This article was updated on Monday, Oct. 24, at 7:02 p.m. to correct the statement saying “…on the authority of the Clery Center.”
Sexual assault is “a form of sexual harassment, on the basis of sex”, as stated in Boise State University’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. Since sexual assault is a sensitive and sometimes difficult topic to discuss, misconceptions are common.
Women in college are twice as likely to experience sexual violence compared to robbery, and more than 50% of sexual assault crimes on college campuses are committed between the months of August and November.
Defining Sexual Assault
The Clery Act Crime definitions describe sexual assault in Appendix A of the campus Annual Security and Fire Safety Report as, “An offense that meets the definition of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape … a sex offense is any sexual act directed against another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent.” Rape, fondling, incest and statutory rape all fall under the category of sexual assault, as well as sexual coercion and sexual exploitation.
Sadly, many victims of sexual assault unknowingly label their experiences as anything but a crime, due to assaults happening in “grey areas” that can be confusing to a victim. Unacknowledged rape keeps victims in the dark. Regardless, the sexual violation of another person is a violent crime against their humanity, dignity and autonomy.
In her experience working at the Women’s Children Alliance, the Gender and Equity Center and working at the statehouse to pass legislation on sexual assault, Senator Melissa Wintrow provided insight culturally on why sexual assault continues to be prevelant.
“It’s easier to enact violence against an object. If you see them as a human being, with the same value as me, mattering as much as me, having the same rights as me, it’s much harder to commit an act of violence against somebody you see as a human and not an object,” Wintrow said.
But it’s not just women who are subject to this kind of violence. College men are 78%
more likely than non-students of the same age to be victims of rape or sexual assault. As a whole, 13% of all college students experience crimes listed under sexual assault.
Confusion on terms like “consent” are also common. University policy states that consent is, “Voluntary, informed and freely given agreement, which may be withdrawn at any time, to engage in a course of conduct.” It also clarifies that anyone under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or a person who is asleep, cannot give consent.
If students have further questions or concerns, campus resources are available. Other resources like Faces of Hope and The Women and Children’s Alliance operate off-campus and provide services too such as case management, therapy and support groups, 24 hour hotline numbers, medical care and crisis counseling.
Clery Act Law and Campus Crime Communication
In 1990, Congress passed the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act after Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered in her own dorm by another student. In 2013, the act was amended as Campus SaVE, requiring institutions to regularly and annually update their student body on dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking statistics, which are found in Annual Security Reports.
The Clery Act “requires colleges and universities to report campus crime data, support victims of violence and publicly outline the policies and procedures they have put into place to improve campus safety” on the authority of the U.S. Department of Education.
“The numbers in the annual security and fire report only encompass things that happen within the Clery defined geography of the institution. Boise State has a campus community that stretches farther than our campus boundaries as we have so many students living in apartments and houses in the nearby neighborhood,” Charters said.
Not all Boise State student sexual assault crimes make it into the annual and regular reports and logs. This does not mean the crimes do not appear in BPD records, but because of the Clery geography guidelines and law, not every reported case of a sexual assault occuring to a student ends up in the institutional records. Even if a student is assaulted at a home or apartment leased or owned by students, the case may end up in another Boise police crime log because of the location of a building.
Reported crimes on campus or emergencies for immediate release on or near campus are known as BroncoAlerts.
“Bronco alert is for immediate safety concerns for information that the campus community needs to know,” Senior Associate Dean of Students Lauren Oe said. “Typically, normally, we hear about a sexual assault after the fact. And so at that moment, there’s no information that we would need folks to know.”
A communication alert given to the student body after a crime is reported and that the “University determines there is a continuing threat to faculty, staff, students, or visitors” is called a timely warning. Timely warnings “often do not require immediate notice (an emergency notification), but are released once the pertinent information is available, if a notice is deemed necessary.”
Crime information including reported sexual assault crimes are accessible and available to all students through the campus crime logs and Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, as well as the history of all campus safety alerts.
Peer to Peer Reporting
Social and peer groups often are the first to hear about a sexual assault before any campus authority, police department, counselor or therapist. Research shows that most college students will confide in a friend or roommate about an assault before going to authorities. How these individuals respond to a sexual assault victim can have enormous impact on the next steps and choices the victim might take.
