Jessica Ladd, Sexual Health Innovations’ executive director, is applying this idea in Callisto. In an email, she notes that “survivors are often willing to share about our experiences — you just need to give us a compelling reason and a safe way to do so.” In particular, she said: “This sharing doesn’t have to happen publicly, as the Cosby and UVA cases did. Survivors should not have to out themselves to the entire world in order to get justice or to find out if they are the only one” who was attacked by a particular person. Knowing about other victims, she said, is often a major factor in the decision to report an assault or not.

Ms. Ladd describes Callisto as meeting the need for reporting systems that “keep the survivor in control of their own data and their own choices.” According to the organization, it will allow users to create time-stamped reports that are saved in the system, which is not accessible to administrators or law enforcement. Users may choose to submit a report to campus authorities immediately or store the information and return to it later once they have made a choice about whether to report. Most notably, users are provided with the option to automatically submit their report if another student reports being attacked by the same person, creating shared awareness of a possible serial perpetrator who might otherwise not be identified to campus authorities.

The Rolling Stone article, for instance, describes a first-year University of Virginia student who reported being sexually assaulted and was “shaken to discover two other women with stories of assault by the same man” – key evidence that she reportedly submitted to his disciplinary hearing. (Disturbingly, her suspected attacker received only a one-year suspension after being found guilty; the university has apparently not expelled a student for sexual assault in recent years.) This case is an exception, however. More “pattern evidence” like this could be brought forward if improved shared reporting options were provided to victims.