There were 16 reported rapes on the Brandeis campus and one off campus in 2015, up from the nine reported rapes on campus and zero off campus in 2014, according to the Annual Security Report released by the university.
The increase in reported rapes between 2014 and 2015 is good news, according to Sheila McMahon, the director of sexual assault services and prevention at Brandeis. “Rates of reporting are generally much lower than actual incidents. So when reporting goes up, it means that more survivors feel safe enough in the community to file a report, even if it is anonymous,” she told The Brandeis Hoot in an email statement.
Seventeen total reported rapes in 2015 is higher than the eight reported rapes at Bentley University but fewer than the 38 reported in 2015 at Harvard University, according to campus-specific versions of the same federally mandated report.
Reported cases of burglary at Brandeis increased from three to six and reported cases of aggravated assault decreased from one to zero between 2014 and 2015, according to the report.
An email about the annual report was sent out to the student body by Director of the Department of Public Safety Edward Callahan on Sept. 30. A link to the department’s homepage was provided in the email and the report could be downloaded from the department’s website. The crime statistics could be found on page 56 of the 73-page report.
Reported rape statistics were ambiguous in the original document. In the row labeled 2014 a column labeled “On Campus” listed nine reported rapes and another column labeled “Student Housing (subset of “On Campus”)” listed nine reported rapes. Both columns represent that there were nine total reported rapes on campus, all of which took place specifically in student housing.
In the row labeled 2015 the column labeled “On Campus” listed one reported rape, the column labeled “Student Housing (subset of “On Campus”) listed 15 reported rapes and there was one reported rape off-campus in 2015. This is meant to be read differently than in 2014 because “Student Housing” is no longer being used as a sub-category of on campus, even though it is still labeled as such. The 15 rapes reported in “Student Housing” are completely separate from the one reported “On Campus,” making a total of 16 reports on campus. With the one “Off-Campus” rape, this reaches a total of 17.
Bette Reilly, a public safety officer at Brandeis, confirmed the statistics should be read as nine reported rapes in 2014 and 17 reported rapes in 2015, due to the change in categorization. Reilly promised that Brandeis Public Safety would be publishing a corrected report shortly.
The security and fire-safety report was released by Brandeis Public Safety in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, according to the campus-wide email sent by Callahan.
Students may report rape or other forms of sexual assault by submitting a written anonymous reporting form to the University Police, which can be found at the Brandeis’ Rape Crisis Center (RCC) or by submitting an online report, which can also be filed anonymously and can be found on the RCC’s webpage.