Outreach Coordinator for University Health Services, Ericka Obaitek, provided insight about peer to peer conversations regarding sexual assault.
“I think one of the most harmful things that we can do for somebody is trying to point out that any of the perpetrators choices was somehow your friend’s fault,” Obaitek said. “The perpetrator is the person who makes that choice.”
AlchoholEdu and the Sexual Assault Prevention online training courses are mandatory for all Boise State students under 21 years of age. The programs include by-stander prevention tactics, examples, videos, surveys and more.
“We have been providing education to students in compliance with federal law since the 2013 Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, or Campus SaVE Act amendment to the federal Jeanne Clery Act,” Kate Law, Assistant Dean of Students told The Arbiter in an email. These laws are meant to protect students and help them receive access to education and support in a event of sexual violence in any form.
“Peer to peer reporting and support is probably the most powerful thing,” Oe said.
Alongside peer to peer reporting, other crime reporting methods are available to the student body such as limited voluntary confidential reporting and anonymous reporting. The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report describes actions students can take.
The Gender Equity Center landing page on “How To Help a Friend or Family Member” offers guidelines for what to do when a friend or peer discloses sexual assault. Helpful actions like listening without judgment, reassuring an unwanted sexual encounter was not the victim’s fault, and last but certainly not least — believing the testimony of the affected person.
“That’s always something that I would love to see grow, is students reaching out when they’re worried about each other and getting ideas on how to support each other. And it’s a hard thing to do,” Oe said.
The Culture of Reporting
“A big part of it is the culture of reporting,” Oe said. “So the question is, have we created better systems and de-stigmatized the idea of sharing and reporting these situations?”
In reference to the training, Title IX Coordinator Danillle Charters shared the social impact of such education.
“Typically, when we do more education, we see an increase in the number of reports, not a decrease, because now you’ve educated more people about what is a violation, and they are aware of where to go for resources and support,” Charters said.
Such resources for sexual assault on campus include the Gender Equity Center, Health Services, Office of University Security, University Housing, Dean of Student’s Office , CARE Team, and the Title IX Office. Off-campus points of contact like The Women and Children’s Alliance and Faces of Hope provide support services as well.
A study published in 2021 revealed that a third of sexual assault survivors remain silent, due to shame, fear and self-blame. The fear of not being believed, losing control of their autonomy, experiencing backlash from authorities or being ostracized were common themes the study found.
“In our office, to the extent we can, we try to give the person who has experienced the harm the most autonomy back in the situation as humanly possible,” Charters said. “Because when you experience a trauma like sexual assault, what really happens is you’ve had your autonomy taken away from you. That is why it is important to give back that decision-making ability, so that they are in control. Ultimately, that’s what most interpersonal violence under Title IX comes down to, its power and control, and someone has taken that power away from another person.”
Limited voluntary confidential reporting is when a victim who does not want to “pursue action” through the university or legal system can make a report for the crime log without their identity being compromised, but that information will be passed on to the Title IX Office in cases of sexual misconduct.
“It’s not that we don’t want to hold people responsible, part of that is letting the person who has experienced the harm decide,” Charters said. “We still keep track of the names … sometimes what happens though is we will get another report of the same respondent. Or maybe, even a third. And then it gets to a point as the Title IX Coordinator, I have to make a decision about whether or not we are going to, whether I am going to sign a complaint on behalf of all of them and open an investigation, because it’s my responsibility as the Title IX Coordinator that we are taking efforts to stop ongoing harassment at the institution.”
Anonymous reporting is exactly what the title suggests. Through a “Silent Witness” form, the Department of Public Safety is informed. An important detail to note is that the “Silent Witness” form is not designed for emergencies, just bystander reports.
Destigmatizing sexual assault means breaking the silence. It is one way that college friend groups and social circles can act towards victims with compassion. With more compassion, comes clarity, and with clarity, comes change.
“A click through-training doesn’t change culture,” Carters said. “But learning how to be a bystander and learning to talk to the friend that everyone knows is isolating women after getting them intoxicated and is that repeat perpetrator everybody knows about but no one has talked to, and confronting them, that’s what makes a difference.”
