At the University of New Hampshire in Durham, reported rapes jumped from 24 in 2014 to 40 in 2015, according to the school’s federally mandated security report.
But UNH police Chief Paul Dean said the spike in reported rapes in Durham between the two years was most likely attributable to better reporting of the crime – not to higher instances of it.
The school and its Sexual Harassment & Rape Prevention Program have done substantial work to train faculty and staff and spread greater awareness across campus, he said.
“I attribute (those statistics) to our work here,” he said.
Amy Culp, the director of SHARPP, agreed. She noted the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, which amended the Clery Act and requires schools to provide awareness and prevention education to both students and employees, went into effect just before numbers moved upward.
Originally signed into law in 1990, the Clery Act requires colleges and universities to publish an annual report every year, by Oct. 1, that contains three years of crime statistics.
But even with the mandated reports, Culp said the numbers almost certainly don’t yet reflect the full reality on the ground. Anonymous self-reported climate surveys typically reflect higher numbers, and even those who come forward to seek help rarely use words like “sexual assault” or “rape” when talking about their experiences.
“That tells me that there’s still this stigma – that we’re having a hard time naming it,” she said.
At UNH Manchester and UNH School of Law in Concord, the reports reflected much smaller numbers of rapes. The law school recorded three in 2015, none in 2014. UNH Manchester recorded no incidents either year. Dean said those numbers were likely a function of students not living on campus – the Clery Act only requires colleges to report rapes that occurred specifically on or near their property. Of the rapes reported at UNH-Durham in 2015, 38 took place on campus, including 25 in residential facilities.
Keene State College reported six rapes in 2014 and three in 2015.
Plymouth State College reported two rapes in 2014. Data for 2015 was not available.
Paula Kelley-Wall, director of the Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire, said there had been a marked shift between the colleges in Merrimack County and the crisis center in the past three to four years.
“We have a lot of opportunities and a lot of access,” she said. “It’s been fantastic.”
The crisis center is doing regular faculty, student or resident adviser training at NHTI, New England College, Granite State College and Colby-Sawyer College, she said. And when incidents of sexual or dating violence become known to the colleges, they’re getting survivors connected to the crisis center quickly.
“I really believe the students who want and need services are getting them,” she said.
New England College in Henniker reported six rapes in 2014 and four in 2015. NHTI reported one in 2014 and two in 2015. Granite State College reported none in either year. In New London, Colby-Sawyer College reported two rapes in 2015, up from one in 2014 – all in its residential facilities.
Stigma is still preventing many survivors from reporting, Kelley-Wall said. Some students who called the crisis center refused to give their names or the city they lived in, preferring instead just to have a few questions answered, she said.
But survivors seemed better aware of the resources and support available to them.
“That piece is getting better,” she said.
The Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire’s confidential hotline number is 866-841-6229. UNH SHARPP’s toll-free hotline, available to anyone in the UNH community, is 888-271-7233.
(Lola Duffort can be reached at 369-3321 or lduffort@cmonitor.com.)