Controversial 1-in-5 sexual assault statistic validated in new national survey

Morgan Baskin | college.usatoday.com

The sexual assault statistic universities have challenged since it was published in 2007 has been backed up by a new report.

The Association of American Universities published a new survey Monday saying that 23% of female undergraduate students have reported experiencing sexual assault since enrolling in college.

AAU surveyed over 150,000 students across 27 colleges and universities. The findings support a controversial and often-disputed report from the National Institute of Justice that was published in 2007 — one cited by the White House's "It's On Us" campaign to prevent sexual assault on college campuses — that one in five women are sexually assaulted during their time in college.

Last fall in a widely-circulated exposé for Slate called The College Rape Overcorrection that indicted the University of Michigan for mishandling a sexual assault investigation, Emily Yoffe wrote that "studies suggesting this [sexual assault] epidemic don’t hold up to scrutiny."

The survey's definition of sexual assault ranges from "sexual harassment, stalking, and intimate partner violence" to "nonconsensual penetration" and "nonconsensual touching."

AAU found that less than 28% of the most serious sexual assault offenses (like forcible penetration) were reported to campus Title IX offices or law enforcement agencies. Violent assaults also decrease in frequency from freshman to senior year, and most serious assaults are related to drug and alcohol consumption, the report found.





This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.