Reported Theft, Sex Offenses Rose in 2002

The number of sexual assaults reported on campus increased for the fourth straight year in 2002, while total thefts edged up slightly, according to crime statistics released by the University in August.1

Last year there were 25 sex offenses reported on Harvard’s Cambridge campus, up from 23 in 2001, 16 in 2000 and 11 in 1999.

There were 632 robberies, burglaries and larcenies, up from 591 in 2001, but down from a four-year high of 709 in 2000.

Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) spokesperson Steven G. Catalano warned against drawing conclusions from relatively small changes in the statistics, noting that these figures typically fluctuate from year to year.

Catalano attributed the increase in reported sex offenses to campus-wide efforts to improve outreach, an explanation echoed by several campus rape counselors and rape prevention advocates.

HUPD is concerned about the increase, Catalano said, but the department is also encouraged that victims are coming forward more often.

“We know that rape occurs,” he said. “The numbers trouble us, but the flip side is that people are starting to trust us and realize we can help...they’re using us as a resource.”

Sarah B. Levit-Shore ’04, president of Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV), agreed that the change in assault numbers is probably due to increased reporting rather than more campus assaults.

“One possible conclusion to draw would be that there are more sex offenses occurring on campus,” she said. “But it seems unlikely, because there is no reason I’m aware of for the rate of sexual assault to increase over the past four years. More likely, people are just increasingly willing to report the rapes.”

Catalano said HUPD has spread the word through self-defense classes, literature and safety talks.

“The biggest hindrance was that people used to be afraid we would violate confidentiality...and force them to press charges,” he said. “But there has been an increase in the amount of formal reports because the department has worked very hard to go out to the community and explain how we handle a sexual assault investigation.”

The statistics came as part of an annual campus crime report mandated by the Clery Act, a federal law named for a Lehigh University undergraduate who was raped and murdered in 1986.

All of the sex offenses reported at Harvard fall under a category defined by the Clery Act as sexual acts “directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim in incapable of giving consent.”

The 2002 increase came after a year of protest for greater awareness about sexual violence at Harvard and the subsequent formation of a committee to examine the problem of assault on campus.

Levit-Shore said this attention may have in part driven the increase, encouraging more victims to come forward.

The 2002 statistics also reveal a changing dynamic in the breakdown of sexual assaults by how they are reported.

Almost half of the offenses—12 out of the 25—were formally reported to HUPD. In previous years a higher percentage of the offenses was reported to senior tutors, deans or University Health Services. The campus officials notified HUPD only of the occurrence of an alleged offense.

But Kathryn E. Nielson ’05, who is a peer counselor specializing in issues of sexual assault, said that although more students are reporting offenses, the numbers still reflect only a small portion of the total.

“Sexual assault is such a sensitive issue, there’s such a stigma attached to it,” she said, adding that students might not be willing to report rapes because of the “guilt and self-blame” that follow the incidents.

Levit-Shore pointed to several reasons why sex offenses could go unreported.

“Survivors might not be expecting anything to come of [reporting to HUPD],” she said. “Or they’re not labeling the experience as a rape or sexual assault. There’s also a fear you won’t be believed.”

Stealing Harvard

Beyond the continued rise in reported sexual assault, few of Harvard’s crime statistics revealed marked trends.

The rise in campus theft runs counter to a 1 percent decrease in property crime in Cambridge. According to the Cambridge Police Department, violent crime rose by 6 percent in 2002.

A small minority of campus thefts—155 out of 632—occurred in residence halls. According to Catalano, a majority of the crimes were believed to be committed by individuals from outside the Harvard community.

Harvard’s theft levels appear to be astronomical when compared to other area schools as well as the other Ivies. According to the Clery Act statistics, in 2001, Tufts University reported 23 campus thefts; Boston University, 58; and New Haven’s Yale University, 72.

But according to Catalano, Harvard is far more inclusive in its reporting. Harvard includes both burglaries and larcenies—thefts committed by trespassers and community members, respectively—in its report, where only burglaries are legally mandated.

Other schools label many more of their thefts as larcenies, Catalano said.

“We’re in a position where our theft rate looks much higher than every other school around,” Catalano said. “Ours is probably not much different if [other schools] included the larcenies. But the reason we put in both numbers is so you can get a feel for the true nature of theft at Harvard.”

“We’re putting ourselves under closer scrutiny,” Catalano said.

In 2002, Harvard reported no homicides, manslaughter or arson on campus. There were six drug law violations and two bias crimes, both of which involved a victim’s sexual orientation.

—Hera A. Abbasi contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Jenifer L. Steinhardt contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.