by Katherine Protil, Heather Henry, Lauren Davis, Sarah Pollock, and Hailey Pulman. (Supervisor: Paul von Hippel)

Definition 

Defining sexual assault is an emotional and politicized undertaking, and there is no definition that is used universally. The United States Department of Justice defines sexual assault as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient,” but individual states vary in their own legal definitions. Many college campuses also feel increasing pressure to offer or revise their own definitions as students and parents demand that campuses take more rigorous steps to address this issue.

Texas Penal Code

In Texas, the state penal code defines sexual assault as:

“an offense [where] the person intentionally or knowingly:
(A)  causes the penetration of the anus or sexual organ of another person by any means, without that person's consent;
(B)  causes the penetration of the mouth of another person by the sexual organ of the actor, without that person's consent;  or
(C)  causes the sexual organ of another person, without that person's consent, to contact or penetrate the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of another person, including the actor.”

The secondary definition specifies that an actor also commits sexual assault by engaging in any of the aforementioned behaviors with a child. Note that the primary definition emphasizes penetration of or by the victim without their consent. Texas law does not distinguish “rape” from “sexual assault.” “Sexual assault” is the only term used in the penal code.

College Campuses

The state definition differs somewhat from sexual assault as it is typically defined by college campuses. For example, The University of Texas at Austin’s definition states that sexual assault is “an offense that meets the definition of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape,” for which there are further definitions of each.

One key difference here is the inclusion of “fondling,” which UT Austin defines as the “touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the complainant.” This definition better falls in line with the Department of Justice's definition of sexual assault as "any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape." The inclusion or exclusion of non-penetrative acts in the definition of sexual assault has a significant impact on policies and studies of incidence. 

Other Terminology

It is important to distinguish sexual assault from similar terms, such as “sexual misconduct” and “sexual harassment.” Again, Texas penal code and college campuses do not align perfectly on the definition of these terms. Texas penal code chapter 42. Section 42.01 defines “disorderly conduct” to include the public exposure of genitalia, unlawful voyeurism, and other such acts. Section 42.07 of the Texas Penal Code, which defines “harassment,” specifies that a person must have an “intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass” the person they are acting upon for their behavior to be recognized as unlawful. College campuses, and many businesses, take a broader view of what constitutes “harassment.” UT Austin defines “sexual harassment” as “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature,” which can include demanding sexual contact in exchange for academic or professional favors, unwelcome attempts (verbal or otherwise) to elicit sexual favors, and more. The key word used here is “unwelcome,” the term also used by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in their definition of “sexual harassment,” which places the emphasis on the victim’s experience of the behavior rather than the intent of the individual engaging in said behavior.

While sexual misconduct and sexual harassment contribute to the type of environment that fosters sexual assault, this page specifically focuses on sexual assault on college campuses because people, especially young women, are at a significantly higher risk of being sexually assaulted while in college.

Reporting

Incidences of sexual assault on campus can be reported in a variety of ways. Under Title IX, a section of federal education legislation passed in 1972, discrimination on basis of sex is illegal at any educational institution that received federal funding (Lhamon, 2014). Sex discrimination includes acts of sexual assault, sexual violence, and sexual harassment (NWLC, 2016). Universities that are not in compliance with Title IX are at risk of losing all federal funding (NWLC, 2016). Increasingly, schools across the country have faced lawsuits over their handling of sexual assault and rape. These lawsuits allege that by failing to address campus sexual assault effectively, schools are violating their female students' Title IX rights (NWLC, 2016).

Barriers to Reporting

Not all survivors of sexual assault know an assault has taken place. Out of those who do know they have been assaulted, most report the incident to friends or family. A far smaller group reports the event to an outside authority. Most cases of sexual violence are committed by someone the victim knows; some even take place in the context of intimate relationships. Additionally, the presence of drugs or alcohol during the assault may discourage the survivor from reporting the assault, for fear of university sanctions or legal trouble (Addington and Rennison, 2014).

LGBTQ students may also face additional hurdles in reporting sexual assaults. The CDC's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that in the general population, approximately 13% of lesbian women and 46% of bisexual women experience sexual assault, compared to approximately 21% of heterosexual women (CDC, 2010). Approximately 40% of gay men and 47% of bisexual men have experienced some form of sexual violence, compared to around 20% of heterosexual men (CDC, 2010). Trans students in particular face barriers to reporting sexual assault. Approximately 64% of transgender people have experienced sexual assault (Grant et al, 2011). Trans people of color experience sexual assault at an even higher rate (Grant et al, 2011). But while LGBTQ students are at a higher risk of sexual assault and/or violence, they may avoid reporting the event for fear of being outed to their family, friends, or communities (HRC). They may also attend universities with campus climates or policies that are hostile towards LGBTQ students.

