Women are increasingly being victimized on college campuses across the Washington region, with romantic relationships behind most of the assaults, according to the FBI and statistics from local universities.
Five out of eight Washington-area universities reported an increase in sexual offenses to the Department of Education from 2007 to 2008. The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech as well as Georgetown, George Mason and Catholic universities reported an increase in sexual assaults — which include rape and any other sexual act against someone’s will.
Schools across the region are reassessing their assault and threat assessment policies after University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V was charged last week with first-degree murder in the death of his former girlfriend, Yeardley Love.
About 34 percent of campus assaults involve current or former lovers, 14 percent are retaliatory attacks and 10 percent stem from unrequited love — the three most common causes of assault, according to a report by the FBI, the Secret Service and Department of Education.
But those statistics show only a small fraction of the problem, said John Zacker, director of the Office of Student Conduct at the University of Maryland.
“Increasingly we’re seeing harassing behavior and stalking going on, which is perpetuated through electronic means,” he said.
He said sexual assault on campus is much higher than data reveals — the number of assault cases ranged from three to 16 in area colleges during 2008, but only 5 percent of victims file a report.
Zacker said students are building higher thresholds for obsessive behavior and waiting longer to report incidents — if they report them at all.
“There are some [victims] that incur this behavior for months without reporting it,” he said. He said the invasive nature of campus investigations also deters victims from reporting — especially considering only 10 percent to 25 percent of students found guilty of sexual assault face expulsion, according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit research center.
Stetson University law professor Peter Lake said a majority of universities are more lax than courts would be during sexual assault hearings, because of the idea proffered in higher education that students deserve a second chance.
Georgetown University and the University of Virginia have protected perpetrators in the past by asking victims and suspects to sign contracts promising they wouldn’t discuss the outcome of an investigation, said S. Daniel Carter, policy director for Security on Campus Inc., a nonprofit that studies safety on American campuses. University of Virginia officials said the contract created a safer reporting environment.
Carter noted that the University of Virginia has more stringent disciplinary guidelines for cheating than sexual assault. A U.Va. student found guilty of cheating on a test is automatically expelled, but no such clear-cut punishment awaits a student found guilty of sexual assault.
Virginia Tech students accused of sexual assault are no more likely to be expelled than their Charlottesville peers, but they are much more likely to be investigated.
The Office of Student Conduct investigates every account it receives — whether it be a witness account of a couple’s verbal altercation or a report from an alleged assault victim, said Deona Cureton, a graduate assistant for Tech’s women’s center and Student Conduct Office.
Whether or not a suspect is found guilty, or an alleged behavior even constitutes an infraction, reports remain on student records until five years after graduation.
The University of Maryland conducts similar investigations after reports of “alarming” behavior, and keeps the records up to three years after the alleged incident.
Even if area universities improve their policies regarding sexual assault, the “culture of silence” on campuses will continue to oppress victims, Carter said.
“The culture of silence is very pervasive,” he said. “And it says sexual assault is not something to be discussed or dealt with in the light of day.”
Sexual assaults on and off campus
School; 2007; 2008
University of Virginia; 5; 16
University of Maryland; 21; 17
Georgetown; 8; 10
Virginia Tech; 3; 4
George Mason; 12; 11
Catholic University; 1; 2
American University; 2; 1
George Washington University; 5; 6
Source: U.S. Department of Education
