How often does this happen, anyway?
Prevalence
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General Information
Assessing prevalence is more complicated than you might think. First, it’s hard to get a handle on the raw numbers of people who experience something that may fit the description of physical assault, hazing, bias, a death, harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence, a serious accident, sexual assault, or stalking. One way is to look at “reports,” but that leads you to the question of what is reporting, why do people do it or not do it, and who are people likely to “report” to, or tell?
Most of the kinds of incidents the Office of Victim Assistance deals with have some degree of stigma attached. This is an important factor in discussing any kind of “reporting.” The example of sexual assault is useful; research done at CU says that most people tell a friend first about a sexual assault, and if they get a helpful response they may go on to tell someone else like a heath care provider, counselor, or administrator or police. This is one reason that friends and bystanders are so important. If someone gets shut down the first time they venture to tell, then they may not get important support, information or vital services like medical treatment. And their telling will certainly never make it into any official "report".
So, to continue the sexual assault example, some research done in a college environment suggests that (rape fact sheet) some men have done an act that meets the legal definition of sexual assault. Again, few of these ever made it to an official “report” before this research. A good overview of womens’ experience of sexual assault on college campuses entitled
'The Sexual Victimization of College Women' is here or you can search the web for a PDF version.
People who have survived an experience such as physical assault, hazing, bias, a death, harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence, a serious accident, sexual assault, or stalking often look to friends or family, and then possibly services, and then perhaps law enforcement. Because people go to the police for different reasons than they seek support or advocacy, the Office of Victim Assistance, which is confidential, has different statistics than the CU Police Department. Some people seek services who do not contact the police, and vice versa.
The Clery Act requires that universities report certain kinds of crime. The CU Clery numbers are posted here( page down to Reports of Criminal Offenses).
Resources
Office of Victim Assistance statistics
Office of Discrimination and Harassment reports
Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report
Research abstracts on sexual assault and dating violence
Prevalence of Domestic Violence
Coalition of AntiViolence Programs 2005 report
prevalence of hazing
CU Boulder Campus Employees by job category and demographics
Consequences for Victims A Comparison of Bias- and Non-Bias-Motivated Assaults
Effective education and response strategies
A Report on the Sexual Victimization of College Women
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