me or Mr. Criner to file a motion for a speedy trial at this point, because we need to see the evidence,” Payan said.

 
 
 

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