Faculty member the eighth recent assault victim

A female University faculty member was assaulted on the 3100 block of Walnut Street Monday afternoon, marking the eighth assault in nine days on or near Penn's campus.

The woman was walking eastbound on Walnut Street at about 3 p.m. when she was approached by an unknown male who struck her in the face, Division of Public Safety officials said.

The suspect then continued westbound on Walnut Street. He was not carrying a weapon.

DPS officials said the faculty member did not seek medical treatment, and that a full description of the suspect was not available.

Penn Police are investigating the assault.

The incident has not been linked to any of the previous assaults, but DPS spokeswoman Karima Zedan said that "all potential connections between assaults are examined and are investigated fully."

The assault was the eighth to occur on or near campus since Feb. 18, with four of the victims being University affiliates.

Criminology professor Lawrence Sherman said that there is currently not enough data to determine if the crime string is part of a growing trend or simple chance occurrences.

"The jury is out as to whether this is anything but a fluke," he said. "One assault is always too many, but it's not enough to determine what's going on here."

Sherman added that he current string of assaults doesn't necessarily indicate a significant increase in crime.

"At this point, it may simply be a bunching that will average out over a two-month comparison," he said.

He added that some factors that could cause short-term fluctuations in crime include weather, precipitation and holidays, but he could not say if any of these applied to the assaults.

Zedan said that, since the offenders of the assaults are not seizing materials from the victims, it is difficult to determine motives for the attacks.

She added that a "rise in violence for the sake of violence" is not unusual.

"Young men taking out aggression on strangers is not new," she said. "These incidents have occurred in the past."

Zedan added that the Penn Police deployment strategy is continually updated to "reflect all available intelligence" and is adjusted daily based on all crimes.

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