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Sex assault reporting may violate law
Act requires publishing annual report; low instances of rape reported at AU
By Brittany Aubin on 3/29/07
AU's handling of sexual assault reporting may be in violation of the Clery Act, a national law regulating campus crime reports, according to JoAnna Smith, the president of Women's Initiative and a junior in the School of Public Affairs.
Passed in 1990, the Clery Act requires universities and colleges to publish an annual statement listing the crimes reported that year on campus and in the surrounding areas. It also issues warnings if there is an ongoing threat to campus safety. Every institutional office dealing with campus affairs has a legal responsibility to report any instance of sexual assault, according to the Web site of Security on Campus, Inc., a watchdog organization created by the parents of Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University student who was raped and murdered in her dorm room on April 5, 1986.
AU's 2005 Annual Security Report, the most recent edition issued by the Department of Public Safety, cites only one instance of forcible sexual assault on campus, down from eight instances in 2003.
"It's silly to think that only one sexual assault happened on our campus last year," Smith said. "I can think of about 12 people, off the top of my head, who have told me that they have been sexually assaulted in the last year here on campus."
Smith said cases of stranger rape, or when an unknown person assaults a woman, may be declining, but there is a higher risk that women will be assaulted at off-campus parties or by a partner. These types of rape are less likely to appear on the reporting records, since when sexual assault is between partners, it is considered less of a crime and victims who were drinking tend to blame themselves for assaults, she said.
"I don't think that it's a conscious decision that the school is making to cover up these things," Smith said. "I just think that there needs to be a clarification about what needs be reported in the annual report and clarification on what the departments and campus life need to be actually reporting."
Passed in 1990, the Clery Act requires universities and colleges to publish an annual statement listing the crimes reported that year on campus and in the surrounding areas. It also issues warnings if there is an ongoing threat to campus safety. Every institutional office dealing with campus affairs has a legal responsibility to report any instance of sexual assault, according to the Web site of Security on Campus, Inc., a watchdog organization created by the parents of Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University student who was raped and murdered in her dorm room on April 5, 1986.
AU's 2005 Annual Security Report, the most recent edition issued by the Department of Public Safety, cites only one instance of forcible sexual assault on campus, down from eight instances in 2003.
"It's silly to think that only one sexual assault happened on our campus last year," Smith said. "I can think of about 12 people, off the top of my head, who have told me that they have been sexually assaulted in the last year here on campus."
Smith said cases of stranger rape, or when an unknown person assaults a woman, may be declining, but there is a higher risk that women will be assaulted at off-campus parties or by a partner. These types of rape are less likely to appear on the reporting records, since when sexual assault is between partners, it is considered less of a crime and victims who were drinking tend to blame themselves for assaults, she said.
"I don't think that it's a conscious decision that the school is making to cover up these things," Smith said. "I just think that there needs to be a clarification about what needs be reported in the annual report and clarification on what the departments and campus life need to be actually reporting."
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