Sexual Assault Under-reported

When is a rape not a rape? The answer on many college campuses is: most of the time. Cases like that of a 19-year-old student sexually assaulted at a University of Pittsburgh fraternity party in 1994 (see related story) are shocking in their own right, but equally shocking is the fact that, unless such crimes are fully prosecuted, colleges are not required to report that they ever happened. In fact, for the year of 1994, Pitt officials say that there were no instances of either rape or sexual assault on campus.

All colleges and universities are required by federal law to publish an annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR) -- a statistical report detailing the number of incidents of campus crime. However, like many laws, the one outlining the requirements of the UCR is subject to interpretation.

Reports of sexual assault are often not included in many college UCR's because the victim does not prosecute (only 10 percent of rape survivors choose to prosecute the perpetrator). The fact that most victims do not even report, much less prosecute, their sexual assault, further complicates the task of presenting valid rape statistics.

"This year, fewer people were willing to file an incident report than last year," says Mary Koch Ruiz, coordinator of sexual assault services at the University of Pittsburgh. "Last year, maybe one-third were willing to do it. If they do choose to do it, it's usually a while after the assault."

Although the university has established a new central office to help victims of sexual assault and educate students, Pitt, like Carnegie Mellon University, does not release all reports of rape and sexual assault to the general public. Chatham College, a small women's college, does.

"Numbers are dangerous in a sense because they can be misinterpreted by who's reading them," says Ruiz. "Unless we're asked to, we do not give out statistics."

Ruiz believes that programming, rather than statistics, is a more useful way to make students aware of the dangers of rape and sexual assault. She cites public relations work with students, including education and prevention events, as productive strategies of confronting the issue.

But Ellen Kerr, volunteer coordinator of Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, says that statistics make rape education more successful.

She says, "You can do rape awareness and if you don't use statistics with it people are going to say 'Well, this is never going to happen to me.' You set up this whole image of being safe that isn't a reality."

Kerr adds that every campus has an image, and that many don't release statistics to protect it. "Campuses don't want to say that there are 50 reported rapes per year -- that's terrible. And you're dealing with a public that doesn't believe that rape happens."

"I think there's been a cloud over statistics, a cloud over what is real about sexual assault," says James Lapaglia, Chief of Security at CMU. "This is unfortunate because it makes rape seem abstract, when it isn't."

Students who are sexually assaulted at CMU have three options: they can go to counseling or student affairs, both of which are completely confidential, or they can go to campus police. Students who go to campus police give up their anonymity by filing a report or prosecuting their assailant. This variety of resources allows victims flexibility in a time when they need it most, but it also decentralizes the reporting process.

"The only time that statistics will show up is if it comes to our attention," says Lapaglia. "I don't think we'd want it any other way. The most important thing is getting help for the victim."

CMU's current rape statistics indicate that no rapes have occurred on campus in the past three years. But since CMU only releases reports of crimes in which the victim prosecutes, many students many read CMU's Uniform Crime Report and believe they live in a rape-free campus, when this may not be the case.

Chatham, an all-women's college, has had no reports of sexual assault since Lillie Leonardi, Director of Safety and Security, was appointed two years ago. Each year Chatham's Office of Safety and Security publishes all reports of crimes, including rape, in a brochure.

Like CMU, Chatham has many resources for its sexual assault victims, including student affairs, crime prevention officers, resident assistants, the counseling office and the advisory safety committee. Because Leonardi believes that protecting the victim and protecting the community are equally important, she is committed to issuing crime alerts right after the incident has occurred, encouraging the victim to file a report, and subsequently reporting this incident to the public.

Even though some of these reports may be "unfounded" -- a term which refers to complaints that don't result in criminal prosecution -- Leonardi doesn't believe in keeping them from the public. "Unfounded," she concludes, "does not mean that it didn't happen."