According to the 2020 Annual Security Report, data accumulated from the 2017 to 2019 academic semesters displayed an increase in the total reported cases of rape. The document cites one report in 2017, six reports in 2018 and eight reports in 2019, making rape Winthrop’s most reported crime.
Under the federal law known as the the Clery Act, Winthrop is required to report certain crimes such as rape or criminal sexual conduct.
“In 2019, we had eight listed. That doesn’t necessarily mean that of those eight that we have listed [that] they were reported to the police department for an active investigation. We may have only done an active investigation on a handful of those if they were reported to us because the victim wanted to pursue criminal charges,” Assistant Chief of Police Charles Yearta said.
Victim Service Coordinator Itali Jackson said, “When it comes to reporting, that’s a sticky situation. You don’t know if crime is going up or if victims are just more willing to come forward because you have sexual assault especially in a college setting, you have maybe 20% of people who report sexual assaults and you’re talking about one in four women will be sexually assaulted while in their college years between the 18 to 23 range.
“It’s kind of tricky to put your hand on whether or not it’s assaults that [are] actually happening or if it is the [Office of Victims Assistance] seeing more students willing to come in to us and get services they need.”
There is an official procedure and protocol that is taken by both Winthrop Police and the Office of Victims Assistance when a sexual assault is reported.
“Whenever a sexual assault is reported through either campus police or through Title IX or student conduct code, as the victim advocate, I reach out first via email and then also through a follow-up text message just to see if the student would like to meet with me,” Jackson said. “If the student does not respond, in that email all of the information is available as far as my contact information.”
Sarah Powell, a freshman business administration major, said, “I feel that it’s important for the Winthrop staff to take the offense seriously, regardless of the circumstances. You never know what past trauma people have experienced. Something that seems minor to one could tremendously impact someone with a history of being sexually assaulted.”
Each year, preventative steps are taken to ensure the safety of Winthrop students, especially from acts of sexual assault on campus.
“The prevention and education part comes in a variety of steps throughout the semester, various organizations, the police department, the Office of Victims Assistance, Residence Life, the Dean of Students. Those main characters do educational programming to make it available to students,” Yearta said.
Morgan Turner, a junior conservation biology major, said, “Winthrop, or more specifically WUPO, needs to be taking better measures to ensure the safety of their students, whether male or female that are being assaulted. In a perfect world, assault wouldn’t happen at all on our campus, but I definitely think Winthrop could do better in addressing their students’ needs and concerns.”
“The good thing about interacting with our office is that you have support. I’m there for you fully whenever you’re doing investigations, I’m there for you whenever you make the first report, and also we have counselors so they are there for the mental health support,” Jackson said. “I just advise students to get engaged with our office just so they can just have that information so that if they do choose to go down those paths, they have the correct support they need.”
Photo by Wren Brooks
