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What universities have the most precautions in place to reduce sexual assault on campus?
Sexual assault is a huge problem on so many campuses and often the victims are not supported and even blamed. I wat to be on a safe campus but statistics about this subject when researching colleges, are hard to find or nonexistent. What are the safest campuses in regards to this issue?
#sexual-assault-awareness #college #safety #college-life
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Harry’s Answer
There will be some degree of crime/campus safety issues on nearly every college campus in the country. So, your goal might be to search for the safest environment among the colleges you might consider attending, to compare the "safety record" for each one.
The first step would be to compose your list of prospective colleges you would consider attending for all other reasons; major, location, cost, etc. When you visit each campus you want to ask direct questions about campus safety, statistics for particular crimes, student organization statements, and administration safety initiatives (also good to know answers to simple questions such as emergency call-box locations and campus walkway lighting). You could also question current students at each campus on their personal feelings about campus safety. Do some research on crime reports by the newspaper/news website for the city in which the campus is located (not the school news feed, they are not likely to publicize crime on campus).
There is also a federal government website, College Navigator, that includes a summary of selected crime report metrics along with other data about each institution; https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
On the main landing page, enter the name of the college in the dialog box.; a partial name entry will give all colleges in the database with a similar name. Click on the college you want to investigate to get the main statistics page for that school. Below the profile block for the school are 14 navigation tabs for major data units; Campus Safety is the next to last, open it to see the reported numbers of various crimes over a 3-year period.
It is important to note there is a 3-year lag in statistics reported to this website. A campus may have made considerable improvements to campus safety in the last two years. That is why you will want to ask the direct questions about campus safety when you visit. The usefulness of this data is for comparison of historical crime data for a few selected campus you might consider. The best measure of current campus safety is going to be found in the answers to your direct questions; what are the administration's current policies and procedures to ensure campus safety.
The first step would be to compose your list of prospective colleges you would consider attending for all other reasons; major, location, cost, etc. When you visit each campus you want to ask direct questions about campus safety, statistics for particular crimes, student organization statements, and administration safety initiatives (also good to know answers to simple questions such as emergency call-box locations and campus walkway lighting). You could also question current students at each campus on their personal feelings about campus safety. Do some research on crime reports by the newspaper/news website for the city in which the campus is located (not the school news feed, they are not likely to publicize crime on campus).
There is also a federal government website, College Navigator, that includes a summary of selected crime report metrics along with other data about each institution; https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
On the main landing page, enter the name of the college in the dialog box.; a partial name entry will give all colleges in the database with a similar name. Click on the college you want to investigate to get the main statistics page for that school. Below the profile block for the school are 14 navigation tabs for major data units; Campus Safety is the next to last, open it to see the reported numbers of various crimes over a 3-year period.
It is important to note there is a 3-year lag in statistics reported to this website. A campus may have made considerable improvements to campus safety in the last two years. That is why you will want to ask the direct questions about campus safety when you visit. The usefulness of this data is for comparison of historical crime data for a few selected campus you might consider. The best measure of current campus safety is going to be found in the answers to your direct questions; what are the administration's current policies and procedures to ensure campus safety.
Updated
Kristy’s Answer
That’s a great question but really hard to answer! Campus safety is something that should be more transparent to students and if you ask any admissions representative you should be able to get answers from schools specifically. My suggestion would be to look at the overall town the school is in, not just the university itself.
No matter where you go, always know where to reach out for help and remain in a group or call for a security escort when walking across campus if you feel unsafe.
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Bill’s Answer
I wish to be clear, many colleges and universities have internal process that adjudicate some types of sexual assaults. Often this happens when the person who was assaulted declines, or is unable to go through the scrutiny and difficulty presented by the external criminal justice system. In nearly all cases, those proceedings are sealed and won't show up in crime statistics. The data that is available will be from 3 years previous. You can request and obtain policies, training materials and resources regarding both the prevention of and responses to sexual assaults.
According to a 2019 survey, there is a 13% rate of non-consensual sexual contact in colleges. [https://www.aau.edu/key-issues/campus-climate-and-safety/aau-campus-climate-survey-2019]. But in general schools with smaller populations, non-coeducational campuses and the Clery Act requires post-secondary schools to disclose security procedures and campus-related crime statistics. The government also issued the Title IX law, which prohibits sexually-based discrimination for federally funded programs. Amendments to Title IX include regulations for campus sexual assault. the American Association of Women 2016 analysis of the Clery Act indicates that 89% of 11,000 colleges in the study did not disclose rape statistics.
By law, post-secondary institutions must file annual reports that provide statistics for sexually-based crimes. However, reports do not indicate how schools resolve these matters. Reports also reveal that cases do not always protect the victim or properly punish the perpetrator. Attempts to improve safety include a 30-day turnaround time from when the victim reports the assault. However, stakeholders highlight the lack of school efforts nationwide and the low amount of reported cases that actually lead to disciplinary action.
Strangers commit only 19% of sexual violence. Thirty-nine percent of sexual violence transpires between acquaintances, while current or former intimate partners represent 33% of cases. Up to 6% of sexual violence involves more than one known perpetrator at a time. Alcohol and drug use are often contributing factors as well. So once you've gathered information on the traditional ways see if you can speak to current students about what they've seen and heard about the state of affairs on their campuses.
According to a 2019 survey, there is a 13% rate of non-consensual sexual contact in colleges. [https://www.aau.edu/key-issues/campus-climate-and-safety/aau-campus-climate-survey-2019]. But in general schools with smaller populations, non-coeducational campuses and the Clery Act requires post-secondary schools to disclose security procedures and campus-related crime statistics. The government also issued the Title IX law, which prohibits sexually-based discrimination for federally funded programs. Amendments to Title IX include regulations for campus sexual assault. the American Association of Women 2016 analysis of the Clery Act indicates that 89% of 11,000 colleges in the study did not disclose rape statistics.
By law, post-secondary institutions must file annual reports that provide statistics for sexually-based crimes. However, reports do not indicate how schools resolve these matters. Reports also reveal that cases do not always protect the victim or properly punish the perpetrator. Attempts to improve safety include a 30-day turnaround time from when the victim reports the assault. However, stakeholders highlight the lack of school efforts nationwide and the low amount of reported cases that actually lead to disciplinary action.
Strangers commit only 19% of sexual violence. Thirty-nine percent of sexual violence transpires between acquaintances, while current or former intimate partners represent 33% of cases. Up to 6% of sexual violence involves more than one known perpetrator at a time. Alcohol and drug use are often contributing factors as well. So once you've gathered information on the traditional ways see if you can speak to current students about what they've seen and heard about the state of affairs on their campuses.
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Shanteria’s Answer
Georgia Tech.
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Clarence’s Answer
Safety is very important where ever you are living however learn to trust and listen to that little voice that gives you a warning. Stay in a group no short cuts at night lighted paths and it's ok to ask for an escort from the campus police.