The Briefing Room

General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: EC on October 11, 2013, 06:57:27 am

Title: USC, Occidental Admit Underreporting Campus Sex Offenses
Post by: EC on October 11, 2013, 06:57:27 am
Via Huffpo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/usc-occidental-sex-offenses_n_4073117.html

Quote
The University of Southern California and Occidental College, two Los Angeles schools under federal investigations for their handling of sexual assaults on their campuses, admitted this month they failed to report a number of sex crimes in recent years.

Occidental found 19 incidents of sexual violence that should've been reported in its annual Clery report statistics. The additional assaults were reported in a one-time written survey conducted by Project SAFE in spring 2010. The offenses allegedly occurred between 2007 and 2010, but because Clery requires assaults to be counted in the year they were reported, the incidents ought to have been included in the 2010 numbers.

USC failed to report 13 sex offenses from 2010 and 2011, the university's Department of Public Safety chief, John Thomas, said in a statement last week.

"In May, I was made aware of a concern about possible errors in the reporting of incidents to the Los Angeles Police Department. Working with the university's compliance office, we immediately began a review of all data and procedures related to sharing information with LAPD," Thomas said. "During that review, we identified 13 anonymous complaints of sex offenses that had not been included in our 2010 and 2011 Clery Act statistics."

The change was the result of "a self-initiated internal review" and "additional information from the Los Angeles Police Department," Thomas explained.

Occidental said its findings were the result of guidance from an outside security consultant hired by the college.

"Bottom line: We made some mistakes," Occidental spokesman Jim Tranquada told The Huffington Post Wednesday. "We found them during an internal audit of our Clery reporting, and corrected the numbers in our latest report. The safety of our students is our primary concern, and we need to get this right."

Occidental is currently being investigated for possible failures to comply with the Clery Act. Although a complaint was submitted to the Education Department in August by USC students also alleging Clery violations, the university has yet to hear from federal officials as to whether they will investigate the complaint, a USC spokesman told The Huffington Post Wednesday.

Colleges and universities that receive federal funding (essentially all of them) are required under the Clery Act to accurately document and disclose reports of crimes on campus, including sexual violence.

Should the U.S. Department of Education open a review of USC and determine the university failed to report sexual violence properly, the school could be fined up to $35,000 per violation, or as much as $455,000 in total. Occidental could face a maximum fine of $660,000.

Federal officials were not able to comment because the government shutdown has put the vast majority of them on furlough, essentially grinding Clery reviews to a halt.

More at link. Note the obligatory government shutdown reference ....
Title: Re: USC, Occidental Admit Underreporting Campus Sex Offenses
Post by: mountaineer on October 11, 2013, 01:11:10 pm
I'd wager there's not a college in America that honestly reports campus crime to the feds.
Title: Re: USC, Occidental Admit Underreporting Campus Sex Offenses
Post by: EC on October 11, 2013, 01:21:53 pm
I'd wager there's not a college in America that honestly reports campus crime to the feds.

I'll keep my money, thank you - that is a no bet.

They do seem random though. I have friends with kids in college. I have friends in college, for that matter. Something will get reported on one occasion, and completely ignored the next time.