NCJ Number
239668
Date Published
September 2012
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This report provides a broad overview of the nature and extent of rape and sexual assault on college campuses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Abstract
Results of this analysis reinforce much of the salient research to date, finding that females are most often victimized by familiar, non-intimate, male assailants. The victim-offender relationship was related to many factors of the case, including crime. Of the 10,965 cases of rape and sexual assault reported to medical provide in Massachusetts between calendar years 2000 and 2011, 446 cases, or slightly over 4 percent, were identified as occurring on a college campus. Examined were the characteristics of 446 cases of college campus rape and sexual assault reported by medical providers in Massachusetts between the years 2000 and 2011 and the characteristics of those cases within the context of the prevailing national research location, use of weapons and force, victim injuries, and the reporting of the offense to law enforcement. Although this report focuses on sexual violence on college campuses, not all of the individuals in this analysis are college students. While the vast majority of victims (83 percent) were between the ages of 18 and 21, victims of reported attacks in a campus environment ranged in age from 2 months old to 43-years old. Results of this report should not be considered a representative sample of campus rape and sexual assault in the Commonwealth; rather this report provides an overview of only those cases that were brought to the attention of medical providers and reported to authorities Findings conclude that there is still a need for accurate data to quantify the prevalence of sexual violence in Massachusetts; once the magnitude of the problem is understood, professionals will be better equipped to meet the needs of victims, to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable, and most importantly, reduce future victimizations. Figures, references, and appendix