ChickSpeak

At the University of Maryland this fall, an annual demonstration against sexual assault suddenly gave way to a fierce debate about freedom of speech.

The issue was a knotty one: Should demonstrators be allowed to display T-shirts with the names of men accused of sexual assault, even if those men had not been convicted of any crime or, in some cases, even charged?

The goal of the national Clothesline Project display was to empower rape victims and call attention to the number of women hurt by violence.

But amid the debates about victims’ rights, presumption of innocence and the university’s legal liabilities, a fundamental issue was easy to overlook: the high rate of sexual assault among college women.

Rape is not uncommon on college campuses, whether small or large, private or public. Estimates vary on how often sexual assault happens, but even the most conservative figures are disturbing.

Nearly 3 percent of college women will suffer a rape or attempted rape in any given academic year, and some of those women will be assaulted more than once, according to a December 2000 study for the National Institute of Justice, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department. On a campus with 10,000 female students, the study said, there will be about 350 incidents of rape during an academic year.

Yet the reporting of sexual assault remains decidedly uncommon. Though college women are at higher risk than other women of being assaulted, according to the NIJ study, they are also less likely to report it when it happens. One study for the institute estimated that fewer than 5 percent of college victims tell police or campus authorities what happened.

In comparison, a wider study of U.S. crime victims showed that 38 percent of victims of rape, sexual assault and threats of sexual assault reported those incidents to police, according to 2005 statistics from the Justice Department.

Reporting of rapes cuts two ways for universities. On the one hand, colleges need women to come forward so justice can be served; so the perpetrators, who may very well strike again, can be dealt with; and so the victims themselves can receive medical or psychological treatment.

On the other hand, better reporting would expose to the outside world the jeopardy women face on college campuses. The higher numbers that come from better reporting can hardly help a college’s image and recruitment efforts.

“I think it’s the best-kept secret that universities have,” said Stacy Bogart, who became a public voice on the issue after telling her story of being sexually assaulted by a classmate on “Dateline” and in other media.

Bogart, who was a student at Ohio State, later learned that her assailant, who was indicted on rape charges but pleaded guilty to sexual imposition and was expelled by Ohio State, had been accused of sexual assault by another woman only weeks before. He was not charged in that incident.

Bogart sued Ohio State in 2004 over the handling of her case. The lawsuit was settled this year, she said, and a condition of the settlement is she can no longer name the university.

Though Bogart was in the minority of women who report sexual assault, she understands why so many stay silent.

Young women in college are trying to find themselves and find their place. They are afraid to rock the boat. They fear people will talk about them, especially if another student is involved.

Others who work with rape victims say some women are afraid they will be punished for alcohol violations if drinking was involved, as it often is. Some fear a justice system that might put their behavior on trial alongside that of the accused. And then there are women who may not recognize, or acknowledge, that what happened to them is rape, even though it fits the legal definition of the crime.

Whatever the reason, the lack of reporting carries a serious cost for the women, their families and others who care about them. In the long run, it also damages university communities and jeopardizes future generations of students.

“We’ve got a silent epidemic on our hands,” said Susan Vickers, executive director of the Victim Rights Law Center in Massachusetts, which provides free legal counsel to sexual assault victims.

Continue reading the full article, Suffering through silence
Colleges should help rape victims emerge from shadows
By Kathryn Masterson a freelancer for the Chicago Tribune.
Originally published on December 2, 2007