Rape stats reveal reporting disparity

They ignore it, they pretend it didn't happen and they hope they never have to retell it.

Victims of sexual assault or abuse often go through cycles of denial and avoidance that can impede cases brought against alleged criminals. These feelings can also lead to severe underreporting in cases of sexual violence, despite high prevalence on college campuses, said Allison Bennett, the university's coordinator of the Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Program.

One in five college women will be raped or experience an attempted rape during their time at college, according to a 2000 study by the National College Women Sexual Victimization. That could mean as many as 3,400 women out of 17,000 female students have been or will be sexually assaulted during their time at this university.

But the amount of sexual assaults reported to university officials is far lower.

Although some students choose to report incidents of sexual violence to SARPP, Bennett estimates that number is merely a fraction of the number of sexual assaults that take place. And University Police data reflects even fewer cases than SARPP statistics do, leaving university and state officals to attempt to take the issue of prevention into their own hands.

From June 2008 to June 2009, SARPP only saw about 100 students for sexual assault-related issues; of those students, 35 reported they were raped, five stated they had been raped by more than one perpetrator and three students reported an attempted rape.

No "forcible rape" was reported in University Police's 2009 Uniform Crime Report statistics.

"We cannot investigate what hasn't been reported," University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said.

Privacy issues, shame and fear of having to relive feelings brought on by assault are all reasons why sexual violence is so underreported at the university, Bennett said. She added the low percentage of assailants who face actual jail time, and what can become a drawn-out legal process can discourage students from coming forward.

"Of the cases of rape that actually go to trial, only 1 percent actually go to jail," Bennett said. "[Victims] feel that going to the police will only prolong the abusive experience considering the likelihood of something happening to the offender is so low."

But an opinion issued by the state's Attorney General on Friday may impose more scrutiny on students accused of sexual assault by forcing universities to reveal the names of students found to be guilty by the school.

Universities, who usually withhold the name of the alleged perpetrator by citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act even in cases when they are found guilty, are being encouraged to reveal the student's identity under the Maryland Public Information Act, wrote Robert McDonald, chief counsel for Attorney General Douglas Gansler.

According to police statistics, the number of sexual assaults on the campus that have been reported to police seems to have been declining since 2003, with six rapes reported in 2003 and no rapes reported since 2005, save one case in 2008.

In contrast, SARPP has seen the number of students taking advantage of their services fluctuate over the years. During each year since 2006, the office served no less than 100 victims, with a high of 140 in 2008, according to a SARPP report.

"When you look at the statistics on rape, you cannot look at it for signs of general trends, of whether the number of incidents is going down or up because it is so underreported," Dillon said. "There are so many factors you have to keep in mind when looking at the statistics."

Next Tuesday, the University Senate's Committee for Campus Affairs is revealing a report on the discrepancy between the number of rapes occurring on this campus and the number reported to officials. The committee is planning to present a special report on rape and sexual violence during the annual Campus Safety Forum.

The investigation was spurred, in part, by a special report called "Out of the Shadows" conducted by Terp Weekly Edition for the university's radio station WMUC 88.1 FM.

"Some of the stats in the report were really disturbing," said Deborah Nelson, a journalism professor and Campus Affairs Committee member. "Especially the lack of incidents reported to the police in comparison to those reported to SARPP."

desmarattes@umdbk.com