Rise in Reported Sexual Assaults at Stanford and Dartmouth

Stanford Chief of Police Laura Wilson

Stanford University announced that there were 21 cases of sexual assault reported to campus police in 2010. This compares to 12 reported cases in 2009 and 10 in 2008.

At Dartmouth College the number of reported sexual assaults rose from 10 in 2009 to 22 in 2010.

Officials at both campuses were quick to point out that the statistics do not mean that there have been more incidents on campus. Rather they suggest that the campus community has done a better job of making victims knowledgeable about the resources available to them and made reporting an easier and more comfortable experience for the victim.

Laura Wilson, chief of the police force at Stanford, states that the rise in the number of reported sexual assaults “could be attributed to outreach to the student community regarding the importance of reporting sex crimes, or to the change in the way sexual misconduct cases were handled under a pilot program launched last year, or a combination of both factors.”