While more are coming forward, victims still shy from police

Every session someone comes forward. Each time Students Together Against Acquaintance Rape peer educators conduct seminars, a student tells a STAAR facilitator that they have a friend who is a victim. "It generally works out that at least one person reports at each workshop," STAAR adviser Susan Villari said earlier this month. Often distraught and in tears, victims come up to the student who conduct the workshop. They are usually scared and fearful of not being believed, STAAR coordinators said. It usually takes a while to compose themselves while the peer educator lends them support. With nearly fifty sessions last year and nearly fifty victims aided in the same period, STAAR has distinguished itself as maybe the most trodden path to report a rape by an acquaintance. "Our system works by word of mouth," Villari said. "You often reach people who are friends of friends of friends." Each promises the same service -- confidential help that allows the victim to remain in the driver's seat -- but many say STAAR and the Women's Center have been the most successful in reaching victims while the Police have been the least. In a Daily Pennsylvanian survey last week, 68 percent of students polled said services at the University for rape and sexual assault victims are adequate, while less than 17 percent disagreed. But of all three groups, University Police were singled out for harsh criticism. Over the past few years, rape victims have shunned reporting the incidents to police, turning to STAAR and the Women's Center. Women's Center Director Elena DiLapi said during the 1989-90 school year, 20 women reported being victims of sexual assault to her organization. And while STAAR continues to have students come forward, University Police took only one report of rape between 1987 and 1990. For years, conventional wisdom held that police would not be sensitive enough for victims and may not believe them. A Daily Pennsylvanian survey last week showed that the police have not shed this reputation. Of the 134 students who said they had been raped or sexually assaulted, 96.3 percent said they did not report it to the police, while only 55 percent said they never reported it at all. About 64 percent of women who had not been a victim of sexual assault or rape said they were likely to go to University Police if they were victimized. Freshmen women were most likely to report, at 69 percent. About 58 percent of sophomores, 66 percent of the and 61 percent of seniors would tell police. A female junior noted that she would not tell the police if she were the victim of acquaintance rape because she was unhappy with how police handled a string of obscene phone calls she received. "[I've had] bad experiences with University Police before," she said. "They were very inefficient, very uncaring and did not believe I really had a problem situation." Others, even those who mentioned no previous contact with police, said they would be uncomfortable going there. "With all the stories about how unsympathetic and callous the University is with victims of sexual assault or rape, I don't think they would lend a supportive ear," one senior said. "I have heard doctors and police officers say that they don't believe a victim or treat her like crud. The system is not set up to foster support or guidance to rape victims." Police officers said the public's lack of trust in the force is not exclusive to the University, but is an attitude that has prevailed throughout society. "You get a certain amount of callousness from people for just wearing that blue uniform," said University Police Officer John Wylie, who works with the police's Victim and Security Support Services department. University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said earlier this month that recent changes in his department will make it more sensitive to victim's individual needs. "I think that those officers' [who are supportive] need to be the standard for the officers that we hire," Kuprevich said. "I want a force who works on the street and understands victim support." Kuprevich, who took control of the force last fall, has introduced a new program that rotates officers into Victim Support for a couple of years. Victim Support Services is an arm of the department with its own director and which is separate from normal police functions. Although Victim Support often works with other officers, it is often independent and focuses on helping victims rather than solving and prosecuting crimes. Kuprevich said he hopes to train his core of street officers with skills that will make them more successful in dealing with acquaintance rape survivors. One student said she would feel more comfortable reporting it to the police if she knew that a female officer would be designated to handle the case. Victim and Security Support Services Director Ruth Wells said it is the University's general policy that a female police officer will respond to a female complainant. "If you want a woman officer, we'll get you a woman officer; a black officer, we'll get you a black officer, Asian, or male, we'll get it for you," Victim Support Police Officer Patrick Chad said. "That is just part of being sensitive." STAAR coordinators also said police are more sensitive than their reputation would suggest, and that Kuprevich is working hard to improve his department. "I think that there has been some insensitivity in the past," Villari said. "But, I know they are working very hard to educate their staff." Some respondents also said they could not trust the department to maintain the promised confidentiality. One junior female said if she reported to the police "Everyone would know/talk" and that there "would be a loss of privacy." "[The police] are very demeaning and uncomfortable," a female freshman wrote. "I would tell someone that I trusted." Wells said she guarantees that students who come to her office will be treated appropriately and always in complete confidence. "I promise that we will believe her," Wells said. "We've found that less than one percent of people make false reports of this nature." Wells also promised that her department will allow the victim to have complete control over whether or not she will prosecute and that the victim can always change her mind. With a new central reporting system, University Police also hope to be able to keep more accurate statistics on campus rapes than in the past, when they were never informed of rapes reported elsewhere. Now, when a student tells STAAR, the Women's Center or University Police that they have been the victim of a sexual assault, it is recorded in Victim Support's "system," Kuprevich said. The victim can request that their name not be entered into the "system" and the file will only show that there was an another acquaintance rape at the University. Kuprevich said that this is designed so that the University can fine-tune its efforts directed at acquaintance rape. "[Victim Support] will have access to the files, and only victim support," Kuprevich said. "Victim Support will then make sure that all of the resources of the University are made available to the [victim]." Coordinators for STAAR said they approved of the new centralized system for handling all of the reports, as long as confidentiality is maintained. STAAR Executive Board member Tristan Svare said that one of the difficulties with educating students about acquaintance rape has been the lack of statistics that are specific to the University. He said that the results of a recent STAAR survey and the new system together will help portray a more accurate and useful understanding of acquaintance rape at the University. "In itself it won't steer the public," Svare said. "But it will be much easier to work with the problem if we can see the trends over time." Many of the students who added comments to the DP poll said they would not report to the police, but that they would tell STAAR or the Women's Center. "The difference is we're recognizable, it's easier to go up to a student rather than an authority figure," Villari said. "And we can help people." STAAR and the Women's Center coordinators also said victims may see them as a more favorable method to report since they stress the necessity of a comfortable environment to report their problems and get help. But only five students of the 74 who said they told someone other than the police said they reported it to either STAAR, the Women's Center or Women Organized Against Rape. The 1265 students who responded to the poll were divided on whether or not services for victims of rape or sexual assault were well publicized. 54 percent of the undergraduates polled said that the services were well publicized, while 41 percent said that they were not. STAAR Executive Board member Derek Goodman said STAAR is not designed as a counseling service for victims, but rather as a peer education group. "STAAR students are not trained counseling professionals," Goodman said. "We advise them to get into some type of counseling, after helping their immediate needs." According to STAAR coordinators, the organization was created three years ago by two students who saw their friends victimized by acquaintance rape and were unsure of how to deal with sex crimes. The Women's Center, which was created in 1973 as a rape crisis center, also received approval from polled students. Surveyed students said that they trusted the Center and that it provided important role that the University Police could not match. A female student said she would definitely report a rape, but it would be the Women's Center because they offer a more comfortable environment. "[Police] would not be sensitive enough and I would be embarassed," she wrote. "If I told anyone it would be the Women's Center or a support group." DiLappi said she did not believe the number of students who are victims has increased in the past few years, just the percentage of those that report it. "I think what is on the rise is reporting," DiLappi said. "The administration has provided the safety and confidence -- a system which encourages support." But this sense of support may not be coming from student's families, since of the 134 students who said that they had been either raped or sexually assaulted, over 75 percent said that did not tell their parents. But one freshman who had been sexually assaulted said she would never report the incident at all because she believes that it is not appropriate. "You don't want to be the pin-up Barbie," she said. "It happens and that's life. Make a deal and you will be the whore of Babylon. Men need their pride."

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