Many Incidents of Sexual Assault at US Colleges Go Unreported

Many Incidents of Sexual Assault at US Colleges Go Unreported

More than half of college students did not report incidents of sexual assault because they did not think it was "serious enough." Others said they were embarrassed or thought "nothing would be done."

That is part of the findings of a 2015 report from the Association of American Universities, or AAU. AAU is an organization that studies issues of higher education.

Researchers for the AAU asked more than 150,000 students at 27 universities to complete a survey about their experiences and attitudes towards sexual assault.

David Cantor is one of the authors of the report. He says AAU researches wanted to learn how big of a problem sexual assault is on college campuses.

"The main focus was to try to get an idea of how often sexual assault is happening and how many times are specific individuals actually victimized by different forms of sexual assault and sexual misconduct."

The study found over 23 percent of female undergraduate students had experienced a sexual assault. The study also found over 11 percent of all surveyed students had experienced an assault.

In addition, the study found drugs and alcohol were often involved.

Not all colleges are the same, Cantor says. But at all 27 colleges, no more than 28 percent of incidents of forced sexual penetration¹ were reported.

Understanding the problem

In 2014, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a government agency that researches crime, conducted a study with the help of the research organization RTI International.

The Campus Climate Survey Validation² Study involved anonymous³ interviews with 23,000 students at nine U.S. colleges and universities about the issue of sexual violence. The bureau then released the findings of the study in January.

Chris Krebs is a researcher with RTI International. Krebs says it is too early to say what causes one school to have more attacks than another.

"The reality is that a lot of schools don’t know much about the problem of sexual assault among their students. They know it exists and we know that the minority of assaults get reported to authorities on campus. But most schools don’t have survey data like those that we collected to inform their thinking or their policies and practices."

Krebs says responses from authorities can be part of the problem. The schools they studied where students thought poorly of the administration had higher rates of sexual assault.

Bonnie Fisher helped write the AAU report. She says that gathering⁴ information about sexual assault is important. But Fisher says that she wants to see students and school administrations working together to solve this problem.

Looking for solutions

Jennifer Schoewe, 21, studies finance at the University of Cincinnati, or UC, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Schoewe wanted to attend the school from a very early age. Her mother attended UC as well as her brother.

She says she loves the school to this day. But her life completely changed on August 22, 2015. At a party off campus, she was attacked. She did not know her attacker.

"There’s no going back for me. There’s no changing anything for me. I’m kind of just stuck living with it."

But Schoewe wants to prevent the same thing from happening to others. She then learned of a student group called "Not On My Campus." It started at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 2013. The group tried to get students to talk about the issue of sexual violence. Now there are similar groups at campuses across the country.

Schoewe started her own “Not On My Campus” group at UC with the help of her friend in the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. They work with fraternities and sororities to get their members to sign a pledge to discuss and prevent assaults on campus.

Schoewe asks for more conversations about sexual violence, especially among men.

"The majority of men are not rapists. The majority of men will never rape⁵ … But … we need the male gender⁶ to speak up about it ... Because women can’t fight this on our own. We’re only half the population … Men hearing it from other men, I think, will help change minds and change behaviors."

Several schools across the country have also begun to employ Title IX enforcement officers. Title IX is a section of a group of laws from 1972 designed to prevent discrimination based on gender. The government now sees sexual violence as discrimination.

Words in This Story

incident(s) – n. an unexpected and usually unpleasant thing that happens

sexual assault – n. the crime of touching⁷ someone in an unwanted sexual way

embarrassed – adj. to make someone feel confused and foolish in front of other people

survey – n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

attitude(s) – n. the way you think and feel about someone or something

author(s) – n. a person who has written something

campus(es) – n. the area and buildings around a university, college or school

focus – n. a subject that is being discussed or studied

victimized – v. to be treated cruelly or unfairly by someone

misconduct – n. behavior or activity that is illegal or morally wrong

undergraduate – adj. a student at a college or university who has not yet earned a degree

penetration – n. the act of going through or into something

conduct(ed) – v. to plan and do something, such as an activity

anonymous – adj. made or done by someone unknown

data – n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze⁸, or plan something

practice(s) – n. something that is done often or regularly

finance – n. the way in which money is used and handled

fraternity – n. an organization of male students at a U.S. college

sororities – n. organizations of female students at a U.S. college

pledge – n. a serious promise or agreement

conversation(s) – n. the act of talking in an informal way

gender – n. the state of being male or female

1 penetration   

n.穿透，穿人，渗透

参考例句：

• He is a man of penetration.他是一个富有洞察力的人。
• Our aim is to achieve greater market penetration.我们的目标是进一步打入市场。

2 validation   

n.确认

参考例句：

• If the countdown timer ever hits zero, do your validation processing. 处理这种情况的方法是在输入的同时使用递减计时器，每次击键重新计时。如果递减计时器变为零，就开始验证。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Although the validation control is a very widespread idiom, most such controls can be improved. 虽然确认控件是非常广泛的习惯用法，但还有很多有待改进的地方。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

3 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

6 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

7 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

8 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。