Many accounts of rape go unreported, national study finds

For Sarah, life changed forever during her freshman year.

Sarah, an alumna who preferred not to disclose her last name, was raped during her second semester at Truman.

Like many rapes that happen on college campuses, hers was not reported to campus or local police. In accordance with the federal Jeanne Clery Act, university and college campuses nationwide are required to report crime statistics each year. At Truman, 17 rapes were reported to the Department of Public Services or other campus officials from 1997 to 2005, according to campus crime reports. The 2006 report has not yet been released.

But the number of people raped probably is much higher than what is reported to authorities. In 2005, only 38 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement officials nationally, according to the 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey. In 2005 at Truman, two rapes were reported to campus officials or DPS.

"It happened so fast"

Sarah's date was set up through a friend. She didn't know the guy very well, but at the end of the night, she decided to let him walk her home. As a freshman, the videos presented during the first week of school about safety in numbers flashed into her head.

He wanted to stop and talk in the Sunken Garden, she said. Things got out of hand quickly.

"He raped me there, and afterwards I was really shaken up," she said. "It happened so fast, and you see these movies, go to these speakers, and they tell you how to stab someone in the eyes with your keys and how to fight back, but when it happens you have no idea."

Sarah said that when it happened she didn't call out for help. She didn't use the emergency button that was 20 feet away from her. Instead she cried and she vomited. After it was over, she said he walked her back to her residence hall room, where she cried herself to sleep.

About a week later, Sarah went to the Student Health Center, where she was told she had contracted herpes.

"I flipped out, emotionally and physically," she said. "I went to bed and stayed in bed for a few days. ... Really, it took one of my friends calling me and needing me for something. Knowing that someone else needed me and needed me to be together is really what helped."

Rape victims are faced with some difficult decisions immediately after the rape, said Elizabeth McCormack, Victim Support Services counselor.

"There's always some shock," she said. "I think, especially with something like acquaintance rape, a victim will typically replay the entire incident to make sense of what happened to them."

Sarah said that after she was raped, she began questioning herself and wondering why it happened.

"I thought maybe I'd asked for it, maybe I led him on," she said. "I thought maybe I deserved it, maybe I shouldn't have put myself in that situation, maybe it was my fault. I couldn't understand. It was one of those things that, you just, you look back - it's like when a loved one dies or when something really terrible happens to your family and you don't

understand why - you look for reasons, and they aren't there."

"It would be my word

against his"

Not all rape victims go to the police or other authorities because the process can be frightening.

"I think the big unknowns for lots of people is that they don't know what's going to happen if they go to the police or the hospital," McCormack said. "In the event of trauma, they tend to isolate and pull back because they don't know who to trust."

Sarah said she was afraid her reputation might have been tarnished if she came forward.

"People had seen us together that night," she said. "It would be my word against his. It was something I'd rather not have to deal with while I was in college. All my friends all believed me. I didn't know if the police would. I didn't know if the school would."

Although many people encourage rape victims to report the incident to police to prevent the rapist from hurting others, McCormack said it's not the best solution for everyone who has been raped.

"I don't want to convey that I don't recommend turning it over to the law," she said. "It's important to determine what's in the best interest of the person at the time. There are things [victims] need to do to protect themselves and feel a sense of control over their own environment. We're trained to help people figure out what that first move is."

Sarah said she wishes she had reported the rape so she could prevent it from happening to other people.

"I do wish I had come forward, but I realized that I didn't have the strength to do it," she said. "It literally took all the strength that I had to go to class every day."

Earlier during her freshman year, Sarah had worked as a rape counselor at Planned Parenthood, so she said she knew there were options available to her with getting counseling, going to the police and reporting it on campus. But she said she wasn't able to admit to herself that it had happened to her.

In addition to notifying law enforcement, if both the victim and the accused are students, the victim has the opportunity to file a complaint under the Student Conduct Code.

In 2005-06, three students were charged with forcible sexual misconduct under the Code, but none of these students were found responsible, according to conduct hearing statistics.

Although two people were charged with forcible sexual misconduct in 2004-05 and 2003-04, David Hoffman, assistant dean of student affairs, said he could not easily access information about the number of students found responsible during those years.

Although students have options to pursue legal action, file a complaint under the Code or both, few choose only to use the conduct code.

"My experience has been [that] once or twice a student may have started here rather than with DPS," he said. "Often natural instinct is to go to the police."