Sexual assault cases unrelated, police say

Although there have been three reported incidents of actual or attempted sexual assault in the past three months, there are no indications that such incidents will become more frequent, University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said yesterday. Saturday's attempted rape of a University employee on 36th Street between Locust and Spruce streets marked the third incident of attempted or actual sexual assaults on or around campus since winter break. Students this week called the recent increase in reported sex crimes "unprecedented," and expressed concern that similar incidents of rape or sexual assault may become even more frequent. But Kuprevich emphasized there is no connection between any of the incidents and there is no reason to believe future incidents will become more prevalent on campus. "These are all significant events that have occurred," Kuprevich said. "But they are all unconnected in terms of circumstances and persons involved." "I don't see this as something that's just going to start happening all over campus," Kuprevich added. Microbiology Professor Helen Davies, a member and former chairperson of the University Council Safety and Security Committee, said last night she does not believe the three reported incidents of sexual violence are indications of a developing trend, but rather show a growing confidence among women to report incidents of rape or sexual assault. "It appears to be an increase in the number of rapes, but actually it's an increase in the number of rapes reported," Davies said. Davies said the fact that women's groups have so strongly pushed for punishing rapists has helped women overcome their fears and report having been attacked. Davies explained that many women fear their assailants will come back to attack them again and therefore are hesitant to make an official report. But Davies cautioned that many rapes -- both by strangers and acquaintances -- are still not reported. "I'm horrified at what has happened," Davies said. "But I'm not surprised that we are hearing that there have been rapes because I see rapes go unreported all the time." College junior Jeffrey Jacobson, co-chairperson of the University Council Safety and Security Committee, said the only way students and faculty can prevent stranger rape is by working together. "The only way to combat this is for students and the administration to form a partnership where students agree to look out for themselves and the administration agrees to look out for them," Jacobson said. "Right now, the administration isn't doing a good enough job communicating the services available to the students and the students aren't doing a good enough job listening to them." Students Together Against Acquaintance Rape Coordinator Erica Strohl added that acquaintance rape is an entirely different and much more prevalent type of sexual violence which goes virtually unreported on campus. She said victims have difficulty recognizing their experience as a rape and not as an exercise of bad judgment. "In acquaintance rape, it's not always clear to the victim that something wrong has been done to them," Strohl said. "The victims often do not view the incident as a crime but rather as a bad experience that they should put behind them, whereas in stranger rape, the victim is able to label the experience as a rape much more quickly."

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