5/9/97 Contact: Jeanine Woodruff, 614/593-4742
ATHENS, Ohio -- A new community-wide effort to change the method of reporting sexual assaults on the Ohio University campus and in the Athens community will be the focus of a panel discussion at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (May 13) in 124 Bentley Hall. The event will be held in conjunction with a week of activities devoted to sexual assault awareness sponsored by the Women's Affairs Commission of Student Senate. The annual "Take Back the Night" march is May 15.
Panel participants will include both community members and campus officials who served on an advisory committee that has developed the first community-based sexual assault reporting system, said Jeanine Woodruff, assistant director of the university's Department of Health Education and Wellness and committee coordinator.
The committee began meeting last fall in an effort to develop reporting protocol for gathering and releasing data on incidents of sexual assaults to the university and Athens communities.
On-campus forums and discussions over the past year had heightened awareness over the underreporting of sexual assaults on and around campus. Woodruff estimates that 95 percent of all sexual assaults that take place are acquaintance rapes, where two people know each other.
There has been no such organized effort in the past and, in fact, the university's Department of Campus Safety released figures indicating no rapes were reported to campus police in calendar years 1993, 1994 and 1995; they reported three rapes occurred in 1996. No other sexual assault figures were released by other campus or community offices.
Ted Jones, Ohio University's director of campus safety, admits that his office's rape figures have neither adequately addressed nor reflected an accurate account of the total number of sexual assaults in the campus area "because the majority of sexual assaults, especially those that include acquaintance assaults, are not brought to the attention of law enforcement."
"Students came to us last fall because they were concerned that no rapes had been reported over the previous three years, and (the underreporting of sexual assault) had become a major issue," Woodruff said. It made survivors feel further victimized because even their number hadn't been counted. OUPD did not like it and no one was happy with zero reports of rape. We wanted to change that."
The committee includes representatives from three community organizations the Victim Assistance Program of the County Prosecutor's Office, Athens Police Department and Careline's Sexual Assault Survivor Advocacy Program Ohio University students and officials from several campus offices.
A new Sexual Assault Report Form will be used by six community organizations and eight campus offices and the university's Sorority Survivor Advocate Program to file data with either OUPD or Athens Police Department, depending on whether the offense took place on or off campus. Law enforcement will then determine what violation occurred. The form includes a brief description of the offense without identifying the survivor.
A Data Integrity Subcommittee will compile the data and then release it for first time to parents and students attending Pre-College this summer, Woodruff said. Statistics also will be released to the media and campus and Athens communities on a quarterly basis.
The following community organizations are included in reporting data: Victim Assistance Program; Athens Police Department; Careline; O'Bleness Memorial Hospital; Planned Parenthood of Southeast Ohio; and Tri-County Mental Health and Counseling Services. Campus offices reporting data include: Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students; Counseling and Psychological Services; Health Education and Wellness; Office of Judiciaries; Office of Multi-Cultural Programs; OUPD; Department of Residence Life; University Student Health Services; and Sorority Survivor Advocate Program.
The categories of offenses covered by the new Sexual Assault Report Form include rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, sexual imposition, felonious sexual penetration, voyeurism and public indecency.
Jones agrees that the new reporting method will present a more comprehensive report of sexual assaults" in the community.
"Our goal is three-fold," Jones said. "One is educate the community on sexual assaults. Secondly is to raise awareness of sexual assaults and, thirdly, we're hoping this effort generates a high level of reporting of sexual assaults and leads to a higher level of prosecution by local agencies."
Woodruff said, "What sexual assault victims need to remember is that anyone who wants to come and talk to us about a sexual assault can do so and they don't have to give their name. If we believe an individual has been sexually assaulted, we are morally obligated to see that it is included in the crime report statistics issued by the OUPD."