Campus Accountability Map lets you search college sexual assault stats, and promotes support

A new school sexual assault “accountability” platform has launched in the US, allowing you to view higher education establishments ranked alongside each other by incidents of assault. The site also offers resources for survivors.

The Campus Accountability Map + Tool was launched by the End Rape On Campus organization, which promotes education and policy reform aimed at eradicating campus sexual assault in the US. The platform is designed to provide information and support to current students and help prospective students make choices about which schools they apply to.

Primary features of the platform include its US campus map tool and a feature allowing you to compare sexual assault statistics between campuses. You can click on campus points on the map to bring up information about a campus, and select campuses to view their stats side by side.

The platform includes information and links about legal issues related to campus assault, plus information on how to support people affected by it. The statistics feature data collected between 2018 and 2020 by the US Department of Education.

For example, clicking on Seattle’s University of Washington, where an average of 48,149 students enrolled each year during the 2018-2020 period, brings up some potentially worrying statistics. According to the Campus Accountability Map, there were 138 reported rapes in that three-year period at the institution, 54 reported fondlings and 198 reported incidents of stalking. The national averages for these three categories were six, five and six respectively.

Over 750 institutions feature on the platform, with more set to be added. Some schools’ statistics show that they had zero recorded cases of assault. End Rape On Campus said that low statistics could be the result of institutions not disclosing or underreporting data, or due to investigations not being concluded.

The organization added: “Higher numbers in these fields can sometimes actually be indications that schools are doing a good job of making their campuses safe places to report.”

Beyond its use as a stats tool to help people make informed choices about schools, the Campus Accountability Map + Tool is likely to contribute to the wider debate around sexual assaults on US campuses. Some believe that there is a “rape culture” endemic among many campuses that needs to be urgently addressed.

End Rape On Campus said its new platform helped streamline information.

“When this information is scattered across various federal databases and university websites, students and survivors face barriers to understanding their campus policies, finding resources, and holding their campuses accountable for protecting students on and off campus,” the organization says.

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