Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Editorial: Report major campus crimes
Crimes committed on campus are not immune from criminal prosecution. State law should require notification to commonwealth's attorneys.
From the RoundTable blog
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It would be foolish to think that what happened at Penn State stays at Penn State. Child rape by a well-regarded coach is a rarity - the reason alleged atrocities at Penn State have lingered in the news - but sexual assaults on campus are, sadly, far too commonplace. Even at Virginia's best schools. So, too, is the reflex to handle allegations internally to protect the institution's reputation.
Strong reporting requirements and a push-back are sometimes necessary to remind universities that they are not sovereign states but part of society and subject to all its laws and rules.
Last week, the State Crime Commission met to discuss a bill introduced in the last General Assembly session that would require campus police to bring in local law enforcement to investigate sexual assaults. While the original language is probably too strong in diminishing the authority, training and know-how of campus police, its intent is not misdirected.
In advance of the hearing, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published a special report on sexual assaults on campus. After reviewing records, the newspaper reported:
"The analysis of seven schools in Virginia found that campus police investigated 62 reported sex crimes during calendar years 2008, 2009 and 2010, with just seven cases resulting in arrests and four in convictions. Remarkably, none of the convictions involved a student-on-student attack, the most common type of campus sexual assault.
"The collective rate of arrests and convictions for the seven schools is well below the national and state average for reported sex crimes at large, according to federal crime data and a 2009 analysis of national rape statistics."
Two problems turned up again and again: alcohol and no witnesses, making many of the cases booze-fogged, she said-he said accounts. Often, the victims withdrew their complaints.
On the prevention side of the equation, research and law enforcement efforts should focus on ameliorating those two factors. While not unique to campuses, they are perhaps more pervasive.
On the enforcement side, each allegation is a unique incident that police must handle professionally and investigate fully. Some victims have met with lackadaisical investigations and pressure to drop their complaints, the newspaper reported. Heartbreaking accounts suggest some victims have been treated callously. One woman said she was forced in 2004 to transfer out of the University of Virginia after she was raped. Upon reporting the crime, she said, she was told by a campus policewoman, "It's a tough lesson to learn, huh?"
Her alleged attacker, left uncharged, went on to be accused of raping another student and again got off after a school - not a criminal - hearing.
UVa's new president, Teresa Sullivan, has apologized to the woman and has instituted changes, including revising campus procedures to comply with the law.
All must recognize that sexual assaults are crimes, and they require responses beyond campus judiciary procedures.
The State Crime Commission should support a compromise bill that would require campus police to cooperate with local police agencies and notify commonwealth's attorneys of alleged rapes.
