A report released this week ranks Emory University third among U.S. campuses for the rate of reported forcible sex offenses on campus.
Only Princeton and Brown universities had more forcible sex offenses per 1,000 students in 2012, according to Rehabs.com.
Emory reported 26 forcible sex offenses, including rapes, in 2012, according to federal education and law enforcement data reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That number increased from 12 the previous year.
At the time, Emory officials attributed the increase to better education and outreach to students. No prosecutions resulted from Emory’s 2012 incidents.
Emory’s ranking by Rehabs.com was based on reports of offenses, not arrests.
But numbers, Emory spokeswoman Beverly Cox Clark said, do not tell the whole story. In a statement, Clark said the university works “toward a bold goal of eradicating sexual assault on our campus” by devoting multiple advocacy, outreach, prevention, reporting and support resources to the Emory community.
“We want our students who have been affected by issues of sexual assault to get the support they need,” she said, “and more are coming forward due to initiatives such as the Respect Program, which provides confidential advocacy-based counseling, prevention education, and the training of more than 1,000 Sexual Assault Peer Advocates.”
The Rehabs.com report includes institutions with an enrollment of at least 5,000 students and residence halls on their campuses. It was compiled using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education for all colleges receiving any federal financial aid. The federal Clery Act requires colleges to track and report on-campus crime data.
Other areas covered in the report included on-campus arrests per 1,000 students for alcohol and drug use in 2012, and the University of West Georgia and Southern Polytechnic State University were both ranked among the top 50 in at least one of those categories.
UWG, in Carrollton, ranked 10th in alcohol arrests and 25th in drug arrests. Marietta’s SPSU ranked 39th in drug arrests.
“The University of West Georgia takes drug and alcohol infractions seriously,” UWG Chief of Police Thomas Mackel said in a statement released by the college. “We believe the arrest numbers reflect our dedication to aggressively pursuing offenders and providing a safe campus environment for all students.”
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse ranked first in on-campus alcohol arrests. The State University of New York at Oneonta topped the list for the most drug arrests.
Read the full report: www.rehabs.com/explore/drugs-on-campus-special-report/.
Full statement from Emory University
Numbers do not tell the whole story. We want our students who have been affected by issues of sexual assault to get the support they need, and more are coming forward due to Initiatives such as the Respect Program, which provides confidential advocacy-based counseling, prevention education, and the training of more than 1,000 Sexual Assault Peer Advocates. The University devotes multiple resources to students, faculty and staff for outreach, support, reporting and advocacy, with a priority on prevention to work toward a bold goal of eradicating sexual assault on our campus.
The vast majority of sexual assault reports at Emory are anonymous, and do not involve formal police investigations at the request of the affected person. Per university policy and federal law, Emory includes these numbers in its annual security report as required by the Clery Act. According to the Clery Center for Security on Campus, colleges and universities that are effectively educating their students and responding to victims may likely have higher numbers of sexual misconduct cases reported to campus officials.
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