The exact size of the campus sexual assault problem remains unclear. The commonly cited statistic that one in five women who attend college is assaulted before she graduates — repeated by the White House — comes from a flawed 2007 study based on undergraduates at just two unnamed public universities. That figure often shocks, yet there is no reliable alternative estimate. Under the federal Clery Act universities are required to publish data on campus crime, but activists have long suspected that administrators underreport sex crimes.
A new study in the journal Psychology, Public Policy, and Law gives credence to the activists’ suspicions, underscores that confusion is the rule and points to the need for better information. The researcher, a professor at the University of Kansas, found an unsettling trend: When the Department of Education audits universities for possible Clery Act violations, reports of sexual assault rise dramatically, by approximately 44 percent; when the period of scrutiny ends, reporting rates fall right back to pre-audit levels.
The study was limited to the years 2001 to 2012 and to four-year schools with at least 10,000 students. In that time frame, the Department of Education audited 31 colleges and universities. Reporting rates for other crimes, like robbery and burglary, did not follow the same pattern.
If audits were highly publicized events, one could argue that the increase in reports by the universities simply reflected increases in self-reporting by victims. But that’s doubtful because, as the study points out, “unlike recent Title IX investigations, it appears that the media and public are rarely made aware of Clery Act audits.” It’s also possible that universities overcount assaults during audits out of an abundance of caution and fear of reprimand. Or there’s the explanation favored by the author: that universities undercount assaults when they think they can get away with it, in order to avoid turning off prospective students and their parents. What’s really happening here is not certain, but the study indicates, if nothing else, that the information coming from universities leaves something to be desired.
A possible solution can be found in the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. Currently before Congress, it would require colleges to conduct anonymous, standardized surveys on sexual violence and publish the results, or face a fine. Both campus activists who believe there’s an epidemic of sexual assault and skeptics who doubt there’s a widespread problem can at least agree that a clearer picture would be useful.
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