Atlanta Rape and Sexual Assault Lawyer - Sexual Assault Victims Find Few Avenues for Justice on College Campuses

As an Atlanta premises liability lawyer, I should be immune to the high sex crime incident rates on college campuses.  But the numbers never fail to horrify me. Approximately one in every five female college students will be the victim of a rape or attempted raped by the time she graduates.

According to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, most of the victims do not report these crimes to the police or to the campus authorities. In fact, more than 95 percent of students who are sexually assaulted chose not to report the crime at all.  They encounter barriers when they approach their local law enforcement authorities, who tend to avoid such cases because they sometimes involve drug or alcohol use. Campus authorities prefer to hide these incidents from unwelcome public attention, placing barriers of secrecy that students find difficult to cross.

The report says that few of these victims even have a campus hearing. Those victims who choose to contact campus authorities about their assault frequently find that the campus justice system involves disciplinary proceedings conducted in secret, and negotiations that are not on the record. Not surprisingly, such practices can discourage students from following up on their complaints.  In other cases, they feel compelled to agree to a gag order.

The Center found that such practices leave no room for any accountability and often end with barely any punishment or no punishment at all for the alleged perpetrators of the assault.  The college years are the most formative period in a person's life and shouldn't have to be marred by experiences like this. One in five women falling victim to sexual assault is a shameful statistic.

Jason Schultz is an Atlanta premises liability lawyer, helping victims of assaults and rapes in apartment complexes and colleges seek justice.