Five More Colleges Probed In Possible Sexual Assaults Mishandling, Brings Total To 60

The federal probe into the mishandling of sexual assault has grown to include five more colleges, bringing the total number of institutions to 60.

On May 1, The Inquisitr reported 55 colleges were being investigated by the Civil Rights Office of the US Department of Education for possible Title IX violations for the mishandling of sexual assault complaints on their campuses.

The agency said, on Wednesday, that it was expanding the probe to include five additional colleges.

In an unprecedented and historic move, the Civil Rights Office released a list of 55 colleges that are currently being investigated for possible Title IX violations related to sexual violence on campuses, as well as 32 additional Title IX probes for other reasons.

The five colleges added to the probe are the University of Alaska, the University of Delaware, Elmira College in New York, the University of Akron in Ohio and Cisco Junior College in Texas, according the HuffingtonPost.com.

The agency didn’t explain whether these new investigations into the handling college sexual assaults are preventive or part of new complaints.

Vice President Joe Biden made remarks on April 29, regarding the situation concerning sexual violence on college campuses:

“We know the numbers: one in five of every one of those young women who is dropped off for that first day of school, before they finish school, will be assaulted, will be assaulted in her college years.”

According to a report in the Washington Post, the statistic the Vice President is referring to comes from a single survey conducted for the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice in 2007. Of the 5,446 undergraduate women, between the ages of 18-25 that participated in the survey, 19 percent or 1,073 women reported attempted or completed sexual assault since entering college.

It should be noted that the survey is based on the experience of women at just two universities and does not imply that other higher institutions have similar occurrences.

From those who experienced sexual assault while at college, 12.6 percent experienced attempted sexual assault and 13.7 percent experienced actual sexual assault. Those who were actually assaulted at identified the experience as rape or “sexual battery”, as described in the report, which indicates the numbers are lower than those put out by government officials.

A complete list of the colleges probed in the mishandling of sexual assault reports can be found here.

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