Recent strings of sexual assaults in pockets across the city, including the Annex, Etobicoke and Ryerson and York universities, have some asking why police won’t say whether the attacks are instances of an unwanted grope or of rape.

Toronto police don’t release those details, says spokeswoman Meaghan Gray.

“Providing a level of detail as to what the assault specifically was may lead people to attribute a level of seriousness to the sexual assault and that’s not the message we want to send,” she said.

Still, some say they want to know what happened — that the information would help them be more vigilant, even change their behaviour.

“I believe it is important to tell the public somebody was raped,” said illustrator Ainsley Ashby-Snyder in the lobby of Ryerson’s student union building earlier this week. The 28-year-old attended an emergency meeting, held in the wake of at least five reported sexual assaults on or near campus since the beginning of the school year.

“If there’s a serial rapist running around my neighbourhood, you’re goddamn right I want to know what is happening,” said Ashby-Snyder.

“I would understand more of my surroundings, what’s going on.”

While most sexual assault alerts in this city come from police, Ryerson’s security team has released more specific details about the nature of attacks reported to them. In one instance, two women had their buttocks grabbed, and in another, a man allegedly touched a woman under her clothes at a campus bar.

York University, which has had six reported sex assaults since the start of September, also offers more details in its security bulletins.

“The additional information is meant to help the community understand what the situation is, so that they can make decisions and protect themselves based on the nature of the incidents,” said Bruce Piercey, Ryerson’s director of communications. Piercey emphasized he agrees with the notion that all instances of sexual assault are serious.

“Generally, the feeling we get is, give us more information,” he said, noting that, just like police, that doesn’t include releasing details that would compromise the victim’s identity or the investigation.

Asked whether an instance of rape would ever be communicated in Ryerson’s alerts, Piercey said, “I think to the extent that we could give information that would be helpful to people we’d want to describe if it was a particularly violent situation. We’d want people to know that.”

York University spokeswoman Joanne Rider said its protocol is to “communicate what was reported to York security in terms of detail.” She later clarified that a description of the incident would not necessarily mean every detail is reported.

Elaborating on her earlier point, Toronto police’s Gray said: “Every woman responds in a different way to the sexual assault and it’s important for us to send the message that they are all serious, that they are all investigated seriously, and to get into the specifics of what happened doesn’t contribute to that.”

Other GTA police forces, like Peel police, follow the same protocol.

Ryerson student Lee McVittie, 20 — who disagreed with Ashby-Snyder — made the point that a warning of a groper could be taken less seriously by some, and those instances could escalate to rape. “You don’t want people to accidentally brush anything off,” she said.

In 1983, the offence of rape was repealed from the Criminal Code and replaced with the broader term of sexual assault. The change was made in part because it was difficult to get a conviction. Lawyers could question women about past sexual history to discredit them, and many women chose not to report the crime.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Under the Criminal Code, sexual assault includes any unwanted contact of a sexual nature, from touching and kissing to violent sexual attacks and including verbal threats with sexual overtones. Charges of sexual assault with a weapon and aggravated sexual assault can also be laid.

It’s another reason why police always use the term “sexual assault” in their alerts, said Gray, because it mirrors the legal language.

The language police use when communicating about sex assaults has evolved over time.

Jane Doe, her identity still protected, successfully sued Toronto Police after she was raped at knifepoint in 1986. Doe’s assailant, known as the “Balcony Rapist,” had a preferred victim type and area of operation that police had documented, yet didn’t warn the public.

After Doe won her lawsuit in 1998, a city audit followed. Among its recommendations: Toronto police should revise their sexual assault alerts.

“A lot of those alerts didn’t include any factual language about how the assault transpired, but rather they were seen as fear-based in nature and were a list of warnings and ‘don’t do this’ and ‘don’t do that,’ ” said Gray, who has sat on an advisory committee made up of experts from the field.

Examples, she said, included telling women to avoid dimly lit streets, to not walk alone at night or talk on a cellphone.

“What was pointed out to us is when we do those types of warnings all we’re really doing is reinforcing the myth that sexual assault only happens to women who don’t protect themselves.”

In the last several years, police have focused on providing as much information around an assault as possible — the location, time of day, how the victim was approached, what the perpetrator was wearing and the direction they took afterward. All this without going beyond the fact a sexual assault took place.

These details may help jog the memory of a bystander, who could have information for investigators. People can “take that information and decide to change their behaviour, or not,” said Gray.

Asked what she would say to someone who simply wants as much information as possible, so that they can use those details to take steps to protect themselves, Gray said: “I think the information we provide lets them do that.”