Clery Statistics

Under the Jeanne Clery Act, signed in 1990, schools receiving Title IX funding are required to report all crimes, including cases of sexual assaults, committed on their campus, campus properties, or bordering properties (Campus Safety and Security). The law was passed as a consumer protection measure designed to help students accurately assess the safety of university campuses. These federally collected, publicly available statistics provide one way to measure rates of sexual assaults on campus. These reports, however, are collected and reported to police by campus security authorities, so only the cases of sexual assault officially reported to campus security are measured in a school's Clery statistics (Clery Center, 2016).

Internal Reporting

Complaints can also be filed within university's internal judicial system (Clery Center, 2016). In April of 2011, the Department of Education released a "Dear Colleague" letter that gave guidance to schools and universities on how to set up internal mechanisms to deal with sexual assault and violence (Lhamon, 2014). Schools are required under Title IX to respond systematically to complaints about sexual assault and abuse on campus and must make accommodations to ensure that students who are victims of sexual violence are not unfairly prevented from continuing their education (Lhamon, 2014).

Association of American Universities Data

Other schools rely on survey data to track the number of sexual assaults that take place on their campuses. The Association of American Universities (AAU) runs a national survey on campus sexual assault that approximately 26 universities take part in in 2015 (AAU, 2014). Other universities rely on individually developed campus climate surveys. Low response rates have historically plagued campus climate initiatives; the University of Texas, for example, participated in the 2015 AAU survey, which had a response rate of 19.3% nationally (Cantor et al, 2015). Advocates suggest that low response rates may distort the predicted rate of sexual assault on campuses.  Students who have been sexually assaulted may be either more or less likely to take the survey, so that rates of sexual assault in the general student population may be higher or lower than the rate among survey respondents.

Title IX Complaints

Campus sexual assaults can also be reported by students who file a Title IX complaint with the Department of Education. Title IX complaints are filed by students who allege that their college or university is engaging in discriminatory behavior based on sex (Clark and Hauser). Currently, these complaints are more frequently filed as a response to institutional mishandling of sexual assault cases. The Department of Education has conducted 336 Title IX investigations in response to alleged discrimination in sexual assault cases since 2011 (Chronicle, 2016). While these cases reflect the number of federal investigations into university responses to sexual assault, they do not offer a clear measure of the rate of sexual assault, nationally or on specific campuses.

Definitions and Reporting

The definitions used by different reporting mechanisms also influence reporting rates. Clery statistics, for example, only reflect crimes reported to on-campus authorities or the local police (Clery Center, 2016). Self-reporting mechanisms also define sexual assault and rape in various ways. Some specifically ask students if they have been victims of sexual assault or rape, while others ask about specific experiences that are then classified by the researchers as sexual assault or rape. The AAU study, for example, asked students about sexual touching and penetration that met the legal definition of rape. They further asked which of these experiences occurred because of incapacitation due to drugs or alcohol, threats and physical coercion, psychological coercion, or with a lack of consent (AAU, 2015).

Differing descriptions of sexual assault and rape in surveys can lead to different reporting rates. Surveys that describe activities without labeling them rape or sexual assault explicitly can also find higher rates of sexual assault than those that ask students instead whether they have been raped or sexually assaulted point-blank.

False Reporting

Although false reports of sexual assault are extremely rare–the highest estimates range from 2%-8% of all reports–much public debate still exists about the dangers of false accusations (NSVRC, 2009). Some of the confusion is related to the way sexual assaults are reported and recorded by law enforcement. Police and investigators categorize unfounded reports of sexual assault in one of two ways: either false or baseless reporting. A false report is categorized by an investigation that finds no evidence of its truth. A baseless report, on the other hand, is one that does not meet the legal definition of sexual assault, but is presumed to be a true statement (Title IX on Campus).

The similarity between the terms "false" and "baseless" (and their interchangeable usage in common conversation) can lead to confusion about the rate of false reporting. There is also some evidence that poor training of law enforcement officials leads them to officially categorize some assaults as baseless when in fact they meet the legal standard of sexual assault (NSVRC, 2009).

Prevalence

As the chart below illustrates, different definitions and reporting methods can lead to very different findings of incidence rates ranging from less than two percent to nearly twenty percent. A significant determinant of these findings is the definition of sexual assault used.

