Results are in from a survey of University of Alaska students about sexual victimization. The University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center administered “Campus Climate” survey provides insight into occurrences of sexual assault and other misconduct.
The federally funded “Campus Climate” survey questioned 2 thousand male and female students at University of Alaska’s 3 main campuses, between January 2015 and the 2016 spring semester. UAA Justice Center assistant professor Lindsey Blumenstein who lead the survey project, points to disturbing results.
”The number that most people are going to identify with is that 1 in 9, approximately, University of Alaska students have been a victim of sexual misconduct and or sexual assault,” Blumenstein said.
More than a third of respondents, who reported being victimized, said they were victims of an attempted or completed sexual assault. Results vary slightly by type of offense at the 3 UA campuses. Dr. Blumenstein said the overall UA results are similar to those from other schools where the survey has also been conducted.
”The most recent study that was done by the Bureau of Justice statistics with the Office of Violence Against Women looked at 9 schools, and they used a “Campus Climate” survey, and while their time-frames differ slightly, their average across the schools was about 10 percent,” Blumenstein said.
The survey asks very specific questions in attempt to get accurate information about the prevalence of a range of behaviors from sexual comments to rape. Blumenstein said the on line survey lends itself to better accuracy, but contends the results represent conservative estimates.
”Due to shame and stigma that is very much still a happening in our society with respect to victims of sexual violence, it is very difficult for people to come forward,” Blumenstein said. “Even on a computer screen.”
Blumenstein cautioned that the survey results are a measure what’s going on in student’s lives on and off campus, and are not a direct assessment of campus safety, but can be used to improve it.
”By knowing a general idea of how many victims there are, that allows us to make sure that we’re providing the correct number of resources,” Blumenstein said.
The University of Alaska campuses have implemented new sexual misconduct and assault prevention, awareness and reporting initiatives, following federally required Title 9 compliance reviews.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
