Summary: <br> Dr <a href="https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/david-ellis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">David Ellis</a> is Associate Professor of Information systems at Bath University and a member of that university’s <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/teams/academic-ethics-and-integrity-committee/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">Academic Ethics and integrity committee</a>. <br> <br> <br> <br> The <a href="http://www.nuigalway.ie/student-life/student-support/active-consent/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">Active Consent Unit</a> has its own section on the NUIG website, and its <a href="http://www.nuigalway.ie/student-life/student-support/active-consent/media/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">media page posts inaccurate media coverage</a> of its work without comment. (Update: They appear to have now hidden their media page, but not to worry, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210825085117/https://www.nuigalway.ie/student-life/student-support/active-consent/media/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">I have it archived</a>. Update 2: Since I posted on Twitter that I had the page archived, it seems to have been restored, with some, though not all of the links to false coverage removed.) What appears to be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWvQs_MRjg8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">their YouTube account incorrectly claims</a> that the <a href="http://www.nuigalway.ie/media/smartconsent/SES-Report-2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">research</a> applies to all students, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210827141535/https:/twitter.com/ActiveConsent/status/1274996144662290432" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">posts on their twitter account</a> make the same false claim.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The Active Consent Unit <a href="https://www.nuigalway.ie/student-life/student-support/active-consent/book/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">offers on its website ‘workshops’</a> targeted at second- and third-level students which address the problems their research purports measure. Dr Caroline West <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210831120751/https://iamcarolinewest.com/workshops" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">offers similar workshops</a> on her personal website. There is no mention of this conflict of interests <a href="http://www.nuigalway.ie/media/smartconsent/SES-Report-2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">in the report they published</a>.<br> <br> <br> <br> The report claims that, of students who have been raped, just 4.5 per cent of female students, and three per cent of men report this to the gardaí. This is not consistent with other research on this topic which suggests that <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/crisis-appointments-at-rape-crisis-centre-tripled-after-first-lockdown-1.4666513" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">between 36 per cent</a> and <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">20 per cent</a> of rape victims make a police report.<br> <br> <br> <br> The report claims that, of the 29 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men, 4.5 per cent and 3 per cent make a garda report, meaning that 1.3 per cent of all female students and 0.3 per cent of all male students report being raped to the gardaí.<br> <br> <br> <br> With almost 250,000 students in the country (about 5 per cent o the total population, skewing slightly female), if that figure really did apply to all students, there would be more than 2,000 reports of rape by students to the gardaí.<br> <br> <br> <br> As can be seen in this data from the CSO, the entire population typically reports 1,000 or fewer rapes to the gardaí per year, so this claim is clearly impossible.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br>
