Sept. 21--More than one in four female undergraduate students reported they were victimized by nonconsensual sexual contact in a national survey of 27 universities released Monday.
But the survey for the Assn. of American Universities, one of the most comprehensive ever conducted on college sexual misconduct, found wide variation in the cases depending on campus, gender, age and type of offense.
Among undergraduate females, for instance, between 13% and 30% had been victimized by the most serious types of misconduct -- sexual penetration or touching involving force, threats of force or incapacitation by alcohol or drugs across the campuses surveyed. The risk was highest for freshman women, whose rate was 16.9%, compared with 11.1% for seniors in 2014-15. But over the course of their college life, 27.2% of senior females reported being victimized.
The wide variation was evident in California, where 29.7% of female undergraduates at USC reported the most serious sexual misconduct, compared to 12.7% at Caltech.
The online survey of 150,000 students also found low rates of reporting sexual misconduct and a mixed response over whether respondents believed their university would conduct a fair investigation. But the vast majority of those who actually reported their cases gave high marks to officials for showing them respect and helping them understand their options.
The survey was aimed at helping campuses address the problem of sexual misconduct, according to Hunter Rawlings, the association's president.
"The purpose of this survey is to enhance the safety of students on our campuses," Rawlings said in a teleconference Monday. He added that he hoped the results would encourage more reporting of complaints and prompt university leaders to handle them with "fair, prompt and impartial review and resolution. "
Many universities have moved to improve their response to campus sexual misconduct since the federal government began cracking down in 2011 with a record number of policy directives, fines and more than 100 investigations. Rawlings said the data can also be used to assist policymakers in crafting additional responses.
Estimates of the problem have varied widely. One frequently cited study of two large public universities found a rate of nearly 20% among female college seniors. The University of California's 2014 survey of 104,000 students, faculty and staff members, however, asked its questions differently and found only 6% of undergraduates had experienced "unwanted sexual contact."
The university association released only the aggregate results of the survey, which was conducted by the Westat research firm in April. USC and Caltech released their own findings Monday, as was expected from other participants, including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Purdue and the University of Arizona.
In a unique design, the survey asked students whether the nonconsensual sexual contact occurred by force, incapacitation, non-physical coercion or the absence of "affirmative consent," an emerging standard that requires both partners to explicitly agree to the encounter. Physical force was the most prevalent tactic and coercion the least.
Overall, 28% of female undergraduates reported they were victimized by any of the four tactics. About 23% of female undergraduates and 11.7% of all students surveyed reported the most serious -- physical force and incapacitation -- had been used against them.
The relatively low response rate of 19.3% could have produced a slight upward bias in the results, researchers said. USC's response rate, for instance, was 19.4% compared to 47.1% at Caltech and had a higher rate of reported sexual misconduct than the Pasadena campus.
Female undergraduates at USC were strikingly less likely to voice confidence in university procedures to handle complaints than campus peers. But officials vowed to improve.
"Our conviction is that one sexual assault in our community is one too many," said a letter issued Monday to the campus community by Provost Michael Quick and Ainsley Carry, vice president for student affairs.
David Cantor, one of the lead survey investigators and a University of Maryland research professor, said one of the most striking findings was the wide disparity in campus experiences with sexual misconduct.
"This sends a very strong message that each institution faces really unique circumstances and challenges when trying to change campus climates and prevent and respond to sexual assault and misconduct," he said.
The survey also found:
--Rates of assault were highest among students who identified as transgender, genderqueer (a term the survey uses but does not define), non-conforming, questioning or a category not listed on the survey.
--Rates of reporting ranged between 5% and 28%, depending on the behavior. More than half of those surveyed said they did not believe it was serious enough, while others said they were too embarrassed or ashamed, among other reasons.
--Six of 10 female undergraduates said they had been sexually harassed. Gays and lesbians reported harassment rates of 60.4% compared with 45.9% of heterosexuals.
--The rate of nonconsensual sexual contact at private universities was 25.3%, compared with 22.8% for public universities. But researchers did not find a clear explanation for the disparity in campus results.
--Most students did nothing while witnessing a drunk person headed for a sexual encounter or cases of sexual violence or harassment.
--Nearly 9 of 10 students who reported misconduct said the respect shown to them by investigating officials was excellent or good.
--Only about a quarter of students surveyed said they were very or extremely knowledgeable about where to get help for sexual assault or misconduct.
Teresa.Watanabe@latimes.com
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UPDATE:
12:26 p.m.: This story has been updated to include results from USC and Caltech and a comment from the university association's president.
This story was originally published at 7 a.m.
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