Well, we don't hear about the local uni's rapes in our local paper, either, but when my best friend was the rape counselor for the local women's coalition, there were quite a few and I imagine there always have been. Male-to male violence, and female-to-female, is reported more often, though stilll not at the rate at which it occurs. The uni is like a town unto itself-- like military justice would obtain if the crime were on a base.

So, in other words, Campus Police and school disciplinary processes usually try to take care of it all by themselves. I know of one case last year where a dorm rape occurred in an elevator, and the perp was quickly expelled. Unfortunately, victims are not urged to press criminal charges by university officials, all too often. So it falls to the women's groups to work with female victims on this point.

ANd, unfortunately, the young women being away from home and all, they often do not get the support they might have gotten if home and parents had been close at hand, or friends they had grown up with for a lifetime. It's a hard one-- I am not sure how eager I would be to take a case to court in a strange town, myself, if I were that age-- although I do support prosecutintg these cases aggressively. The decision has to be left to the victims-- I just wish they had more support.

~Susan