A great example of the difference the definition of sexual assault can make is the Stanford University study, which defined sexual assault as an incident where 1) the victim was asleep, unconscious, or unable to resist or respond, 2) the offender had threatened to physically harm the respondent or someone close to the respondent, or 3) force was used. There was significant backlash after it became known that the study categorized any unwanted sexual conduct that happened while the victim was under the influence of alcohol or drugs as sexual misconduct rather than sexual assault. Stand With Leah, an organization dedicated to addressing sexual assault at Stanford University, used the exact same data but included incidents where drugs or alcohol were present as sexual assault and found that 43% of undergraduate women experienced sexual assault while completing their degree. As this study shows, the rate of incidence of sexual assault found in a study is influenced by critical decisions about exactly who and what is studied. These decisions include studying:

• women and/or men
• undergraduates and/or graduate students
• four year institutions and/or two year institutions
• exclusively incidents of rape or all forms of unwanted sexual contact
• incidents before attending the university or only while attending the university
• the time period used in the study (all four years or only since entering college)
• completed and/or attempted sexual assault 

The Association of American Universities’ 2014 report exemplifies the differences these choices can make. Male graduate students have a sexual assault rate of 2.2% while undergraduate women are more than ten times more likely to be assaulted with an incidence rate of 23.1%. Overall, the study found the average rate of sexual assault is 11.2%, which is not representative of either population.

An additional barrier to accurate measures of the prevalence of sexual assault is how survey questions are designed. The National College Women Victimization Survey found that reporting of completed rapes was eleven times higher in surveys that asked about the behaviors descriptive of sexual assault than in surveys that asked if respondents had been raped or sexually assaulted. Methodologists tend to agree that asking about behaviors of sexual assault leads to more accurate estimates than asking for self-reporting of victimization. 

Without consistency in the definition or the method used for studying sexual assault on college campuses, it is difficult to claim one statistic for the rate of sexual assault on college campuses as correct. Without understanding exactly what a study was testing for, it is easy to disregard a report on sexual assault as biased and unsound. Findings that may actually be in alignment with each other can appear to be conflicting depending on how the study was done. Without a specific set of parameters, it becomes easy to debate which rate of sexual assault is "true."

Prevention and Response

Separate Wiki pages provide information about steps that campuses and other institutions can take to prevent sexual assault, and ways that campuses and other institutions may respond to allegations of sexual assault.

References

Addington, Lynn A. and Callie Marie Rennison. "Violence Against College Women: A Review to Identify Limitations in Defining the Problem and Inform Future Research." Trauma Violence Abuse 15.3: July 2014, 159-169.

Association of American Universities. "AAU Announces Sexual Assault Climate Survey: Survey Planned for April 2015." November 14, 2014. http://www.aau.edu/uploadedFiles/News_Room/Press_Releases/2014/AAU%20Announces%20Sexual%20Assault%20Climate%20Survey%20-%2011-14-14.pdf

Association of American Universities. "AAU Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct." December 14, 2015. http://www.aau.edu/Climate-Survey.aspx?id=16525 

Campus Safety and Security. "What is the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool?" http://ope.ed.gov/campussafety/#/

Cantor, David et al. "Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct." American Association of Universities. September 21, 2015. https://www.aau.edu/uploadedFiles/AAU_Publications/AAU_Reports/Sexual_Assault_Campus_Survey/AAU_Campus_Climate_Survey_12_14_15.pdf

CDC. "NISVS: An Overview of 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation." 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cdc_nisvs_victimization_final-a.pdf

Clark, Annie E. and Miriam Hauser. "How To File a Title IX Complaint." http://knowyourix.org/title-ix/how-to-file-a-title-ix-complaint/

Clery Center for Security on Campus. "Summary of Jeanne Clery Act." 2016. http://clerycenter.org/summary-jeanne-clery-act

Earp, Brian. "1 in 4 Women: How the Latest Sexual Assault Statistics Were Turned into Click Bait by the ‘New York Times.’" September 28, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-earp/1-in-4-women-how-the-late_b_8191448.html

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "Facts about Sexual Harassment." June 27, 2002. https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-sex.html

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Grant, Jaime M. et al. "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report on the National Transgender Discrimination Survey." The Task Force. 2011. http://www.thetaskforce.org/static_html/downloads/reports/reports/ntds_full.pdf

HRC. "Sexual Assault and the LGBTQ Community." http://www.hrc.org/resources/sexual-assault-and-the-lgbt-community

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Texas Penal Code. Title 5. Chapter 22. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/docs/pe/htm/pe.22.htm

Texas Penal Code, Title 9, Chapter 42. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.42.htm

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