When Constance and Howard Clery picked Lehigh University for their youngest and only daughter to attend, it was partly because the school seemed safe. The Pennsylvania campus was serene, beautiful and less than two hours from home.
What the Clerys didnt know until a Lehigh student broke into their daughters dorm in April 1986 was the seemingly idyllic setting had seen a rise in campus assaults in the months preceding their 19-year-old daughters death. The man convicted of killing Jeanne Clery, a sophomore at Lehigh, had been known to have violent tendencies before that night.
The Clerys, with no political experience, set out to revolutionize the way universities report criminal offenses and hate crimes on campus. Because of their efforts, the Jeanne Clery Act, originally passed in 1990 as the Campus Security Act, requires colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to publicly report statistics for sex offenses.
The idea is to make college a safer place. However, only 37 percent of schools report statistics correctly, according to the National Institute of Justice 2005 study on sexual assault on campus.
The Clerys talk about how being forewarned is forearmed, says Alison Kiss, executive director for the Clery Center for Security on Campus, a nonprofit organization organized by the Clery family to end campus violence. Its important to be informed of what is happening on the campuses that are in place around campus safety and sexual violence so you know what kind of resources are available.
Several factors make a student vulnerable to sexual assault, but some circumstances are unavoidable, such as the day of the week more than half of sexual assaults take place on the weekend and seniority at school. Students in the first two months of the first two years of college are at the highest risk for sexual assault, the National Institute of Justice says.
One of the biggest messages we hear today on campus is how women can and should protect themselves (from sexual assault) but we dont hear as many messages about men to say, Dont attack people. This is not OK, says Tristan Bridges, an associate professor who studies men and gender relations and teaches sociology at the College at Brockport, State University of New York. I think if that is going to be challenged, we need to start saying this isnt OK for me to participate in. We have lots of messages about how not to get raped, but there are less messages about how to make sure youre not raping someone.
According to the latest Department of Education report, published in June, on school crime and safety, overall campus crime was lower in 2011 than in 2001 in every category except for forcible sex offenses, which increased by 52 percent. Meanwhile, only 22 percent of rapes and 18 percent of sexual assaults are reported, according to the American College Health Association campus violence white paper published in 2005.
We talk to children, young adults, about how to protect themselves (from rape), Kiss says. We need to refocus that energy and look at this as a community issue and how we can educate people who may be potential predators and bystanders, and educate them on their part of preventing.
What the Clerys didnt know until a Lehigh student broke into their daughters dorm in April 1986 was the seemingly idyllic setting had seen a rise in campus assaults in the months preceding their 19-year-old daughters death. The man convicted of killing Jeanne Clery, a sophomore at Lehigh, had been known to have violent tendencies before that night.
The Clerys, with no political experience, set out to revolutionize the way universities report criminal offenses and hate crimes on campus. Because of their efforts, the Jeanne Clery Act, originally passed in 1990 as the Campus Security Act, requires colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to publicly report statistics for sex offenses.
The idea is to make college a safer place. However, only 37 percent of schools report statistics correctly, according to the National Institute of Justice 2005 study on sexual assault on campus.
The Clerys talk about how being forewarned is forearmed, says Alison Kiss, executive director for the Clery Center for Security on Campus, a nonprofit organization organized by the Clery family to end campus violence. Its important to be informed of what is happening on the campuses that are in place around campus safety and sexual violence so you know what kind of resources are available.
Several factors make a student vulnerable to sexual assault, but some circumstances are unavoidable, such as the day of the week more than half of sexual assaults take place on the weekend and seniority at school. Students in the first two months of the first two years of college are at the highest risk for sexual assault, the National Institute of Justice says.
One of the biggest messages we hear today on campus is how women can and should protect themselves (from sexual assault) but we dont hear as many messages about men to say, Dont attack people. This is not OK, says Tristan Bridges, an associate professor who studies men and gender relations and teaches sociology at the College at Brockport, State University of New York. I think if that is going to be challenged, we need to start saying this isnt OK for me to participate in. We have lots of messages about how not to get raped, but there are less messages about how to make sure youre not raping someone.
According to the latest Department of Education report, published in June, on school crime and safety, overall campus crime was lower in 2011 than in 2001 in every category except for forcible sex offenses, which increased by 52 percent. Meanwhile, only 22 percent of rapes and 18 percent of sexual assaults are reported, according to the American College Health Association campus violence white paper published in 2005.
We talk to children, young adults, about how to protect themselves (from rape), Kiss says. We need to refocus that energy and look at this as a community issue and how we can educate people who may be potential predators and bystanders, and educate them on their part of preventing.
