The problem of sexual assault on college campuses has long been considered a grossly

underreported crime. Sex related crimes have become such a problem that campuses have

stepped up their training to school officials and support personnel in order to ensure that victims

are more comfortable reporting such crimes when they occur.

 

While the Cleary Act requires college campuses to report acts of sexual misconduct to the

federal government, it is questionable just how accurately schools do this. For example, on the

current 2010-2012 database listing 11,063 separate campuses (national and international), only

1,670 reported any incident of sex-related (forcible or non-forcible) crime; that means that 9,394

campuses did not report ANY such crimes at all.

 

That such crimes are regularly occurring on college campuses is obvious. While one student at

Georgia Tech was found to have written and distributed a How-To Rape Bait Email, others,

women in particular, obviously feel the need to write about how to protect yourself from harm

when attending campus activities.

 

Just because crime has not been reported in no way should reassure a parent or future student

that the campus is a safe place. While enrollment numbers include online students, some of these

schools have an extremely large number of students on their campus along with very active

social organizations (fraternities).  For example:

 

  • Arizona State University, with a study body of 73,378 and over 60 Greek lettered

organizations. Zero reports of sex related crime seems a bit far-fetched. The following

news report is but one example of how campuses have more going on than meets the eye

when it comes to such apparently clean self-reports.

 

  • Michigan State University has a student body of 48,783 and 55 Greek lettered

organizations. While the university condemned this fraternity’s party advertisement it

cannot be denied that such things go on behind party doors.

 

  • University of Illinois at Urbana boasts almost 100 social groups and fraternities (their

enrollment is 44,520 students over multiple campuses). This blog on “party life” was

found online.

 

  • University Southern California, CA, reporting 39,958 attending students. This news story

was released in 2009 while this email was released by a frat member in 2011. It is

difficult to believe not one sex related crime has been reported to date on this campus.

Some other stats you might be interested in:

Which university reported the highest number of sex related crimes in 2012?

  • Pennsylvania State University (Main Campus) Forcible sex crimes = 56
  • Sierra College (Rocklin Campus) Non-forcible sex crimes = 3

Which university reported the highest number of sex related crimes in 2011?

  • UC Berkeley (Main Campus) Forcible sex crimes = 30
  • University of Alaska Fairbanks Non-forcible sex crimes = 2

Which university reported the highest number of sex related crimes in 2010?

  • Harvard University (Cambridge Campus) Forcible = 3
  • Harvard University (Cambridge Campus) Non-forcible = 4

Top 10 Universities Reporting Forcible Sex Crimes

2012

  1. Pennsylvania State University (Main) 56
  2. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 34
  3. Harvard University 31
  4. Indiana University-Bloomington 27
  5. Stanford University 26
  6. Emory University 25
  7. Ohio State University-Main Campus 21
  8. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill 21
  9. University of New Hampshire (Main) 20
  10. Michigan State University 20

2011

  1. UC Berkeley (Main Campus) 30
  2. Ohio State University-Main Campus 28
  3. University of Wisconsin-Madison 24
  4. Pennsylvania State University (Main) 24
  5. University of California-Davis 22
  6. Harvard University 21
  7. University of New Hampshire (Main) 18
  8. Yale University 18
  9. University of Rhode Island 17
  10. University of Alaska Fairbanks 17

2010

  1. Harvard (Cambridge Campus) 31
  2. Stanford (Main Campus) 21
  3. UCLA 21
  4. University North Carolina at Chapel Hill 19
  5. University of Rochester (Main Campus) 17
  6. University of Virginia (Main Campus) 17
  7. Indiana University (Bloomington Campus) 16
  8. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 16
  9. Amherst College (Main Campus) 14
  10. Michigan State University (Main Campus) 14

 

What type of organizations (private, public, etc.) are these universities?

Valid Administrative Unit Only – 0% – number of incidents 1

New Institution – .1% – number of incidents 11

Private for-profit, 2-year  – 10.3% – number of incidents 1139

Private for-profit, 4-year or above – 9.7% – number of incidents 1074

Private for-profit, less-than 2-year  -16.5% – number of incidents 1822

Private nonprofit, 2-year  – 1.7% – number of incidents 190

Private nonprofit, 4-year or above – 26.0% – number of incidents 2875

Private nonprofit, less-than 2-year – .8% – number of incidents 93

Public, 2-year – 20.4% – number of incidents 2256

Public, 4-year or above -12.0% – number of incidents 1323 

Public, less-than 2-year -2.5%  280 

Total  100.0%  number of incidents  11064