PERL’s executive director Meaghan Ybos appeared in The Blaze to discuss the findings of a new campus sexual assault survey conducted by the Association of American Universities.
The survey found that 10 percent of female college students experienced sexual assault including penetration. The survey also found that more than 20 percent of female college students experienced some form of “sexual misconduct,” which was defined broadly.
Meaghan Ybos, executive director of People for the Enforcement of Rape Laws, a Memphis-based policy and advocacy group that monitors law enforcement’s responses to reports of sexual violence, told TheBlaze Monday afternoon that, while rape is a criminal offense, law enforcement officials often struggle to understand the crime or respond to it. Ybos also said that she took issue with the AAU survey lumping rape together with other kinds of sexual misconduct.
“The AAU does victims and the public no favors by lumping rape and sexual assaults into a blanket ‘misconduct’ designation along with stalking, harassment, intimate partner violence and violations of school conduct codes,” Ybos said. “While the survey results enable campus rape task forces to self-validate their approaches, they provide little clarification about how campuses can better serve victims who do report.”
Click here to read the full article, which includes a link to the AAU survey.
People for the Enforcement of Rape Laws is a program of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center to monitor law enforcement responses to sexual violence. Our goal is to end the law enforcement and political practices that effectively decriminalize sexual violence. To this end, we connect victims with information about their rights and equip individuals with tools to advocate for themselves and others and advocate for fair criminal justice policies. We urge you to learn more about America’s hidden rape crisis, where it has been exposed, and why it matters. We invite you to take action and support our efforts to make sure law enforcement takes rape seriously.