Are American college campuses rape cultures?

Are they dangerous places where sexual assaults against women are happening at an alarming rate?

According to many gender activists, academics, and politicians, the answer is yes.

Here's what the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden said in 2014.

We know the numbers, one in five of every one of those young women who has dropped off for that first day of school

before they finish school will be assaulted, will be assaulted in her college years.

Let's take a closer look at the Vice President's claim.

Rape is a horrific crime and rapists are rightfully despised.

We have strict laws against sexual assault that everyone wants to see enforced.

But while rape is certainly a very serious problem, there's simply no evidence of a national campus rape epidemic.

And there's certainly no evidence that sexual violence is a cultural norm in 21st century America.

In fact, rates of rape in the US are very low and they've been declining for decades.

Why would it be any different on a college campus?

Where then does the one in five rate that Vice President Biden's sites come from?

Well, it turns out it comes from a study conducted over the internet at two large universities,

one in the Midwest and one in the South.

The survey was anonymous, no one's claims were verified, and terms were not clearly defined.

In round numbers, a total of 5,000 women participated.

Based on their responses, the authors, not the participants,

determined that 1,000 had been victims of some type of non-consensual or unwanted sexual contact.

And voila! From one vaguely worded unscientific survey,

we suddenly arrive at a rape culture on college campuses.

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