The number of rapes reported to Ball State University police is surprisingly low compared to the average number of women who say they experience rape on campuses across the nation.
There were six forcible sex offenses reported to Ball State police in 2004, according to the school's campus crime report. Similarly, Ball State reported 13 sex offenses were brought to police between 2001 and 2003.
However, one in four women between the ages of 15 and 23 are victims of a completed or attempted sexual assault, said Lee Van Donselaar, head of the Ball State Counseling Center's Sexual Assault Outreach Prevention Team.
UNREPORTED SEXUAL ASSAULTS
"There's no question there are many more rapes than that occur and, for whatever reason, women don't report them," said Kent Bullis, director of the Ball State Health Center. "I see many students myself who have suffered rape and have never reported it to any public service safety agency."
Roughly two students per month report to the Health Center that they have been forced to have sex against their will, Bullis said. He does not believe all victims are receiving medical treatment, he said.
David Concepcion, a Ball State professor of philosophy and Freshman Connections team captain, was responsible for bringing rape prevention speaker Joe Weinberg to speak at Ball State for the Freshman Connections program.
"There are probably hundreds of sexual assaults that go unreported at Ball State," Concepcion said. "There are women who don't know they've been raped. You've also got the male student, sitting in AJ, who doesn't know he raped someone over the weekend. All he thinks is he got laid."
Often victims do not report rape because they lack a clear understanding of its definition.
Gene Burton, director of Public Safety, said although he did not have statistical evidence to back it up, he believed the number of rapes was much higher than what was being reported.
Students would call a few days after an incident occurred, describe the situation, but say they hadn't realized it was a crime, Burton said.
"Well it sure was," he said, but now any forensic evidence had been lost because it had been too long ago.
Other factors may also contribute to low rape statistics at Ball State. Many victims do not report the crime because it was committed by someone they know. According to the 2001 National Crime Victimization Survey by the Department of Justice and U.S. Census Bureau, 66 percent of rapes are committed by an intimate partner, relative, or friend. Van Donselaar said 85 percent of rapes were committed by someone the victim knew.
A victim may not report to police because of embarrassment or fear of not being believed, Van Donselaar said. Also, in order to be counted in Ball State's crime statistics, the crime must have happened on university property - a tough criterion to meet considering many rapes happen off campus.
"A sexual assault or sexual misconduct or a rape or something like that, that occurs off campus, that's in a private home or private apartment, is not counted in our statistics because that's on private property," said David Fried, director of Student Rights and Community Standards.
TAKING ACTION
Students not reporting to police when they have been raped is a cause for concern, according to a 2005 report by the Department of Justice titled, "Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges and Universities are Doing About It." Failure to recognize and report the crime may lead school officials and students to underestimate the extent of the problem and could affect whether victims seek medical and other professional care, the study said.
"There's an epidemic that's been going on for many years, many, many, many years, of sexual assault and abuse," Weinberg said during his presentation last semester. "No school is doing anywhere near enough."
His suggestions for improvement include publishing rape statistics in the student newspaper to reinforce the prevalence of the problem, putting signs around campus listing 24-hour phone numbers for victim support and making rape prevention programs mandatory for students.
"If the school was to say that every student had to go through a one-hour program every year, it would show that the school is making a commitment to making a safer environment," Weinberg said.
Jill D'Angelo, a professor of criminology and victimology, thinks something more should be done.
"Rape, in particular, I don't think the statistics are correct," she said. "They're much higher than what is reported."
She has given surveys in her classes that asked if anyone had been the victim of a crime, she said, and several students have reported that they have been date-raped and have never told police.
Fried said, "I think that as a whole we can do a lot more to educate men in particular as to what's acceptable and what isn't acceptable, and I think it's something that we need to do every year."
PROGRAMS IN PLACE
Not everyone is in agreement that big changes are needed in programming.
"It's important to put it in perspective," he said. "A lot of universities don't have sexual assault awareness weeks or don't have any forum for talking about these kinds of issues like Ball State does, or some of the ones who do have just begun doing so. We've been at this for more than 10 years ... There's probably always something else you could do, but I think our efforts are ahead of the curve."
The Counseling Center offers four awareness programs throughout the year: Sexual Assault Awareness Week, a talk-show formatted presentation about rape, an interactive drama called "Catch the Villain" and a program called "Sex Under the Influence", a program about the link between sex and alcohol.
"We do get feedback from people who come to the programs," Van Donselaar said, "telling us it's been an important experience for them and an enlightening experience."
Most students, however, are not going to these rape awareness programs. Of the approximate 3,500 freshmen, about 295 saw Weinberg speak as part of the Freshman Connections program.
"If every Freshman Connections faculty member incorporated a sexual assault awareness message into their class, it would expose most freshmen to that message," Concepcion said.
Lynda Wiley, Director of Student Organizations and Activities, was optimistic about the turn-out and said this week's events typically draw a crowd of about 300 to 500 students. This is about 3 percent of the student population.
Van Donselaar has noticed a problem with students attending programs, he said.
"People have been more open and willing to hear certain kinds of messages than others," he said, "and unfortunately some of the more important ones have been less well attended at times."
Interviews contributed by Amanda Curts, Joel Philippsen, and David Caudill
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