A new analysis published by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) examines data on crime statistics that colleges and universities must report to the federal government under the Cleary Act. The legislation, enacted in 1990, requires colleges and universities that receive federal aid to report statistics on several types of crimes – including sexual assault – that occur on or near their campuses. The act is named for Jeanne Cleary, a 19-year-old student who was raped and murdered in 1986 on the campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The AAUW study finds that 89 percent of all 11,000 college and university campuses in the United States did not report any incident of rape during 2015. Of the approximately 4,000 college and university campuses with 250 or more students, 73 percent reported no incident of rape in 2015.
The report also found that only 9 percent of campuses reported an incident of domestic violence. About 10 percent of all colleges and universities reported an incident of dating violence and only 13 percent of all colleges and universities reported stalking incidents.
The AAUW report concludes that “when campuses disclose zero reports of rape, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking, it simply does not square with research, campus climate surveys, and widespread experiences reported by students.”