Study finds failure to report rape statistics
The majority of colleges and universities do not report statistics for rapes and sexual assaults as required by federal law, a new study shows.
A federal law known as the Clery Act mandates that colleges and universities report certain crime data every year, including occurrences of rape and sexual assault.
The study, conducted by the non-profit Education Development Center and the University of Cincinnati, showed that fewer than 40 percent of colleges and universities follow this guideline.
More than half of schools also failed to meet another obligation of the Clery Act, which mandates that they offer sexual assault awareness programs for new students, according to the study.
The study, which sampled 2,438 institutions from around the country, also revealed that rapes and sexual assaults are underreported at many colleges and universities.
Most institutions do not use federal definitions of forcible and non-forcible sexual offenses, and instead use their own definitions, the study showed.
-- Compiled by Josh Goodman