First Nationwide Study of Campus Sexual Assault Policies Finds Compliance Lacking

Newton, MA: Only 37 percent of America’s institutions of higher education report sexual crime statistics in full compliance with federal law, according to a report released to Congress last month by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institutes of Justice. Despite making significant strides in developing prevention and response policies and making them accessible to students, the study found substantial problems with prevention programming, reporting policies, and adjudication practices at colleges and universities across the country.

The two-year study is the first comprehensive investigation of how the nation’s institutions of higher education (IHEs) comply with the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act in responding to student allegations of rape and sexual assault, and preventing its occurrence. The study, based on a sample size of 2,438 IHE’s , was conducted by Health and Human Development Programs at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and its partner the University of Cincinnati, with contributions by the Police Executive Research Forum.

Major findings in Campus Sexual Assault: How America’s Institutions of Higher Education Respond include:

• There are no standard state or institutional definitions of “sexual assault” and “rape.”
• Underreporting by victims remains the most significant challenge facing campus and law enforcement authorities.
• Less than half of all IHEs provide new students with acquaintance rape prevention and sexual assault awareness programming.
• Only 48.5 percent of the four-year public schools and 43 percent of the four-year private nonprofit schools included in the study used the forcible and non-forcible sexual offense categories required by the Clery Act in their annual crime statistics.
• Only a quarter of all schools use an investigative stage to collect evidence once a report is made.
• Only a third of all schools use due process procedures for the accused.

"This study confirms the existence of a widespread misperception among college administrators that reporting rates of the crime accurately reflect how often the crime is attempted or committed,” said Dr. Heather Karjane, the study’s principal investigator, "and that is simply not true." Karjane maintains that underreporting by victims remains the most significant challenge facing campus and law enforcement authorities. “One of the most serious factors that prevents student victims from reporting the crime is that they often do not recognize they have been criminally violated, particularly when they know their perpetrator and/or they have consented to drink alcohol with him,” states Karjane. “As a result, they don’t know they have a matter to report to school or criminal justice authorities.”

“In order to facilitate the reporting process, campus administrators need to openly acknowledge that sexual assault occurs within the student population; it is not typically the result of stranger-rapist intruders breaking into an otherwise safe campus community,” Karjane explains. “Administrators need to design their education, prevention, and response policies with this reality in mind.”

Others working in the field concur. "This study will be a tremendous asset in improving how those of us working in campus violence prevention and victim services respond to the epidemic of sexual assault in our campus communities,” notes S. Daniel Carter, Senior Vice President of Security On Campus, Inc.

“The information in this report brings data into the field which, until now, has rested primarily on anecdotes," said Sheldon Steinbach, vice president and general counsel of the American Council on Education.

The report results suggest that the majority of IHEs need examples of model programs in order to develop comprehensive sexual assault prevention and response policies, guidelines for meeting Clery Act reporting mandates, comprehensive evidence collection procedures, and due process procedures for the accused. Authors of the report say that their findings and suggested recommendations should be useful not only to legislators and campus leaders, but also to a wide range of justice professionals, service providers, and advocates.

The full report and an executive summary are available at the EDC website.