Rape Reporting Remains a Delicate Balancing Act

Last April, at a Take Back the Night rally, Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87 was asked how many rapes had been reported to her.

She said four.

"That's bullsh--!" someone yelled out.

For Harvard and other universities, the question of reporting and recognizing rape, and ultimately preventing it, remains volatile.

"How do we respond if no one's coming to us?" Avery asks.

Federal legislation, passed in 1990 and spurred by a collegiate rape and murder, now forces Harvard to carefully collect data on rape from senior tutors and sexual assault/sexual harassment advisers.

Student groups like the Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV) argue the numbers do not reflect the real level of rape on campus and advocate building a women's center to encourage victims to feel safe enough to tell their stories.

While victims are encouraged to report their rapes, emotions are not recorded in the federal tally, as the College balances its federal duty with a healthy respect for the rights and privacy of rape victims.

CASV members say they feel the College does not do enough to encourage victims to report incidents of rape.

In 1999, there were 2 formally reported on-campus sex offenses, 3 formally reported public sex offenses (in areas geographically surrounding Harvard) and 9 confidentially reported cases. In 1998 there were 11 formally and 5 confidentially reported sex offenses, and in 1997 there were only 3 formally and 0 confidentially reported sex offenses.

But Jennifer C. Price '02, a CASV member, says she questions the administration's responsiveness to rape survivors.

"There's a sense that if you go to the Ad Board nothing will come out of it except a long and painful process," she says.

One of CASV's primary goals is to pressure the administration for a central resource like a women's center, that would be able to guide victims through the medical counseling, the Ad Board and the courts.

But Veronica Reed Ryback, director of the Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center Rape Crisis Intervention Program, says she is unsure whether centralized help would be more effective than the individual groups, like Response, that already exist.

Ryback also says does not think it would be in University Health Services (UHS) best interest to try to provide the "rape kit" used to collect evidence from a victim.

"They don't have the volume to learn how to do the exam properly," she says.

By the Numbers

Massachusetts state law requires that professional care providers--physicians and mental health workers--report incidents of rape they treat to the state Commissioner of Public Safety and the local police.

But this report never includes the victim's name, address or other identifying information. It does, however, include the general location of the attack.

Deborah Cohen, a clinical social worker at UHS, says UHS policy is to inform the patient of what the state requires, but emphasizes the mandatory reporting "does not change the confidentiality" and "would not end up in police log," which if seen might make the victim uncomfortable. These reports are used for annual crime statistics.

"I think [the statistics] are important and useful because they're used to keep track of potentially dangerous areas," says Cohen. "If it's a dark area maybe policy makers would put a streetlight there."

How It All Began

Mandatory reporting for the college is governed by federal, as opposed to state, law.

In 1990, President Bush signed the Campus Security Act, a federal law intended to make statistics on campus crime available to college communities and potential students and faculty.

As Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. (D-Tenn.) testified, "When a family chooses to move to a new town or city, they base that decision on many factors including crime rates. When a family begins to decide what college or university they will choose, they also should have the right to know about the crime rate of that area."

However, the law was fairly ineffective because of both genuine confusion about what was required and loopholes that allowed schools to keep crime secret.

In 1998 Congress expanded and strengthened the law, in addition to renaming it in memory of Jeanne Ann Cleary, a Lehigh University freshman who on the morning of April 5, 1986 was beaten, raped and murdered in her bed by a fellow student.

Cleary's parents learned soon after that the quaint Pennsylvania campus had been the site of 38 violent offenses in the three years before her death, and began pushing for legislation requiring disclosure of campus crime statistics, which led to the 1990 act.

Victim's Rights?

Harvard University Police Department's (HUPD) last major rape case, when Joshua M. Elster '00 was arrested on charges that he sexually assaulted and battered another undergraduate, placed them in hot water because initially the case was accidentally removed from the blotter.

The department is required by Massachusetts law and the Cleary Act to maintain a daily log available for public inspection.

While the omission aroused concern, HUPD said it was the result of computer bugs and human error and soon after installed accuracy checks on the system.

But while the Harvard administrative justice process is not held to the same standard of public access, the consequences remain grave.

According to Avery, the Ad Board defines rape more broadly than the state, viewing someone who is intoxicated or under the influence of drugs as unable to give consent.

While the College urges victims to pursue the courts first, once an arrest is made, it is likely the College will take action to protect the victim and place the alleged perpetrator on an involuntary leave.

When it comes to College administrators, most feel their primary responsibility is to the victim.

"I really try to work with the survivors as much as possible, and try to let them dictate the outcome," says Avery.

Dunster House Allston Burr Senior Tutor John T. O'Keefe says he will try to uphold both student wishes and public safety.

"If I thought there was some kind of threat to the community, I would take action. But I would do everything I could to respect the students' wishes."