Blumenthal Statement On Bureau Of Justice Statistics Report On Campus Sexual Assault

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today released the following statement on a new Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report on campus sexual assault. The BJS report uses data from the National Crime Victimization Survey to compare the rate of sexual assault between female students and nonstudents. Its findings say that the rate of sexual assault is 1.2 times higher for nonstudents than students, and also that students are less likely to report sexual assault to the police when compared to nonstudents.

“This report unfairly and inaccurately demeans the severity and scope of campus sexual assault by understating its frequency,” said Sen. Blumenthal. “The report threatens to cause even less reporting of this horrendous crime than the 80 percent unreported to police now – potentially belittling and dismissing the problem.”

Senator Blumenthal has hosted fourteen roundtables on campus sexual assault at schools across Connecticut. Those roundtables informed both a comprehensive report calling for a College Sexual Assault Bill of Rights and bipartisan legislation, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, which Blumenthal co-led with his colleagues Senators Gillibrand and McCaskill.