STATE COLLEGE, PA. Students report rise in cases of sex assault

Of 29 attacks reported, only six were committed by a stranger.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Police have investigated three times the number of sexual assaults in State College since students returned at the end of August, compared with the same period last year, police said.
Since Aug. 25, when most Penn State students began arriving for the fall semester, State College police have received 29 reports of what are defined as "sexual attacks," up from nine during the same period last year.
"Sexual attacks" are defined by police to include any type of unwanted sexual contact, from touching to rape. Of the 29 reports, 13 were for rapes and 16 were for sexual assaults or indecent assaults.
Penn State officials also saw a rise in the number of reported sexual attacks since right before the fall semester, though the increase is not as pronounced as what police had seen.
"One [reason] would be an increased awareness and, therefore, more victims report them," said university police supervisor Bill Moerschbacher. "Or it could be that there are just more happening."
Whatever the reason, undergraduate student government president Ian Rosenberger called the statistics "unacceptable."
"According to our estimates, almost 1,000 students at University Park alone will be assaulted this year," Rosenberger said.
Penn State keeps its own figures on the number of sexual attacks on campus, including those not reported to police.
The school's numbers show an increase but not one as marked as police reports indicate.
What statistics show
Although Penn State's own statistics aren't complete for this semester, they show that there were 100 reported sexual assaults for the 2002-03 academic year, up from 94 the previous year, University Health Services Director Dr. Peg Spear said.
Police and other officials are unsure why the number of reports is increasing.
Dawn McKee, director of education for the Centre County Women's Resource Center, said she believes the rise reflects that "victims are more comfortable; they know that help is out there," she said. "The more training for responders, the less the victims will feel that they are being blamed. Blame silences victims."
The publicity after a number of attacks by strangers that occurred this fall may also have raised awareness of sexual assaults in general, McKee said.
That might have led to an increase in the number of reported attacks committed by acquaintances, she said.
Of the 29 attacks reported to State College police between Aug. 25 and Nov. 27, only six were committed by someone the victim didn't know.
U.S. Department of Justice statistics show that fewer than 5 percent of college women who are victims of rape or attempted rape ever report it to police.
Though officials recognize that the same is probably true in State College, they hope that by educating responders and victims, more attacks will be reported.
"We're hoping the system in place here is working," State College police Sgt. Dana Leonard said. "Officers have so much more training than they did when I was just starting out years ago. I think it's better now, easier for victims to come forward."