On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) released the findings from her national survey of how colleges and universities handle sexual violence, reports Bloomberg News.
Thirty-one percent of colleges do not provide training to students about sexual assault, and one in five do not offer such training to faculty and staff members, according to the survey results. Although federal law requires every institution that knows or reasonably should have known about an alleged sexual assault to conduct an investigation, 41 percent of schools surveyed have not conducted a single investigation in the past five years. More than 21 percent of the nation's largest private institutions conducted fewer investigations than the number of incidents they reported to the Department of Education, with some institutions reporting as many as seven times more incidents of sexual violence than they have investigated.
The results demonstrate a "disturbing failure" and must serve as a "wakeup call" to the nation's institutions of higher learning, according to Sen. McCaskill.
"If we're going to turn the tide against sexual violence, survivors must be protected, empowered, and given the confidence that if they make the difficult choice to report a crime, they will be treated with respect and taken seriously," she continued. "This means we need institutions across the country to recognize sexual violence for what it is—a crime—and work to prevent it and effectively address it when it does occur."
Over the past few months, Sen. McCaskill held a series of roundtable discussions about campus sexual assault and has pledged to introduce legislation that will require colleges to improve their responses.
Related Links
Sexual Violence on Campus Report
http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SurveyReportwithAppendix.pdf
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s Press Release
http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/news-releases/campus-sexual-assault-survey
Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-08/one-fifth-of-colleges-in-u-s-survey-lack-sex-assault-training.html