Sex crimes common at college campuses

Nearly 3 percent of college women experience a completed and/or attempted rape during a college year, a U.S. Department of Justice report released today estimates.

The report, "The Sexual Victimization of College Women,” offers a comprehensive view of the frequency and nature of sexual assault occurring at American universities.

The data supports research suggesting that college women are at a greater risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women in the general population or in a comparable age group.

The report showed that women at a college that has 10,000 female students could experience more than 350 rapes a year, while 13 percent reported having been stalked since the beginning of the school year.

The study showed that for completed on-campus rapes, 60 percent took place in the victim’s residence, 31 percent in other living quarters and 10 percent occurred at a fraternity.

“Most victims knew the person who sexually victimized them,” the authors wrote. “For both completed and attempted rapes, about nine in 10 offenders were known to the victim.”

The report found that women do not characterize their victimization's as a crime because of embarrassment, not clearly understanding what it means to be victimized or because they blame themselves for the assault. The study reinforces the importance of many organizations’ efforts to improve education and knowledge about sexual assault.

The federally funded report was released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and was conducted by Bonnie S. Fisher, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, Francis T. Cullen and Michael G. Turner.

The report was based on a telephone survey of a randomly selected, national sample of 4,446 women who were attending a 2 or 4-year college or university.