Taking aim at college sex crimes
New coalition works to get abuses reported
By Tabitha Hurley and Ashley Huntington
One out of 4 undergraduate women will be sexually assaulted before they graduate, according to a 2010 Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) study. The study also found that 1 in every 6 American women will be sexually assaulted at some point during their lives.
Few reports of sex crimes on college campuses show up in media reports, however, and even fewer are prosecuted by the law. Despite the high number of women who are sexually assaulted while in college, studies estimate that 60 percent of rape and sexual assault cases are never reported to police or campus authorities. Even more alarming is the fact that of those sex crimes that are reported, RAINN has shown that there is only a 50.8 percent chance that an arrest will be made.
DePaul has a “no gray-area” policy regarding sexual assault, meaning sex that involves any amount of coercion, intimidation, force or anything that renders a victim unable to give consent is considered sexual assault, according to the Office of Sexual Violence Support Services.