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Alex Friedrich

Carleton tops MN colleges in sex-offense reporting rate

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Just pulled this from Sunday's Washington Post report on campus sexual-assault data.

The paper's notes on the data come after the table below. You can view the paper's full list of campuses here.

According to the data, the school with the highest number of alleged offenses reported per 1,000 students in 2012 was Carleton with 3.41. It was followed by Macalester (2.9), St. John's (2.02), Gustavus (1.98) and The College of St. Scholastica (.73).

The nation had two colleges with double-digit numbers.  Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. topped the list with 11.39 reported offenses per 1,000 students, followed by Grinnell College with 10.75.

Interesting note in the article:

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who is studying campus sex assault issues, said she is more concerned about schools with no reported offenses than those with many. She said she wonders whether the schools with zero reports are doing enough to encourage victims to step forward.

School  Total Forcible Sex Offenses On Campus  Forcible Sex Offenses On Campus  Forcible Sex Offenses On Campus  Forcible Sex Offenses On Campus Enrollment Offenses reported per 1,000 students (2012)
 2010-2012  2010  2011  2012
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 38 13 12 13 51,853 0.25
Saint Cloud State University 21 7 3 11 16,922 0.65
Gustavus Adolphus College 17 3 9 5 2,526 1.98
Carleton College 16 3 6 7 2,055 3.41
Macalester College 15 7 2 6 2,070 2.9
Minnesota State University-Mankato 12 5 1 6 15,441 0.39
St Olaf College 10 4 5 1 3,176 0.31
Bemidji State University 8 4 1 3 5,027 0.6
University of Minnesota-Duluth 7 2 3 2 11,491 0.17
Southwest Minnesota State University 7 3 3 1 6,999 0.14
Saint Johns University 6 1 1 4 1,983 2.02
Hamline University 6 0 5 1 4,683 0.21
Winona State University 5 1 4 0 8,919 0
Saint Mary

This table shows the number of alleged forcible sex offenses on campus reported to security authorities at colleges and universities or to law enforcement, as well as the rate of reporting per thousand students.

Schools are required to send the data to the federal government under a law known as the Clery Act. Where possible, statistics for schools with multiple campuses have been combined to show one set of numbers per school. The table includes four-year colleges and universities -- public and private, non-profit -- with at least 1,000 students enrolled in 2012.

The source of the data is the U.S. Education Department. Experts caution that a campus with a low reporting rate is not necessarily safer than one with a high rate. Some colleges make more effort than others to ensure victims step forward.

Enrollment totals include online students, which for some schools lowers the reporting rate for campus incidents. For example, more than 80 percent of Liberty University students are online.

Analysis by Nick Anderson of The Washington Post.