Welcome to Day 5 of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. Today's topic is sexual assault on college campuses, specifically the Clery Act. This is a topic very near and dear to my heart, as I've worked with victims/survivors of sexual assault for a few years now.
Sexual assault is an all too common occurrence on many college campuses. Approximately one in five young women experience sexual assault while in college and less than 5 percent of assaults are reported to campus authorities or law enforcement officials (Karjane, Fisher, & Cullen, 2005). Many barriers to reporting exist, and even when a victim does report an assault, policies and processes at colleges and universities are not always clear or victim friendly. Legislation has been passed that requires colleges and universities to collect and disclose crime statistics, including sexual assaults, and to provide a bill of rights for victims of sexual assault. However, much confusion exists concerning various aspects of the legislation and schools have an incentive to report low statistics, which can lead to problems with reporting and other processes on campus.
History of the Clery Act
In 1986, Jeanne Clery was a 19 year-old freshman at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. On April 5, 1986, Jeanne was raped and murdered by another student while asleep in her residence hall room. Jeanne’s parents, Connie and Howard, did some research and discovered that students hadn't been told about 38 violent crimes that had occurred on the Lehigh campus in the three years before their daughter’s murder (Security on Campus, Inc., 2008a). They also discovered systematic indicators of a real problem - that "crime on campus was one of the best kept secrets in the country. “Until 1988, only four percent of America's colleges reported crime statistics to the FBI, or, generally speaking, to students, parents or anyone else.” (Clery & Clery, n.d.)
Jeanne’s parents became active participants in the fight to get the state of Pennsylvania to pass mandatory reporting legislation. Once this had been accomplished, they joined with other campus crime victims to persuade Congress to pass similar legislation. This legislation was supported by elected officials of both parties as well as public sentiment, and on November 8, 1990, President George Bush signed into law the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act. The U.S. Department of Education is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Act and investigating any alleged violations that may occur (Security on Campus, Inc., 2008a).
Requirements of the Clery Act
The Act requires that colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs collect and disclose information about crimes that have occurred on or near campus. Schools must publish an annual report detailing 3 years worth of crime statistics and certain policy statements related to campus safety and security. They must also maintain a public log of all crimes reported to campus police or security department officials and send out timely warnings when a crime may pose a threat to the safety and security of students, faculty and staff. (Security on Campus, Inc., 2008b).
The law was amended in 1992 to include basic rights that schools were required to grant survivors of sexual assaults, particularly the very common student-on-student assaults or date-rapes. The amendment, called the "Campus Sexual Assault Victims' Bill of Rights,” requires that schools:
· must give the alleged victim and the alleged assailant equal opportunity to have witnesses present at disciplinary proceedings
· must provide equal notification to both the alleged victim and alleged perpetrator of the outcome of disciplinary proceedings
· must inform students of their options to notify on-campus or local law enforcement officials
· must notify alleged victims of counseling and other services that exist both on campus and in the community to help victims of sexual assault
· must notify students of their options for changing academic and housing situations after an alleged assault (Security on Campus, Inc., 2008c).
Amendments to the act in 1998 renamed it the “Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act,” in memory of Jeanne Clery. (Security on Campus, Inc., 2008b).
Problems with the Clery Act
According to the Center for Public Integrity, limitations and loopholes in the Clery Act “are causing systematic problems in accurately documenting the total numbers of campus-related sexual assaults” (Lombardi & Jones, 2009). Data suggests that far more sexual assaults are occurring on campuses than are reported in official Clery numbers, due to various barriers to reporting, and confusion about definitions and reporting requirements. Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes, especially on college campuses, so even if we have ‘accurate’ numbers from college campuses, these numbers only represent a small portion of assaults that have actually occurred on campuses. Feelings of guilt, shame and self-blame, not identifying what happened as sexual assault, or a fear of friends, family and law enforcement officials not believing or blaming a victim are just a few of the barriers to reporting that exist, which may result in lower Clery statistics.
One problematic provision of the Act exempts certain individuals (licensed mental health and pastoral counselors) from Clery reporting requirements. Statistics from clinics and other organizations that provide services to victims of sexual assault are often not included in Clery Act reports. Victims’ advocates and others who work at such organizations note that colleges and universities may intentionally be exploiting exemptions such as the one noted above in order to keep official statistics low, for example, by stretching the counselor privilege to include individuals who shouldn’t necessarily be exempt from reporting. (Lombardi & Jones, 2009). There are politics involved with reporting/disclosing crime statistics – a school’s reputation can be damaged if the crime rate on campus is high, but numbers that are too low can lead to other issues, such as investigations by the Department of Education and/or action by students on campus who know that the school is misreporting statistics.
A 2002 study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice found that “only 36.5 percent of schools reported crime statistics in a manner that was fully consistent with the Clery Act” (Karjane, Fisher, & Cullen, 2002). Schools have both inadvertently and intentionally submitted inaccurate sexual assault statistics and have misclassified sexual assaults as non-forcible sexual offenses, when they should be reporting them as forcible sexual offenses. There have been a number of investigations over the many years since the Clery Act was passed and schools seem to be doing a better job of reporting their data then in the past, yet problems still exist. (Lombardi & Jones, 2009). The U.S. Department of Education recently released its Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting, which will hopefully reduce confusion around definitions and reporting requirements, help schools comply with the Clery Act and create a safer a campus and more informed public.
Problems with Campus Policies and Procedures
The Clery Act requires that colleges and universities have a statement of policy regarding campus sexual assault programs and the procedures that are to be followed when a sexual assault occurs. The Act does not say much in terms of the specifics about how this is to be done or what exactly must be included. The Center for Public Integrity conducted a twelve-month investigation focused on sexual assault on college campuses, and discovered some pretty disheartening things, including barriers to reporting, issues with college judicial proceedings and a lack of serious consequences for those students found responsible during such proceedings (see http://www.publicintegrity.org/...). Oftentimes students take things into their own hands and try to create changes in problematic policies and procedures on their campuses.
Sources:
Clery, C., & Clery, H.(n.d.).What Jeanne didn’t know. Available at: http://www.securityoncampus.org/.... &Itemid=71
Karjane, H.M., Fisher, B.S., & Cullen, F.T. (2002). Campus sexual assault: How America’s institutions of higher education respond. Final Report, NIJ Grant # 1999-WA-VX-0008. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc. Available at: http://www.ncjrs.gov/...
Karjane, H. M., Fisher, B. S., & Cullen, F. T. (2005). Sexual assault on campus: What colleges and universities are doing about it. (Publication No. 205521). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Available at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/205521.pdf
Lombardi, K., & Jones, K. (2009). Campus sexual assault statistics don’t add up. Available at: http://www.publicintegrity.org/...
Security on Campus, Inc. (2008a). Complying with the Jeanne Clery Act. Available at: http://www.securityoncampus.org/... &Itemid=60
Security on Campus, Inc. (2008b). Summary of the Jeanne Clery Act. Available at: http://www.securityoncampus.org/... %3Aclerysummary&catid=64%3Acleryact&Itemid=81
Security on Campus, Inc. (2008c). Jeanne Clery Act text. Available at: http://www.securityoncampus.org/... %3Ajeanne-clery-act-text&catid=64%3Acleryact&Itemid=81
For more information, check out these resources:
Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER)
The Center for Public Integrity: Sexual Assault on Campus