The University of Oregon's annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report is now available online.
The report, posted on the UO Police Department website, is prepared every year to provide information on safety and security programs, practices and statistics. Known as a Clery report, the document is required under the federal Jeanne Clery Act.
Federal law requires very specific information in Clery reports, such as certain crimes reported to law enforcement or to university representatives and crimes on specific property owned or controlled by the university or in public areas that run through or immediately next to campus.
Also, the report must include crimes from these locations regardless of the victims' association to the university. It does not include crimes that happened off campus.
Because of the Clery Act's scope, no direct correlation exists between the report statistics and surveys focused on sexual assaults experienced generally by college-age women.
Sex offenses and related crimes are among the most under-reported, and there is wide acknowledgement that the crimes are occurring. Unfortunately, only a small number of survivors file formal reports.
Most statistics in this year’s report are similar to recent years.
Total sex offenses reported climbed from 11 in 2014, to 18 in 2015 for the "on campus" area, and from four to eight for the "non-campus" areas of affiliated or operated properties outside the main campus footprint. Law enforcement and Title IX officials believe this is due to greater awareness of the issue of sexual assault in the campus community, and stronger willingness to report incidents to the university or to police.
"We have a tremendously dedicated team across campus who have worked together to both raise awareness and improve support for students who have experienced sexual violence or misconduct," Title IX Coordinator and Associate Vice President Darci Heroy said. "I believe those efforts have resulted in more students accessing the resources available as well as choosing to share information with the university. Seeing an increase in reports is positive in the sense that it means we are succeeding in changing our culture into one that supports and encourages reporting."
Statistics in the annual Clery report are collected and presented by calendar year. The just-published edition includes statistics from 2015, as well as 2013 and 2014.
While the annual report also contains extensive listings of programs, services and resources for preventing crime or helping survivors, the most comprehensive and accessible spots for such information is safe.uoregon.edu and prevention.uoregon.edu.
—By Kelly McIver, Safety and Risk Services