One in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape since their fourteenth birthday, according to One in Four, a non-profit organization dedicated to rape prevention.
After a low report of arrest and conviction rates in sexual assault cases in several universities in Illinois and Indiana, some sexual health advocates worry that these schools aren’t treating sex crimes with enough importance.
According to the Huffington Post, schools such as Marquette University and Northwestern University have dealt with such crimes internally rather than turning these cases into local police. Marquette even admitted that they have not reported sex crimes to the police in 10 years.
In an interview with the Huffington Post Chicago, Katherine Hull, spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), said that crimes of sexual violence need to be handled by law enforcement and that instead, "we're seeing crimes of sexual violence being treated on college campuses in the same way you'd deal with plagiarism or an overdue library book."
Still, other officials believe that dealing with university judicial cases internally may lessen the pressure on victims and that empowerment can come from making the decision on how to deal with the crimes.
What do you think: are sexual assaults being dealt with according to their seriousness?
