By Mark Memmott

The numbers "don't begin to reflect the scope of the problem" of sexual assaults on U.S. college campuses, The Center for Public Integrity reported this week:

While a Department of Justice study found that "one in five women who attend college will become the victim of a rape or an attempted rape by the time she graduates," another study found "that more than 95% of students who are sexually victimized do not report to police or campus officials."

On Talk of the Nation today, one of the center's reporters, Kristen Lombardi, told guest host Rebecca Roberts that a "culture of silence" has grown up on American college campuses about the problem:

And on many campuses, the records about such offenses that do get reported are woefully inaccurate. The center also reported that its nine-month investigation:

Has found that limitations and loopholes in the federal mandatory campus crime reporting law, known as the Clery Act, are causing systematic problems in accurately documenting the total numbers of campus-related sexual assaults. The most troubling of these loopholes involves broadly applied reporting exemptions for counselors who may be covered by confidentiality protections. Confusion over definitions of sexual offenses, as well as the law's comprehensive reporting provisions, have created additional problems.

TOTN will be posting the full conversation here later today.

Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts the show.

The center says its mission "is to produce original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable."

Its series of reports -- Sexual Assault On Campus, A Frustrating Search For Justice -- will continue into 2010.

categories: Crime, Culture

4:15 - December 3, 2009

What is this?

Share